Golden girl just wants a burger with chips
By Nick Harris in Beijing She won by miles, and shattered the world record. She took her second gold of the Games, to become the most successful British swimmer in a century. Fellow swimmers were calling her Dame Becky yesterday, as Team GB headed for its best-ever Olympic weekend. So how would Rebecca Adlington celebrate? […]
Naked ambition Escala meets PT Barnum
What a weird weekend. There was no end to the promo cycle for the book. My heart was in my mouth as I was being interviewed by my old client Mark Lamarr who was standing in for Jonathon Ross with Jo Brand on Radio 2. Mark is not a fan of ephemeral hype nor the […]
Morgan Freeman: His darkest night
His darkest night: a divorce in Hollywood He is one of cinema’s most bankable and best-loved actors. Morgan Freeman also kept his private life away from public scrutiny – until a midnight car crash By Guy Adams Friday, 8 August 2008 There is, of course, one final thesis as to why major Hollywood stars might […]
Fame Formula week two
God must like the idea of the Fame Formula because he has blessed me with a gift – the birth of Brad and Angelina’s twins during the promotion of the book. I was recording Channel 5 News when the news broke that Hello! has rushed into print with its world exclusive pictures of Brad Pitt […]
The Fame Formula juggernaut
Despite showing signs of suffering from autophobia my Fame Formula publicity bandwagon trundles on… Turning up at Sky News at the crack of dawn to review the papers was fun and so were my chats with Fred Macauley, George Lamb, Steve Wright and my wife’s favorite Tim Smith. The bad news is that the Sunday […]
Fame Formula
Tucked up in a tiny radio studio, I spent the morning doing a set of radio interviews – BBC Radio Oxford, BBC Radio Humberside, Northsound Aberdeen, BBC Radio Cumbria, BBC Radio York, BBC Radio Sheffield, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Coventry & Warwicks, BBC Radio Kent, BBC Radio Nottingham, Radio Manx Isle of Man, Heat Radio, […]
Lenny Beige gives me a hard time..
Not all clients are happy clients… Lenny gives me a lesson in celebrity management
The truth about film publicists
The Times has a story on the Christian Bale incidents and the influence of publicists, quoting me and The Fame Formula, as well as a number of other publicists. Here’s the excerpt featuring me – click on the link at the bottom of the page to read the full article. From The Times, July 30th […]
The Fame Formula
With a profile piece in The Independent and an extract from book in The Guardian today, the promotion for my book has really started. I have already done a number of interviews and have some more lined up, but what I notice most is that it’s very odd being on the other side of the promotion […]
Max Mosely bends over the bench for the last time
So, Max Moseley has won his privacy case against the News Of The world which heralds major implications for the way newspapers go about their business. The ruling offers a huge opportunity for clever personal publicists who live in fear of the Friday “phone call”. Never before has there been a time when the flaks […]
Whatever It Takes
When Shane Richie popped in to see me three or four months ago to talk about an idea for his forthcoming drama called Whatever It Takes, I was intrigued to know more. His visit to my office was to research the modus operandi of a celebrity publicist. Although I thought the script was more Max […]
Edinburgh Festival calling..
Not as interesting as Rob Deering’s Boobs 2008, but more compelling than Karita Mattila, the star soprano, and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, I am listed as the 83rd hottest event in the Edinburgh Festival. 83: Mark Borkowski One of showbiz’s more charming public relations men explores the ancestry of his questionable trade. Long fascinated […]
How playboy royals became tabloid heroesA changing of the PR guard at Clarence House has helped to repair the images of Princes William and Harry
Prince Harry and Prince William arrive to the City Salute sunset pageant on May 7, 2008 in London Photograph: Dan Kitwood It is a compare and contrast case study that will no doubt appear in PR textbooks in years to come. Return to the tabloids of three years ago, and Princes William and Harry were […]
Nazi Loot under Whitton Garden.
I’ve been asked to represent some odd stories in my time but this one really takes the sauerkraut. A man has claimed that his dead parents’ home in Whitton has Nazi treasure buried under a pond in the garden. The man in question, Michael Hurll, a light entertainment producer, told estate agents Anish Gola and […]
Is celebrity headline grabbing antics for fuelling bad behavior and promoting materialism…
I had a challenging hour on Wednesday. I was a witness on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze. The debate was triggered by research from the Children’s Society which blames celebrity headline grabbing antics for fuelling bad behavior and promoting materialism. The panel was Michael Buerk (chair); Clifford Longley, Claire Fox, Melanie Phillips, Kenan Malik. You can […]
Pariah PR
This story on Popbitch demonstrates the damage that entertainment publicists do to sully the name of first-rate PR’s in this field PR pariah lands on feet In 2006 Rob Shuter used to be publicist to Paris Hilton. Until he was hauled before a court in California to explain why a completely made up story about a […]
Ian Usher – the publicity stunt
The lovelorn former rug salesman Ian Usher, who put his life in Australia up for sale on the internet was not leaping for joy last night. I am not persuaded that after months of media and online interest that this life auction was genuine. It has all the hallmarks of an elaborate PR scam. I […]
Gordon Brown charisma implant required
Things can only get better for Gordon… here’s how Gordon Brown’s premiership is a year old today. So we asked: what, if anything, can he do to stop the rot? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/things-can-only-get-better-for-gordon-heres-how-855413.html The PR expert: Mark Borkowski He needs a charisma implant. There was this fantastic honeymoon period where he demonstrated everything that we hoped would […]
Dance Away.
I don’t know Matt Harding, the bloke who quit his job in Australia and I dont know anything about Stride gum, who sponsored him to travel the globe to film himself dancing in 39 countries. Thanks to http://www.adgabber.com for enlightening us about a brilliant sponsorship. Matt visited 42 countries over a 14 month period and, […]
Stunt or Prank?
The man behind the photos from a supposed “undiscovered” Amazon tribe that were sent around the world, has admitted that it was a publicity stunt. The indigenous tribes expert Jose Carlos Meirelles said the tribe had been photographed to show that uncontacted tribes did exist in an area that was endangered by logging. I suppose […]