The ongoing battle between PMC's Jay Penske and Deadline's Nikki Finke started with a bang and is now ending with a whimper, as Finke is finally out of the motor oil heir's slippery clutches. Finke shared with me that while she's happy to be free from Deadline, she is sad over the way the separation played out, and offered parting thoughts on Penske, Deadline film editor Mike Fleming Jr., and the fact that at one point, she offered to quit online blogging entirely.

Tired as we all may be about seeing the words Nikki Finke and Deadline appear on this website today, Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr. has shot back at Finke. In a mildly interesting but slightly expected turn of events, Fleming sells his boss down the river in his latest blog post, proving that good friends do indeed stab you in the front. Who knew that Finke would come out as today's winner in the battle for the moral high ground?

In a 1583 word soliloquy, Deadline's film editor Mike Fleming announced today that he will be stepping up his role at the troubled e-trade, and will officially be spending half a year in Los Angeles and the remainder at his Long Island home. But does this mean he's being groomed to replace editor-in-chief, Nikki Finke?

Demi Lovato is poised to write the next Great American Novel, 140 characters at a time; John Grisham's oeuvre is taking its act from just Hudson News bookstores in airports across America to The Great White Way; and as always, nobody thinks more highly of Mike Fleming Jr. at Deadline than, well, Mike Fleming Jr.