Nikki Finke, Feared Hollywood Reporter, Turns to Fiction

                    

LOS ANGELES — If Nikki Finke had not been a journalist, she says she could have been a detective. The police in New York, where she reported decades ago, used to show her “these gruesome homicide photos,” she said, to try to freak her out. Instead she found them fascinating.

The memory came up on a recent day in Ms. Finke’s obsessively tidy apartment, overlooking a swath of the city from West Hollywood toward the airport. Her stomach for the unsavory side of the business was never in question as she built her reputation as perhaps the most feared reporter in Hollywood.

With a combination of tenacity and intimidation, Ms. Finke generated scoop after scoop on the entertainment industry at Deadline, the website she started in 2006. Mention of her name still elicits a blend of terror and fascination from the coterie of agents, executives, stars and others who were her sworn enemies or closest allies, depending on the day.