"Ding dong, is the witch dead?" asked Kevin Smith, who -- like many in the film industry -- has battled with Nikki Finke in the past.
Smith joined HuffPost Live Monday and weighed in on the news that Finke may be departing the website she founded, Deadline Hollywood. Finke's competitor, The Wrap's Sharon Waxman, reported Sunday night that Finke had been fired from the site, but both Finke and her boss, Jay Penske, have called Waxman's story into question, with Finke taking exception with some of Waxman's facts but declining to discuss her status and Penske calling Waxman's story "untrue." A Penske Media Corporation internal memo described Waxman's story as "libelous, false and defamatory" and said the company was turning the matter over to its lawyers.
Smith, for his part, praised Finke's journalistic skills but also expressed a bit of schadenfreude about her maybe-departure.
"Some people in town have described her as the most dangerous cat lady on the planet. And when I say some people, I mean me," Smith said of Finke. "She's a character that you love to hate."
Smith and Finke have gone back and forth over the years over topics including "Clerks II" and Harvey Weinstein, with Finke calling Smith a "publicity whore" and suggesting he would have more success as a TV personality than a filmmaker and Smith calling Finke a "crackpot with too much free time" and describing her as a "loathsome" "shut-in" who has no love in her life.