The Flack

.Enough with the weddings. Let’s cut to today’s unsettling testimony of child actor Macauley Culkin at the Michael Jackson molestation trial. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT THE STAR OF “HOME ALONE” TO SAY? That the gloved one took off his gloves while the two coddled in Neverland? Of course he wouldn’t admit that he “inhaled” –…… Continue reading Bedtime Stories

Oh That Dress! Choosing the right partner in Hollywood is as important as choosing the right agent. The bigger the name, the bigger the boost to one’s career. Tom Cruise’s new (virginal) squeeze Katie Holmes (who, you ask?) will no doubt be coming soon to a theatre near you. However, the bigger the names, the greater…… Continue reading The Art of the Public/Private Wedding

While Paula sought salvation for her troubles via a carefully scripted appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” and subsequently as a guest host on “ET,” the Runaway Bride, who can pick and choose any program on which to make her national TV debut, seems to be going for the sympathy vote. Today she checked into a…… Continue reading Paula and the Runaway Bride

So big whoop! Why is media-training for the Chinese authorities, hosts to the 2008 Olympic Games, considered such a scandal worthy of a news feature in The New York Times and an editorial in The Boston Globe? Perhaps it has something to do with the “spin class’s” designers and their affiliation with the esteemed Nieman…… Continue reading Spin Class

Contrary to popular belief, PR professionals actually prefer journalists who exercise balance in their reporting versus those who don’t. How many times have we been faced with an investigative reporter or TV news producer’s request for an interview, knowing full well that the reporter’s story premise is a foregone conclusion (in spite of controvening facts)?…… Continue reading Strengthening Mainstream Media’s Hand

So Paula’s PR advisors finally came up with (or were invited and agreed to) a tactical and seemingly strategic solution to Paula’s media woes: have her make fun of her own predicament by appearing on “Saturday Night Live.” How does this irreverant approach jibe with her still defiant public statement? One bi-product of course is…… Continue reading Paula & SNL

Paula Abdul is in a real pickle. You know it when her Beverly Hills publicist, Karynne Tencer, doesn’t return repeated phone calls from Jacques Steinberg, The New York Times’s lead TV industry writer. Perhaps The New York Times doesn’t hold much water on the left coast?Clearly, the weeks of speculation over ABC-TV’s “Primetime” expose would…… Continue reading The Paula & Corey Affair

In a posting yesterday on blogger Steve Rubel’s micropersuasion weblog, the author exhorts the fact that Bacon’s, the media database company, has invited him as a “top journalist” to provide his contact information ostensibly so that PR pros can pitch him stories. He appears flattered, proud and a bit surprised that he — a blogger…… Continue reading PR Guy or Blogging Journalist?

Judging from the number of PR pros who attended today’s BDI conference in New York City featuring Microsoft evangelistic blogger/vlogger Robert Scoble, it’s clear that blogs’ potential impact on the profession weighs heavy on many professionals’ minds. To quote Scoble:”word of mouth networks are far more efficient” for getting the word out, or “going super…… Continue reading Scoble Speaks to a Mostly PR Crowd

How many network morning show news producers at this very moment have issued edicts to their staffs to do “whatever it takes” to land the first interview with the cold/hot-footed Georgian bride-to-have-been??? Yet, can these news divisions even compete with the likes of “Extra,” “The Insider,” and “Inside Edition,” all of which have money to…… Continue reading Runaway Bride – the PR of it All