I may be one of the few film bloggers who enjoys the existence of Nikki Finke (you may remember I somewhat defended her earlier this year when Variety made its three-pronged attack). Of course, I appreciate her for the same reason I appreciate a lot of filmmakers I don’t necessarily agree with or like. And for the same reason that I’m glad Fox News exists. She plays by her own rules, doesn’t ever seem to hold back and doesn’t appear to care with whom she becomes enemies.

So, I for one was glad to hear the news that her blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily, was bought by Mail.com Media Corp., which also owns one of my other favorite film blogs, Movieline. Hopefully she isn’t reigned in at all now that she’s got a boss, though I can’t see why MMC would want DHD if they didn’t want the Finke everyone knows and doesn’t love.

It’s hard to tell if anyone else is as excited as I am to see how her transition goes, but those who’ve covered the story at least seem curious. Check out some bloggers’ reactions after the jump:

• In a follow-up post at Deadline Hollywood Daily, Finke assured readers that she did not sell out nor will her voice be any less independent. Here is what she says will change:
  

  …with this new company’s advanced infrastructure and capable team, I can bring DHD to the next level starting next month. You have been asking for that: trust me, your frustrations have been my frustrations…I also expect DHD’s design to be tweaked but not significantly altered. Your suggestions will be very helpful.

• Anne Thompson at Thompson on Hollywood questions the idea of Finke remaining so free and autonomous:
  

  Finke insists in her early Tuesday morning announcement that she will continue to be free to be her sweet self. But someone now owns her. She has a boss. That has not always worked for her in the past. We’ll see.

• Lane Brown at Vulture is optimistic about the transition for his site’s “buddy”:
  

  Finke’s title will become general manager, editor-in-chief, and founder. We just hope this means she’ll still be doing her own photo illustrations.

• Commenting at Gawker, “strega” asks some valid questions about DHD’s potential changes:
  

  Are they going to make Finkey stop with the caps toldja crap? Are they going to make her print ALL her comments and not just the ones that are flattering to her massive ego? If they go broke (sorry Movieline) will Finke drop off the face of the interwebs?

  More importantly, will she and Waxman ever get to the jello wrestlng pit?

• Meanwhile, John Cook at Gawker wonders how Finke will fit in with her new brethren over at Movieline:
  

  Finke will have some new colleagues now in the MMC empire, including MovieLine’s Stu VanAirsdale and Kyle Buchanan, neither of whom she seems to like very much. When the pair was at Gawker Media’s Defamer, Finke took them to task for allegedly repeating bullshit rumors. When Gawker Media folded Defamer into Gawker and they decamped for MovieLine, she wrote, sympathetically: “Neither of those guys are journalists.”

• Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere is also curious about the DHD/Movieline relationship:
  

  Great for Nikki, nice payday, etc. Except now the Movieline guys (Stu Van Airsdale, Kyle Buchanan, Seth Abramovitch, etc.) are going to have to adopt a certain position and attitude towards Finke…right? Play ball, get along, noblesse oblige?

• David Poland at The Hot Blog is concerned for the safety of the guys at Movieline:
  

  The hire is terrible news for the guy at Movieline, who not only will be forced to pull their punches and promote Nikki’s agenda under threat of hysteria. But given the balance of dollars on a world where Nikki doesn’t sell a lot of ads on her own, they will also be under immediate threat of losing their jobs… or worse… being the monkeys who dance at the end of Nikki’s rope if they want to keep their gigs.

• Seth Abramovitch at Movieline jestfully makes nice with his acquired colleague and somewhat clarifies the site’s future relationship with her:
  

  Oh, Nikki — you irrepressible mountain lioness, you. Quit licking those paws and come on over here and give us a big puma hug.

  UPDATE: To appease concerned readers, let me just make it clear that we’ll both be playing in adjoining, but completely independent, sandboxes — though we may occasionally share shovels.

• Commenting on the disappointingly safe-playing post at The Wrap, “FINKED UP!” writes an appropriately (but non-planted?) anti-Finke response:
  

  I have never seen someone more full of themselves than Finke. I have check ed out her site, but it’s her inputting herself into the site that makes me cringe. I expected to find out that she was a teenager or someone in their early 20’s due to the inmaturity of many of her posts. How she ever won an award for journalism is beyond me. Everytime I see her post “I told you so” I think of a 9-year-old child spouting that line.

  See a therapist about your insecurities Nikke.

• To make up for that attack, Temp X at The Hollywood Temp Diaries highlights all the praise given to Finke in MMC’s press release:
  

  Clocking in at a whopping 1,200 words, Mail.com used every platitude they could and a few of them twice to tout the deal. [PR Exec advises: "More steak, less sizzle."] If you didn’t know anything about Deadline Hollywood or Darling Nikki, you’d have thought they just bought the love child of Mother Teresa and Bob Woodward…

  1.  “Highly respected”
  2.  “Widely read”
  3.  “Foremost entertainment business journalists in the world”
  4.  “Uniquely Candid”
  5.  “Informed and authoritative”
  6.  “In details…only she can uncover”
  7.  “Queen of Hollywood News”
  8.  “Unrivaled network of high-level industry contacts”
  9.  “Best connected reporter”
  10.  “A Hollywood power broker”
  11.  “The sheriff in town”
  12.  “Queen”
  13.  “Journalist of the Year”
  14.  “World-class journalist”
  15.  “Unequivocally recognized”
  16.  “Unique voice”
  17.  “Leading authority”
  18.  “She has raised the bar - if not changed the game - of entertainment journalism”
  19.  “World-class journalist”
  20.  “50 Best Websites for Moviemakers”

• UPDATE: Sharon Waxman at The Wrap has an interview with “grilled” Finke about the deal (at some point later, Waxman found out from a “knowledgeable individual” that DHD was purchased for $14 million). Here’s my favorite part of the interview:
  

  Let’s talk about the deal? Seven figures? Eight figures?
  I will not confirm or deny anything.

  So what was the deal?
  It’s the GNP of a small country.

  What the f— does that mean?
  It’s cute.

  It’s meaningless.
  It’s cute.

  It’s cute to you.
  I’m also using the line, “I’m working for a 30 year old.” I don’t take this as seriously as you do. Hell, it’s just life. Not the second coming. I didn’t hire a publicst. It was a deal worth waiting for.