Good News & Bad News About Oscar Show Leaks
The Good News is that Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer are not negotiating with Crazy Nikki to keep her from leaking her “scooped” show schedule that some asshole handed to her. (Asshole!!! Whoever you are.) Hopefully, this is because they are adults and not just because they don’t have any scoop that Nikki would trade for.
The Bad News is that Nikki’s utter lack of journalistic honor, interest in serving her readers’ needs, disinterest in anything but desperately clawing for status, and the lack of said gossip-tit-for-gossip-tat negotiation for her silence has led her back to the place she was a few years ago… trying to spoil the show for everyone else while claiming to not care while live blogging like a bitchy teen who never got asked to the prom.
Nikki is the jackass in the movie theater who keeps loudly telling her friend what’s about to happen in the movie. No one could be that much of an idiot while conscious of themselves. But when you politely ask them to stop ruing the movie, they snarl at you like you were imposing on their moral rights.
She is the scumbag who picks fights in bars and when someone takes them up on it, scolds them for even thinking of hitting someone with glasses.
And every woman in this town who has worked hard and fought for what they have should be especially enraged by Nikki, as she loves to hide behind being female as a reason why no one should ever question her. Sexism is her go-to screed. And it’s utter nonsense. She is an outright embarrassment to women who add something to the industry. She should never have attacked Jeff Robinov for sexism, but given that she did, everyonhe should take note that all that it took for him to shut her up and make her his biggest fan in journalism was bringing her into the tent… not more women execs or films about, starring, or made by women. She’d sell anyone out for a moment that made her feel important, if only for an hour.
And one more Academy note. Since he took the job as President of The Academy, it’s been an open secret that Tom Sherak has made the choice that The Academy would manage Nikki by feeding Nikki. After this, if he continues to feed her any information, he should be fired from the job.
I’m not kidding. I’m not being hyperbolic. What other damage could she do that she hasn’t done? She’s dropped the a-bomb of gossip. And the show’s ratings won’t change a bit. So why ever indulge her again? She has no more ammo.
It’s time for people in this town to grow some balls and to respond to Ms. FInke like the half-pint playground bully she is. One good pop to the rhetorical nose and she crumbles (or threatens to sue).
Really, it doesn’t even take a good pop… just the threat of a picture or words that are a fraction of what every journalist who had tried to cover her honestly has been told by dozens of people.
The only power Nikki Finke has or has ever had is the weakness of those who indulge her.
I know. You all (and you know who you are) think you are getting the best of her. You love using her to carry your water and think it’s taken more seriously because she sells the image of someone who has power and isn’t just a cheap bagman for the boys downtown (the ones who stroke her unquenchably needy ego).
But this is the worst kind of cynicism.
And here’s the harder part. You have to tell the people who you really do like… Mike and Pete and Nellie… that you aren’t going to play reindeer games at this cost anymore.
Sucks.
I wish I could say that this column will be responded to by those who do feed the monster with serious consideration. But it’s unlikely. They already know. Like a movie that’s going to flop… they smile and they try to convince themselves… but they know what they are into. Nikki will have to implode completely or be so subsumed by the industry that there is no one left to believe in her mythology before she is done. People will pass the buck endlessly in this town when they think they are going to be the one left standing without a chair when the music stops.
Sometimes this is, indeed, a business that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
After seeing the Today Show on her. It’s obvious that this one has to be brought down and brought down hard.
She really spoiled THE OSCARS. It’s not like everyone will read her spoiler breakdown but still, how can this not bring the walls crashing down upon her?
Oh please. She did NOT spoil the Oscars. To listen to David Polard you would think she had given away the secrets of the latest iPhone technology or something!
Oh please, she fucking DID! That’s the fucking run down. You don’t leak the fucking run down… period.
You’re right, Pasadena Mortal. She didn’t ruin the Oscars.
