On Nikki Finke’s blog, history changes as fast as she can rewrite it.

When we last checked in with Finke (“Crazy Nikki vs. the journalist”), she was haranguing LAT columnist Patrick Goldstein and Summit Entertainment production capo Eric Feig for saying, correctly, that Juan Antonio Bayona, the Spanish director, had not been hired to direct the third installment of the Twilight franchise.

Finke began the discussion, by reporting, incorrectly, that Boyona had been selected by Summit to direct the movie.

Variety picked up the story and so did a lot of other blogs. Goldstein, a wet blanket if ever there was one, actually interviewed Feig about it. The exec said it wasn’t true.

Goldstein did a lot more reporting to make sure it wasn’t, and did a post-mortem on how the story had gotten out, focusing on Finke.

In response, Finke went characteristically ballistic in characteristically imaginative fashion. First she said that she hadn’t actually reported that Bayona was the pick; she quoted herself saying, “I can confirm that Summit Entertainment is telling Hollywood privately that Juan Antonio Bayona will direct Eclipse.”

That’s not much of a defense, of course. She wasn’t saying that they liked Bayona; she was saying that he “would direct” the movie.

And then there was the hedline for the post, which was “Summit Picks Bayona To Direct Twilight Threequel ‘Eclipse’.”

Feig told the LAT that Finke hadn’t called the studio for comment; his exact words were, “Nikki never called Summit or any of the producers.”

Finke turned that into this curiosity, emphasis added:

Summit Entertainment’s president of worldwide production and acquisitions Erik Feig is accusing Los Angeles Times blogger Patrick Goldstein of misquoting him today about the accuracy of my reporting. And the movie executive has apologized to me. Feig also confirms that there’s no policy at his studio demanding that journalists must contact him, and only him, whenever they write about Summit films.

After that ringing lede, Finke

….. didn’t explain what Feig had said Goldstein misquoted him on;

…. didn’t explain what Feig had apologized to her for; and

…. never cited a source for Feig’s (nonexistent) him-and-only-him dictat.

Fast forward to today, when Finke just posted this item:

TOLDJA! David Slade To Direct ‘Eclipse’

“Toldja!” !?

In the copy Finke now says that Feig “offered” the film to Bayona, a bit of information she hadn’t shared with readers before. Finke has lots of (sometimes) good sources; a few days ago she’s promised some new bit of Twilight info, and this may have been it.

Her problem is that she’s incapable of admitting she’s wrong, and it drives her to extreme behaviors.

Her item on Slade doesn’t mention her earlier, inaccurate posts, and when I read it, I was confused; I had remembered her saying Bayona had gotten the job already. I went back to the original post, to read this:

I can confirm that Summit Entertainment is telling Hollywood privately that Juan Antonio Bayona will direct Eclipse. I’m not saying he’s been offered the job or hired, which in Hollywood involves deal memos, signed contracts, and the like. Just that the studio execs Wednesday night passed the word he’s their guy. It’s a very out-of-the-box choice for the 3rd movie in the “Twilight Saga” series of Stephenie Meyer vampire novels being hurried to the big screen by the start-up studio.

Now I was even more confused.

I didn’t remember that second sentence:  “I’m not saying he’s been offered the job or hired, which in Hollywood involves deal memos, signed contracts, and the like.”

If Finke had written the item like that originally, why would Goldstein have pointed to it as being incorrect? It didn’t take me long to find a few people who had quoted Finke’s original posting, which ran as follows:

I can confirm that Summit Entertainment is telling Hollywood privately that Juan Antonio Bayona will direct Eclipse. It’s a very out-of-the-box choice for the 3rd movie in the “Twilight Saga” series of Stephenie Meyer vampire novels being hurried to the big screen by the start-up studio. (I guess it doesn’t matter that other sources tell me Bayona hasn’t yet met Stephenie, huh?)

The rest of it hadn’t changed.

In other words, Finke got a big item wrong; went postal on another journalist who called her on it; made up a lot of wacky stuff; went back to change her original item to make herself look better without telling readers …

… and then, just to complete the pentathlon of bad journalistc practices she was engaged in, patted herself on the back for a scoop on a bit of information she got wrong originally.

There’s been a lot of writing about Nikki Finke lately, but none of it has captured her biggest weakness and the one that may, some day, wreck her career: Crazy shit like this.