Los Angeles magazine profiles "difficult" but "influential" L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke, who recently gave the LAT and NYT fits with her coverage of GraydonGate and The Great Bicoastal Newspaper War. To illustrate the Finke Experience, writer R.J. Smith takes us inside a phone call:

Oh god! i know, i know! That’s how a Nikki Finke call starts. Only, she’s talking even before she picks up her phone. Steeped in the Long Island where she was raised, her voice is not a finely calibrated tool, and the phone makes it positively blunt. Just try to get a word in: First there’s a wisecrack about a studio head, then a burst of gossip followed by a complaint, and finally a declaration that nobody in the press is getting the story right. Ow, ow! Hold on, I’ve been having trouble with my knee. God, I need to have an operation on it. Ow, ow! It’s driving me insane. Anyway, what was I saying? She is gulping down a sandwich and telling a story about a screenwriter, all the while needling you as she takes other calls.

• Hollywood Confidential [Los Angeles Magazine]
• Nikki Finke Goes Off On GQ [Defamer]

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