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A 7.18 Brooks Barnes‘N.Y. Times story reports (a) an attempt by Nikki Finke to buy back Deadline from bossman Jay Penske with the help of a Phoenix-based private equity guy named Jahm Najafi, and (b) an interest on Finke’s part in wanting to start fresh with a new site, NikkiFinke.com, because her Deadline duties have taken the edge off her hammerhead reporting. The gist, it seems, is that TheWrap‘s Sharon Waxman wasn’t entirely off the mark when she reported last June…well, not that Penske had whacked Finke (that was a bit out-there) but that there was serious trouble in River City between them.

“At least in some corners of the show business capital, the Finke-Penske fight has turned into a lurid spectator sport,” Barnes writes. “[And yet] the tit-for-tat entanglement may simply boil down to another example of the corporate difficulties associated with brands that are so closely linked to one personality, especially one as ferocious as Ms. Finke.”

I’m sorry to admit that when I heard of the death of Ken Norton, the first thing I thought was “whoa, the Sammmy-stud Mandingo guy who did the deed with Susan George is gone.” I’m sorry for thinking a cheesy Quentin Tarantino thought. On top of which Norton’s character in that detestable 1975 Richard Fleischer film wasn’t called Mandingo — it was “Mede” or “Gannymede.” I should have said to myself that the honorable boxer who broke Muhammud Ali‘s jaw has died. Norton’s last big fight was against Larry Holmes in ’78. He was only 70 years old. The poor guy hasn’t been in the best of shape due to a series of strokes. He was also hurt pretty badly from a car crash in the mid ’80s. Condolences to family, friends and fans.

“It also seems [as if] Bruce Dern‘s position in the Oscar race is questionable,” Rope of Silicon‘s Brad Brevet wrote yesterday. “Many have issues with him being pushed in the lead actor category, feeling his role is secondary to that of [Nebraska costar] Will Forte‘s, which means both he and Robert Redford are skating on thin ice with some strong contenders at their heels.”

Just to be clear, I’m no Dern disser. I want this legendary actor to have his Day In The Sun. I’m just saying I’m concerned and all-but-convinced that the poor guy will be nudged out of contention if he and Paramount stick to their Best Actor campaign. If he makes it, great…but I worry for him.

Leonardo DiCaprio‘s The Wolf of Wall Street performance “looms large, though the dark comedy nature of the film’s marketing has me doubting its overall chances,” Brevet continues. “Ditto Foxcatcher‘s Steve Carell, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty‘s Ben Stiller, American Hustle‘s Christian Bale and Her‘s Joaquin Phoenix are still unknowns at this point and could quickly climb into the race, leaving Dern and Redford in the dust, and perhaps even Forrest Whitaker.”

Sayeth a friend of All Is Lost: “I’m not sure I follow Brevet’s reasoning about Redford being on thin ice…to use the quote of the week, ‘It’s September, for God’s sake!'”

By using “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” for the Haute Cuisine trailer, Weinstein Co. marketers have dishonored Christian Vincent‘s film and the legacy of Nancy Sinatra (even if the song heard is a cover sung by someone else). This is a modest and wonderfully un-Americanized film about real-life French chef Daniele Delpeuch (Catherine Frot) and her two-year tenure as the private cook for French president François Mitterrand (’81 to ’95). It is throughly French and a truly sublime foodie movie for the ages. (Really.) It’s basically a tale about a gifted but headstrong eccentric trying to be genuinely creative within a highly political, hair-trigger environment — a combination that obviously can’t last. Haute Cuisine is very carefully assembled and true to the laws of the foodie realm. I was completely engaged start to finish and had no issues whatsoever except for the casting of Jean d’Ormesson as Mitterand — why not cast someone who at least vaguely resembles the Real McCoy?

