Nikki Finke, the polarizing entertainment journalist who founded the website Deadline and wielded immense power by focusing an acerbic and unrelenting lens on Hollywood, has died. She was 68.
Finke died Sunday morning in Boca Raton, Florida, following a “prolonged illness,” a family spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.
At L.A. Weekly, Finke headed its Deadline Hollywood Daily column from 2002-09. In 2006, she launched Deadline Hollywood Daily, an around-the-clock online version, and became a key source of news surrounding the 2007 WGA strike.
That year, The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter wrote that Finke’s blog had “become a critical forum for Hollywood news and gossip, known for analyzing (in sometimes insulting terms) the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of moguls,” with her reporting on the strike ultimately solidifying “her position as a Hollywood power broker.”
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