Nikki Finke may best be known for chronicling the writers strike minutiae, but she's also earned a reputation as the litigious type, filing lawsuits against her condo company (2001; settled for $36,267), News Corp. and Disney (2002; settled), and now E-Trade, which she's accusing, in a class action lawsuit filed in 2006, where she is the only defendant, of illegally taping a conversation where she disclosed personal and financial information. Sound familiar?

It should. Last year, Finke (though she's "Nikki Greenberg" when filing lawsuits) rammed Women's Wear Daily after reporter Jacob Bernstein supposedly taped a conversation between them without telling her. Her complaints got the interview spiked from the paper's website. Uninformed telephone recordings are illegal under California law.

Not illegal: Forgetting to tell readers that the law firm you've hired to take on E-Trade is also one whose clients you've vociferously defended on your website.