Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
Nikki Finke, the fearsome entertainment columnist whose uncompromising style and sharp-tongued scoops helped grow Deadline, the trade site she founded in 2006, into one of Hollywood’s most essential news sources, died Sunday morning. Unsurprisingly, Deadline first reported the news, adding that Finke had been battling a prolonged, unspecified illness.
She was 68.
“At her best, Nikki Finke embodied the spirit of journalism, and was never afraid to tell the hard truths with an incisive style and an enigmatic spark,” said Jay Penske, the founder and chief executive of Penske Media Corp., which acquired Finke’s burgeoning site in 2009.