And this is just about as important as that scummy iPhone scoop that was paid for. It didn’t ruin the iPhone or the launch of the iPhone. But if you care about journalism, it was an important moment.
Nikki continually drives the standards of entertainment journalism, which was never exactly Pulitzer stuff, to depths that assure that readers will know less of the truth, not more. She is not alone in this act. The industry is complicit.
And that’s what enrages me.
I don’t care about her personally. Nothing will keep her from being the miserable person she is. So mostly, I feel sorry for her, no matter how angry I get at some of the behaviors.
Actually — and I know you don’t want to hear this, David — if I had somehow obtained a copy of the Oscar show schedule back in the day when I used to fly out to L.A. to cover the show for The Houston Post… well, I would have alerted my editor back in Houston, who almost certainly would have wanted to run it in the paper. And if he had made that decision — other papers and wire services would have picked up the story. I am neither defending nor condemning Nikki. Rather, I am considering this from another angle: If this story isn’t being picked up and passed on — widely — by other outlets, does that mean the Oscar show isn’t considered as newsworthy as it was 15 or 16 years ago?
i understand the issue here. this is a prime example of the tabloid nature all journalism has descended into.
on principle, it’s disgusting.
but the story itself… it’s boring. who cares? i could care less the order of the show and who is presenting. the whole article read like a stage manager’s breakdown of a show. zzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz.
the whole concept that someone would even be interested in “Spoiling the Oscars” is just sad. So sad. The fact that is an ‘exclusive’ that someone pursued is just so pathetic.
love nikki? hate nikki? i don’t care enough about to her to have an opinion either way. she seems like a pretty miserable person and the content of her site rarely seems to celebrate anything.
nikki is “the anti”. she is against everything but herself. i still can’t figure out how an agoraphobic shut in became the go-to site for insider movie news.
so you’ve got a story that no one cares about and a principle that everyone should, all being stirred up by someone who seemingly hates movies and dislikes 99% of the people in the industry.
Actually, a source deep inside the academy has leaked to me the actual show outline:
Logline: A bunch of expertly coiffed and expensively dressed people of extreme self-consciousness read 100+ pages of leaden ad-copy about this or that guild or this or that movie.
With musical interludes, clip montages, and attempts at zany humour. 4+ hours. Highlights include a-listers awkwardly shifting in their seats. Appearances by: Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus, some blond meathead from a comic book movie who is absolutely jacked, Justin Bieber, the cast of Glee, etc.
Not really on-topic, but I laughed out loud at the Tilda headline on the MCN homepage.
Well, the upside is that at some point someone will do to Nikki what Welles/Mank did to Hearst and Sorkin/Fincher did to Zukerberg and we’ll all have a great movie to see. It has the makings of a classic film (not, as others thought, a great HBO show), one that will probably be more like SUNSET BLVD than CITIZEN KANE or THE SOCIAL NETWORK. The only unknown, to quote THE TRUMAN SHOW: “How will it end?”
The best way to diminish Nikki is to reverse what made her big in the first place: Variety, tear down your paywall.
And the winner is…Torpid Bunny!
Nikki’s site is considered the “go-to” site for insider movie news? Puh-lease. Hers is simply the site where, when there’s a fit between two moguls, or stars, or known anythings, she will sympathize with and drool all over the one who talks to her first and hands over documents and depositions, and the opposition will be castigated, grilled and ridiculed – typically with no effort to get their side of the story.
Otherwise, she prides herself in getting press releases on line faster than some others, branding the messages “exclusives,” and those who come 10 minutes later with the same release “losers” and thieves.
She edits her archives to conceal enormous errors, and literally boasts of roasting those who won’t dish to here – not because they’ve committed some wrong – but BECAUSE they wouldn’t talk. She BRAGS about this policy!
Poland’s screed is over the top, and pretends a great many more people actually care deeply about the sacred “rundown” than do. But his disgust and lack of regard for the miserable bully that is Nikki Finke is not misplaced.
