Nikki Finke

The first thing you should know is that Bob Iger has comic books in his blood. And the second thing you should know is that the Disney president/CEO’s ties to Marvel go back two generations. His late great-uncle (his grandfather’s brother) was illustrator-cartoonist Jerry Iger, who partnered with illustrator-cartoonist Will......

I broke the news that Paramount is moving Shutter Island from fall 2009 to February 19, 2010. Weird, because the studio’s adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel directed by Marty Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio looked entrenched for October 2 and the upcoming awards season. For God’s sake, the pic......

FUNNY PEOPLE NO LAUGHING MATTER Monday actuals (including Sunday’s real box office and not just estimates) show that Funny People directed by Judd Apatow and starring Adam Sandler made just $22.6 million its opening weekend. The studio all along tried to lower expectations by predicting an opening weekend of $25......

Here’s the e-mail that Ben Silverman sent to Hollywood pals announcing his exit from NBC Universal and landing at Barry Diller’s IAC: “Its [sic] go time brother!!!!!!! Let’s rock it out!!!!!” Is there any wonder that everyone at his old workplace collectively thought, Don’t let the door hit you on......

RYAN SEACREST IS CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP Ryan Seacrest may be rapidly becoming one of the richest guys in show business in front of and behind the cameras, but he doesn’t like paying commissions. The longtime client of the William Morris Agency, pre-merger, informed William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, post-merger, that he......

So it looks like there’ll be dueling press releases throughout the summer in the Conan O’Brien versus David Letterman battle for late-night supremacy. There’s good and bad news for CBS and NBC. It’s clear right now that Dave’s Late Show is topping Conan’s Tonight Show in audience size. This is......

By now you’ve probably heard how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to allow 10 Oscar nominees — not just the usual five — into the Best Picture category. Of course, it was lauded by the mainstream media because this answers their prayers for more “for......

The way Paramount rolls, it’s hard to keep things private at that studio. (Remember all those Paramount versus DreamWorks leaks?) So rumors have been all over the studio lot for the past six months that chairman Brad Grey and vice chairman Rob Moore were unhappy with John Lesher’s performance as......

It’s a very dangerous situation when any multinational corporation wages war against media companies. Especially when that huge multinational is General Electric, which itself owns a media company, NBC Universal, and is using all its power and influence and money to try to harm another media company, Nielsen, Nielsen Business......