I was sent this sad and brilliant story from the Reuters bureau in Boogata which provoked deliberation. I have worked in the entertainment industry for many years and my mantra’s has always been, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity!” Sometimes I have a tough time defending that “All publicity is good publicity” as an […]
Well trained media spokespeople are now the norm, habituating every nook and cranny in most news programmes. If there is an issue that an editor wants to focus on, then hey presto, the PR handlers offer up a genetically modified human, built in a workshop, to face the foe. These well trained “greys” are regularly […]
After a weekend away in Amsterdam, I return to find the UK newspapers devouring and obsessing about the Britney Spears’ shaved head moment. The Dutch don’t seem to have this same fixation about a feckless pop star going through career breakdowns in the most pubic way. You don’t have to be a Harley Street shrink […]
It was horrible; within minutes of her terrible demise Anna Nicole Smith made universal headlines. Before the poor woman was cold there was a feeding frenzy for the global media barons. Even as the proverbial ink dried on ” the page” celebrity voyeurs stepped up to paw over her tragic life. This was quickly followed by nodding […]
Hugh Grant stepped out with his girlfriend, Jemima Khan, to the Premiere of his new film “Music & Lyrics” the other night. As you can see from the way the media picked over it, they were happy to draw comparisons to Liz Hurley and the Versace dress 13 years ago. It all goes to prove […]
The Guardian As he tucked into his own Christmas turkey, Bernard Matthews must have been relieved that 2006 was over. Hit by the the demise of the Turkey Twizzler and the exposure of animal cruelty – two of his workers had been filmed using a turkey as a baseball – his profits fell by 33% […]
My old pal Matthew Freud is truly a legendary manipulator, stage manager and fixer; a figure, whose undoubted skills as a PR suit, moves in shadowy circles. A regular at Davos, he knows how to knit his contacts together. There is much bitching about him, but not from me. There seems to be some sense […]
The Daily Mirror has an interview with Shilpa Shetty which takes up practically a third of the paper. I don’t think this will be the full stop on Shilpa’s story, but what is interesting for a media watcher is The Sun’s front page. The cover has been created as a response to losing the interview […]
The Scotsman 29 Jan 2007 AS TELEVISION reality show Celebrity Big Brother finally ground to a halt last night after nearly a month on air, Shilpa Shetty – the Bollywood actress at the centre of alleged racist bullying by other contestants – was poised to convert her ordeal into a string of lucrative career deals. […]
I did probably the last noddy on Shilpa Shetty for Radio 5 Live this morning for the breakfast show. What more can be said about this woman who came up with the spontaneous sound bite last night? “This country has given me so much. I just want to thank all of Great Britain for giving […]