Reports that Nikki Finke left behind a memoir have been corrected: the late Deadline founder was not writing a personal Hollywood tell-all, but a history of Creative Artists Agency in the 1980s. The misunderstanding briefly unsettled parts of the entertainment industry because Finke was renowned for hard-hitting, often feared reporting and was widely expected to have damaging stories to tell.

Finke worked intermittently on the CAA manuscript from the 1990s until her death in 2022, aged 68, with early versions focusing on Michael Ovitz’s rise. Publishing arrangements with Dial in 1996 and later with Hachette’s Twelve and Simon & Schuster all failed, largely because she did not complete the book; her estate is now seeking a publisher for the unfinished work.