A once great man said, “You have nothing to fear, but fear itself” but in Hollywood the saying goes “You have nothing to fear, but God forbid if you dare cross Nikki Finke.”
Back in February, it was reported that Bill Condon and Cynthia Mort were developing a half hour HBO comedy that centers on a powerful female Tinstletown writer with a no-holds-barred approach. Hmmm…..any idea who that could be?
The not-so-cleverly titled “Tilda” — seemingly a combination between the words Nikki and her oft used TOLDJA headline — seems to have found its leading lady in Diane Keaton. The actress is said to be circling the part in what is certainly a meaty role. For those of you outside the inside baseball world of online blogging, Nikke Finke has the curious distinction of being a blogger who is feared, respected and loathed all at once, who dishes the dirt on Hollywood bigwigs who don’t play nice with her. A near myth surrounds the blogger with rumors of her being holed up Howard Hughes style reigning terror to Hollywood execs over a bank of phones in her office. The actual truth of her day-to-day blogging is probably far less dramatic (believe us) but done as a pumped up, “Entourage”-style HBO show, we could see it being a lot of fun.
While HBO still isn’t listening to us about casting Megan Mullally in the lead with a blond wig and a bit age/never-see-sunlight make-up we still stand by our other suggestions: Catherine Keener to play Sharon Waxman, Betty White to play irrelevant columnist Liz Smith (sort of the gentler antecedent to the DHD matriarch) and, Kevin Chapman (from “Mystic River”) to play ex-Variety scribe turned DH contributor Mike Fleming (dood).
We’re guessing HBO wants to get this in front of cameras this summer before Condon goes off to direct “Breaking Dawn” — a scoop that was first reported by, you guessed it, Deadline Hollywood.