Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Nikki Finke has more prowess than presence covering Hollywood as an Internet columnist. Rarely seen leaving her apartment, she breaks stories to the envy of her competition and has become a sort of unofficial clearinghouse for news on the Hollywood writers' strike.

In the walkout by the 12,000-member Writers Guild of America, now entering its fourth week, both sides have leaked scoops to her Web site, www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com. Negotiators for the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers last week agreed to resume talks today.

``Every writer I talk to on a daily or weekly basis refers to her site,'' says screenwriter Todd Farmer, whose credits include the slasher movies ``Jason X'' and ``The Messengers.''

Finke's role in the strike is only expanding her reputation as a source of movie-business gossip. She was the first to report the impending deaths of the former President Ronald Reagan and the actor Christopher Reeve. Last August she had the scoop that NBC was replacing its entertainment division chief.

Finke says the allure of her Web site is news that big media companies usually won't report because they are afraid of crossing the studios or their corporate owners.

``Mainstream organizations are too scared,'' says Finke, 53, in an interview. ``They rely on advertising, and editors don't want to get calls from angry industry people.''

The Deadline Hollywood Daily site, which she owns and has operated since March 2006, is a daily version of a column she writes for LA Weekly, a free tabloid published by Village Voice Media Inc., which hosts the site and pays her to write the blog.

Serving as Forum

Finke's Web site was the vehicle of choice when the Producers Guild of America distanced itself from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents media companies in the strike negotiations.

``The writers are neither negotiating with nor striking the producers,'' Vance Van Petten, executive director of the guild, wrote in the Nov. 12 e-mail that Finke posted. The next day, the Los Angeles Times published a story that the producers didn't want to be blamed for the strike against studios and networks.

Finke also scooped the mainstream news media with a Nov. 8 report that writer-producers of television shows, called showrunners, agreed in a closed-door meeting to stick together if sued for honoring the strike. Finke published a Nov. 10 e- mail from Edward Bernero, the executive producer of CBS's ``Criminal Minds,'' that confirmed her report.

Before the strike, Finke's site attracted 300,000 hits a week, she says, citing data from Site Monitor, an Internet tracking service. Since the strike began, weekly hits have soared to more than 1 million, she says.

`Start With Nikki'

``Some stories, we do start with Nikki,'' says David Carr, a New York Times reporter. ``I pay more attention to Nikki than I used to.''

Finke isn't shy about reminding readers of her exclusives. A Nov. 17 item provides a link to a blog by writers for ``Late Night With David Letterman'' that ``riffs off my news that agents helped restart'' negotiations.

Finke uses the word ``Toldja'' in headlines over stories with official confirmation of something she previously attributed to ``sources'' or ``insiders.'' She also alerts readers when she thinks other news organizations get a story wrong.

She is especially critical of Daily Variety, a trade magazine owned by London-based Reed Elsevier PLC, which has covered the entertainment industry since 1933. On Nov. 16, she blasted Variety for ``slanted coverage'' in favor of the studios and for stories that she called ``total fabrications.''

Variety's editor-in-chief, Peter Bart, declined to comment.

No Time for Lunch

Her public reticence is a time issue, Finke says. She no longer attends business lunches or screenings because she prefers to stay near a telephone and e-mail.

Finke has been writing about the entertainment industry for 20 years, starting by covering television for Newsweek magazine in 1986. She eventually became West Coast editor for the New York Post, which fired her after two months following a dispute over a story she wrote about Walt Disney Co.

Finke sued the Post, its parent, News Corp., and Disney for libel, seeking $10 million. The 2002 lawsuit was settled out of court and the terms aren't public, she says.

``My whole career has been downwardly mobile, but that's very high praise for what I do,'' Finke says.

Finke landed at Village Voice Media's LA Weekly in 2002. Two years later, she gained national attention for uncovering that Reagan was gravely ill. She got the scoop too late to make that week's edition, so she issued a mass e-mail to put it on record.

The site has become so popular with strikers that writers on Letterman's show posted a Top Ten list called ``How You Can Tell You're Reading Too Much Strike Coverage.'' One item was: ``If you don't make any decisions without first checking with Nikki Finke, you're reading too much strike coverage.''

``People wanted somebody they could perceive as an honest broker,'' Finke says. ``I have no dog in this race and I'm not afraid to criticize the writers and the producers.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.netMichael Janofsky in Los Angeles at mjanofsky@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 26, 2007 00:16 EST