Nikki Finke

American Idol You can’t pay me to watch Fox’s American Idol, where the singing sounds like strangled cats and jingoism rears its ugly head with everything so “America this,” and “America that.” Now the network and the show’s producers are planning changes to reverse its declining ratings. Fox has introduced......

UA: Was It Suicide or Murder?What I forecast about Paula Wagner and her future at United Artists has come to pass. MGM could push her out as UA’s CEO but couldn’t fire her because she was, and will remain, a co-owner. Nor will Tom Cruise’s longtime producing partner’s exit affect......

At the memorial service for Bernie Brillstein, the 77-year-old Hollywood manager and movie/TV producer who died August 7 from complications stemming from heart and lung disease, everyone who was anyone in Hollywood showed up. Brillstein’s partner, Brad Grey, and client Lorne Michaels arranged for so many comedians to speak inside......

CAA Finally Dumps Partner Rick Nicita After years of complaining about partner Rick Nicita, CAA’s original Young Turks have pushed him out of the agency and foisted him on James Robinson’s Morgan Creek, where he’ll be co-chairman and chief operating officer. It must have been a desperate situation for the......

No Dark Knight for You! Major and even minor Hollywood moguls hate to see a new movie in a public theater, much less buy a ticket to see it. Instead, they have their studios build them fancy private screening rooms and then borrow prints from each other to see the......

THIS WEEK, THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS — those Big Media fortresses of big money and even bigger morons — received a nasty shock when the worldwide credit crunch began arriving at their front door unannounced. The warning bell was sounded by an unfolding story about whether venerable Paramount was having a......

Tarantino Unveils Inglorious Bastards My latest scoop is that Quentin Tarantino went out with his long-anticipated script about World War II to four Hollywood studios on July 7 and 8. As usual, there’s a lot of secrecy and controversy surrounding this Q.T. project. It’s being shopped to Universal, Warner Bros.,......

The sense of panic among actors, writers, directors and below-the-liners is palpable in Hollywood right now, matched only by the angst of agents whose phones aren’t ringing, and out-of-town journalists struggling to write “strike scare” stories. Strange, isn’t it, that the only Hollywood types without any visible flop sweat from......