I failed to mention, she also notoriously edits and censors comments on her web site. One will easily get away with calling her a vulgar name, or making a crack – anything that reflects poorly on the commenter. But spend some time detailing her wrong doings specifically, cite a paragraph proved wrong that vanished from the archives, and perhaps spelling out journalistic standards – then showing where she fell short, and the post will never be seen again.
So, aside from everything else, she’s a coward, and the Queen of “Can dish it out, but can’t take it.”
OH NO, the Oscars are ruined!! How dare she ruin the biggest self-congratulatory millionaire yankfest of the year! Who cares, will you watch? Yes. Will your life change for the better or for the worse if you know before hand what’s coming up? No. Is the show anything that is even challenging or creative? Fuck No!
The big point being missed here is that the Academy basically fed Nikki scoops for the past month. How does she repay the favor? By not just publishing the rundown of the show, but shitting on it entirely in the headline. Not only that — it came one day after Deadline ran an interview with Tom Sherak about his plans and hopes for the show. Nikki not only bit the hand that fed her, she took the whole arm.
The hilarious part?
Nikki’s utter shock that the Academy had the stones to pull Mike Fleming’s credentials for tomorrow night.
Well, see, that’s the thing: Before I would have gone with a story like this back in the day, I would have warned my Houston Post editor that the Academy likely would ban me from covering future Oscarcasts. I can think of some editors I’ve had who would have taken that possibly as just cause not to go with the story. I can think of others who wouldn’t.
Nikki’s release of the order of events is no big deal. Any janitor paying attention during the rehearsals could have written it down. What would have been a scandal is if she had gotten some lowly clerk at the accounting firm to give her a list of the winners (and then if she had printed that).
What bothers me about her is that she has the English grammar skills of my ESL students.
Look at these two back-to-back sentences:
“Franco subsequently tweeted this outtake clip showing he (sic) and Hathaway rehearsing a dance scene from Grease.
Meanwhile, it’s bizarre that, breaking from tradition, neither 2010 winners Mo’Nique nor Christoph Waltz won’t (sic) be presenting the Best Supporting Actor/Actress categories according to the official sked.”
How can anyone commit these kinds of grammar errors and still expect to be taken seriously?
Joe –
I’m not going to debate your editor’s ethics.
But we are all swimming in the same pond. Journalists are there to report the story. But we ofter get unique access to things in exchange for holding the story until a certain date or honoring someone’s wish of something being off the record.
But you’re right. Some might run it, knowing full well that they would never be allowed to cover – aside from watching on TV – again.
As for why others aren’t running with the info… Aside from her doing this before and much of the detail turning out to be wrong – things change on the show as they get closer, much as on the set of a movie – outlets are in the business of serving their readers, who mostly look forward to Oscar and want to enjoy the show, which includes being surprised… not just being able to say what’s happening next. It’s the same reason why papers don’t run test screening reviews from AICN months or weeks before a movie opens. It’s not something the mainstream wants.
On the other hand, handing out small tastes is part of the Academy’s method of building interest. It used to be those horrible daily announcements about new presenters. Now, as Nikki write herself, it’s leaking the Billy Crystal thing. Or it’s Franco “leaking” stuff on Twitter.
But there is a matter of degree.
And in this specific case, it is about Tom Sherak feeding Nikki and her responding by fucking him and the Academy and ABC over for her own theoretical benefit, and messing with someone else’s 10-figure TV show for no other reason.
David: Back in the day at another paper, one of my editors tried to get the classical music critic, a judge of that year’s prestigious Van Cliburn Competition, reveal all the behind the scenes debate over just who’d get the top award. It got to the point where he finally had to flat out say that it would be an unethical thing to do, and he wouldn’t do it, and if she didn’t like it, she could go fuck herself. That happened nearly 30 years ago. There is nothing new under the sun.
True. Only fewer reporters are willing to tell their editors to fuck off, no?
Very true. Partly because there are fewer other places to find jobs.