In the space of less than a week “It’s September, for God’s sake” — a line used by Grantland‘s Mark Harris in a 9.12 piece about too-early Oscar projections — has become something bigger than itself. It’s now a meme of sorts, a metaphor for the increasingly hurried pace and the manic, distracted quality of 21st Century urban life. Five words that protest the relentless onrush of fate, time, biology. Anything that seems to be happening much too quickly and without sufficient warning. An allusion to unwanted haste and impermanence and tumbling tides, and perhaps even to the shocking approach of death — “I’m in the autumn of my years, not the winter…Jesus.” From now on instead of saying “already?” or “do we have to leave right this minute?,” I’m going to say “It’s September, for God’s sake!”

Warner Home Video’s Bluray of John Schlesinger‘s Marathon Man looks about as good as a scratch-free 16 mm print projected on my bedroom wall. Some of it sharply rendered, some of it shadowy, much of it grainy and almost splotchy at times. Basically like the projected image when it opened at Leows’ 86th Street on 10.8.76. Nothing to get too excited about but a decent representation of what cinematographer Conrad Hall wanted audiences to see. Except this isn’t good enough for me. When I buy a Bluray of an older film I want the images to look as good as they did at the very first check screening at the film-processing lab plus a little more. I want a Bluray uptick — a version that would surprise its makers and inspire them to say, “Wow, this looks a bit better than I remember!”

The just-released poster for Alexander Payne‘s Nebraska (Paramount, 11.22) tells you it’s a serious award-season film about the stark realities of aging. (Obviously similar to the 2002 one-sheet for Payne’s About Schmidt.) My white hair is so sparse that I might as well be bald plus I have a neck wattle plus I’ve won a million bucks from Publisher’s Clearing House plus I’ve been an abusive drunk for most of my life plus my old friends and relatives sit around their living rooms and watch TV like immobile zombies. No sedatives, no soothing bromides to speak of, no emotional comforts of the usual sort.

My first thought upon reading that Nancy Gibbs, 53, has become the first female managing editor of Time magazine in its 90-year history was that I stopped reading Time a little less than eight years ago when they ran that cover story about Steven Spielberg‘s Munich being a “secret masterpiece.” I’d been reading Time since I was twelve, but that story killed my allegiance. The only way I’d consider reading Time again would be if they literally published a “Time Advanced” edition — a three-year-old Onion riff.

As Woody Allen was the biggest and most influential supporter of Hollywood Elsewhere’s successful campaign to persuade Warner Home Video to release George Stevens‘ Shane in the original aspect ratio of 1.37 and not the dreaded 1.66 that had been plannned, I felt honor-bound to attend last night’s Manhattan screening of this 1953 classic because a videotaped message from Allen was part of the program. Ironically, the Academy projectionist projected Shane at an aspect ratio closer to 1.66 than 1.37 — approximately 1.5 or thereabouts. (I know exactly what the 1.37 version looks like and can say without the slightest doubt that the projectionist messed up.) Here’s what Allen had to say. I also spoke to guest presenter Adam Holender, the celebrated, still-active director of photography of Midnight Cowboy and Panic in Needle Park. Holender told me he rented a fifth-floor, hardwood-floor studio apartment at the corner of Columbus and 71st — at the time a “bad neighborhood” — for roughly two years in the mid ’60s. His monthly rent was $65.

(l. to r.) Celebrated cinematographer Adam Holender, Patrick Harrison and George Stevens, Jr. at Manhattan’s AMPAS theatre for a screening of Shane on 9.16.

In order for Nebraska‘s Bruce Dern to elbow his way into one of the five nominee slots for the Best Actor Oscar he’ll have to…look, I’m in no way rooting against the guy. Dern is one of the great fellows of our time. I’m just saying he’s making it hard on himself by not going for Best Supporting Actor. As far as I can see 12 Years a Slave‘s Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dallas Buyers Club‘s Matthew McConaughey and All Is Lost‘s Robert Redford (also the most likely recipient of a Gold Watch career tribute nomination) are locked and loaded. That leaves two slots and that means standing up to Wolf of Wall Street‘s Leonardo DiCaprio, American Hustle‘s Christian Bale, Captain Phillips‘ Tom Hanks and The Butler‘s Forrest Whitaker. Does anyone honestly think Dern’s got the horses to push aside three of these four guys? Man up, eat humble pie and go for supporting. The blogoscenti will stand up and cheer.