Nikki Finke has never been interested in winning a popularity contest. Be that as it may, fellow journalists and many others are absolutely livid at her Deadline.com coverage of the Aurora, CO tragedy.

In an early morning update to her rolling post about TDKR box office returns, Finke wrote: “It is a very real possibility this terrifying tragedy may affect The Dark Knight Rises opening box office today and this weekend.” She  may not have immediately realized at around 3 a.m. PT how offensively this would read, but she and-or her nighttime editor should have – upon review – understood the inherent crassness of such a comment and deleted. [Editor's note: As we were writing this item, that portion of the TDKR box office update appears to have been removed.]

Then there’s Finke’s second item this morning about being tipped and alerting Warner Bros. to the suddenly disastrous pairing with TDKR of a trailer for the upcoming Sean Penn period drama Gangster Squad. At the very end of the trailer, the bad guys shoot up a movie theater.

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The awards portion of the annual Hollywood Film Festival, running at the Arclight Cinemas October 20-24, has its fair share of detractors. Most notably MovieCityNews.com grand poobah David Poland, who each year takes a running jump at the ceremony’s transparent, self-serving mechanics.

But the wholly separate film festival has done a lot of good over the years, including way back in 2000, when the event showcased then-unknown Craig Brewer. With the Footloose remake currently in theaters, Brewer will be in town tomorrow night for a tribute Q&A and special screening of a restored version of his early drama The Poor and the Hungry. He spoke with Sean O’Connell, lead journalist for festival founder Carlos de Abreu‘s spinoff website HollywoodNews.com, about how critical the early HFF support was:

“I remember getting a call from Carlos saying that he wanted to show it in the digital showcase. It was a huge deal for me. Some people dream of Sundance and other festivals. For me, with the size of this movie, it just felt like some validation that somebody outside of Memphis saw it and appreciated it. It was a fantastic experience. Probably one of the best of my life.”

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