It had been a while since the last flare-up in the never-ending war of words between Hollywood columnists and arch-nemeses Nikki Finke and Sharon Waxman, but Finke fired the opening salvo of the latest battle in her column this morning. in a seemingly unprovoked post titled "Is It Nearly Curtains For TheCrap?", Finke writes:
TheWrap (aka TheCrap) keeps getting turned down by the private investment companies which it has recently approached for survival funding -- Saban, Shamrock, and a long list of others. And the new owners of The Hollywood Reporter aren't interested in buying the website, given its deteriorating situation, although it's been offered to them again and again. Meanwhile, several more current staffers are openly looking for new jobs in this tough media market.
Shortly after Finke's tirade, Waxman announced new partnerships with CNN and KPCC:
TheWrap.com, the fastest-growing news organization covering the business of entertainment and media, today announced that it will be an ongoing contributor to CNN's "Reliable Sources" and has partnered with Southern California public radio station KPCC.
With CNN's "Reliable Sources," TheWrap.com Editor-in-Chief Sharon Waxman will make regular contributions on-air, covering the convergence of entertainment and media alongside her longtime colleague and host, Howard Kurtz. Additionally, TheWrap.com and CNN.com will share content between the two news sites.
No word yet from Finke on the details of Waxman's announcement, but its safe to assume we have not heard the last from her on the matter. Fishbowl LA offers some analysis of this latest battle:
We're told Saban and Shamrock didn't turn TheWrap down. Other than that it's hard to verify the cryptic.
Meanwhile, Joe Adalian left and TheWrap's numbers are down. Of course, so are Nikki's even though they are still nearly triple TheWrap's.
But The Hollywood Reporter's global page views are up. So Nikki and Sharon were possibly due for some more mutual flaming.