15 Minutes More

I just heard from my buddy Howard Bragman, fresh off his PR duties on the Ed McMahon foreclosure imbroglio. Howard tipped me off to his latest rehabilitative work-in-progress: Al Reynolds. Who, you ask? Wasn’t he the guy that drove OJ on the infamous LA freeway chase? No. Different Al.

This is the guy who, like Al Cowlings, gained his notoriety (I mean fame) through a high profile celebrity association. Al Reynolds is the soon-to-be ex-husband of the original Bridezilla, Star Jones (pictured here…before the surgery).

Anyway, Al wants everyone to know, and has retained one of the best in the west to make it happen, that he’s a regular guy in spite of marrying Star Jones. (God, what was he thinking?)

Instead of relying solely on the media filter to tell the story — the AP and “Show Biz Tonight” notwithstanding — Howard chose to deploy the successor strategy to the video news release: the video YouTube.

Working with a “real” broadcast journalist (shades of Karen Ryan), Howard arranged for Al to tape three segments sharing his side of the story. He posted the videos yesterday. Fueled by the “400+ pick-ups” of The AP story and the segment on “Show Biz,” one of the three clips now counts 23,000 views and growing.

Howard feels there are some precedent-setting PR tactics here, but I pointed him to the Katie Couric (and Tom Cruise before her) items I posted on celebrities taking reputation management into their own hands. Still, a good strategy, that is if you really give a rat’s a** about Al Reynolds.