Deplorable. THE Brooke Astor, 104 years old, living in hell on Park Avenue

Poor Brooke Astor. Why is this happening to her? I'd rather have love than money, damnit.

--from the NY Daily News, July 25, 2006

Vicious court battle rocks the world of Manhattan's one-time society queen
BY HELEN PETERSON, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Society queen Brooke Astor is living a twilight hell because of son Anthony Marshall, court papers say.

According to court papers, Brooke Astor, 104, lives in wretched conditions in Park Ave. building.

-->Brooke Astor, the patron saint of philanthropy and society in New York, is being forced to live her remaining days in wretched, uncharitable conditions, according to court papers filed by her grandson.

Astor, now 104, is allegedly being kept inside her dilapidated Park Ave. duplex by her only child, Anthony Marshall - who controls her $45 million fortune, yet refuses to spend money for her care.

The stunning blue blood family feud emerged from court documents obtained exclusively by the Daily News.

According to court papers, Marshall:

--->Cut back on everything from her doctor visits to the brand of makeup she uses.

--->Won't give Astor a hospital bed fitted with rails, even though she has fallen from her bed.

--->Ordered her aides to not buy certain medicine at the drugstore because a weaker version is available for less on the Internet.

---> Wouldn't allow nurses to buy his mother a new outfit for her 104th birthday.

The grandson, Philip Marshall, is seeking to immediately remove his father as legal guardian, and replace him with Annette de la Renta, the wife of Oscar de la Renta, and JPMorgan Chase Bank.

Philip Marshall charges that his grandmother is a victim of "elder abuse" - and he's got some influential people on his side.

A trio of prominent New Yorkers - former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Chase Manhattan Bank CEO David Rockefeller and Annette de la Renta - have filed affidavits in support of the grandson.

Astor's 82-year-old son landed at Iwo Jima during World War II, is a former intelligence officer with the CIA, a former diplomat and a Broadway producer with his wife, Charlene. The pair have won two Tony Awards.

Reached at his E. 79th St. apartment, Anthony Marshall, who pays himself $2.3 million as Astor's caretaker, according to the papers, declined to comment.

"No, I don't want to comment. You said it is shocking and I agree. I don't think I should comment. It is a matter that is going to be coming up in a court of law and it should be left to the court," Anthony Marshall said.

He said a hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 8, putting one of New York's first families on display.

The massive court filing details everything from Astor's bland diet - which includes pureed peas, carrots, liver and oatmeal prepared by an "unmotivated cook" who replaced her French chef last year - to her medical care.

According to the papers quietly filed last week, Anthony Marshall has had Astor's weekly doctor visits cut down to once a month, and has ordered the staff not to take her to an emergency room or call 911 if she is having a medical emergency without contacting him first.

The grandson went to court because his father, who is supposed to be overseeing the care of Astor, "has turned a blind eye to her, intentionally and repeatedly ignoring her health, safety, personal and household needs, while enriching himself with millions of dollars."

"My grandmother is one of the great philanthropists of our time," Philip Marshall said in an affidavit. "The sad and deplorable state of my family's affairs has compelled me to bring this guardianship action."

Astor - who still receives about $2 million a year in income from her late husband Vincent Astor's trust - suffers from significant memory loss, skin cancer, chronic anemia, heart problems, spinal stenosis, among other ailments, and has broken her hip twice, according to court papers.

"Her bedroom is so cold in the winter that my grandmother is forced to sleep in the TV room in torn nightgowns on a filthy couch that smells, probably from dog urine," according to the affidavit.

Astor, who is one of 33 women to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor, "has devoted her life to making the world a better place," according to Philip Marshall. She has given away $200 million to city charities alone.

Yet, according to her grandson's court filings, this is what her life has come to:

Although Astor had always used Estée Lauder cosmetics and face creams, her head maid, Mily Degernier, who has worked for Astor for 35 years, has instructed that a "cheaper brand" of makeup be used and that Vaseline be used instead of face cream.

A prescription for Astor's anemia, Procrit, which costs about $1,000 a month, was stopped for no medical reason.

An enzyme supplement, CoQ10, to promote a healthy heart, and which may help in Astor's battle against cancer, which costs $60 a bottle, was stopped at the instruction of Charlene Marshall, Anthony's wife. She then told the aides to buy the medicine off the Internet, a diluted version that costs $26 for three bottles.

When an aide's request for two air purifiers - needed for the dust-filled apartment - was denied, they were bought by de la Renta.

When a request for hair bonnets and no-skid socks was denied, Astor's nurses bought them themselves.

Astor apparently has not seen her beloved dogs, Boysie and Girlsie, in six months because they are kept locked in a pantry to keep them from damaging the apartment.

Anthony Marshall, Astor's son from her first marriage, repeatedly has refused to open up Holly Hill, her 75-acre estate in Briarcliff Manor, Westchester County, this year, even though Astor has said she wants to die there.

While Astor has a nurse on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the staff has been cut back. She used to have two aides on duty at all times, according to an affidavit filed by one of her nurses, Minnette Christie.

Astor's physical therapy has been cut from three to two times a week over the protests of the therapist.

While the apartment was once filled with art, figurines and fresh flowers, according to court papers, "which gave Mrs. Astor great pleasure," some of the art and figurines have been removed. Floral arrangements have been replaced with one or two bouquets from the local Korean market.

Although Astor was known for being always impeccably dressed, she is now reduced to wearing torn nightgowns and old clothes because her son won't buy new ones.

Philip Marshall said her old clothes are too tight because Astor is not as flexible as she used to be, and the nightgowns are rough against her sensitive skin so the staff turns them inside out so that the smoother surface is against her skin.

"New clothes would be good for her spirits," he said in the affidavit.

Another aide, Pearline Noble, said that despite Astor's concern about her appearance, her son has ordered that her manicures and pedicures be cut to once a month, that a scarf Noble had used to cheer Astor not be worn because of a $16 cleaning bill, and that her hair dye be eliminated. Instead, Noble said, she now pays for the hair rinse out of her own pocket.

"The staff that works for Ms. Astor really loves her. It breaks our hearts to see that she is not being cared for by her son in an appropriate way at the end of her life," Noble said.

# # #

Been There, Done That, too, Carnie -but go fer it, girl!

I had my bypass on Feb. 28, 1985. Like Carnie's it was a success, and I lost around 140 lbs. (137). Then I got pregnant which was a license to E A T. And regain the weight. But from 1989 until now, I stayed THAT___ F A T.

But I had no trainers, or coaches, or certainly no wonderfully exploitive "PR-SHOWBIZ-Q-Rating-let's see warts and all to get (me) to claw back in the spandex spotlite- shows like VH1's CELEBreality[TM] to get involved in and voila! GREAT BOD after baby! MASS LOVE! I'll cut an album! TEE VEE appearances! More publicity than I can gorge into my tiny mouth! YES! YES! YEeeeeees!"

((((Oh, I LOVE THIS TOO! Watching another human train wreck, this reality show biz stuff. Yeah, like the midget having the love affair with show biz blowzy blonde in the voyeur-house...ooh!))))

But I am dealing with the addiction "between the ears" that caused the ___F A T this go-round. I think Carnie will with CelebREALITY[TM] Part 4.

Here's Miss Carnie, no longer the poster child for the gastric bypass like I was in 1988, no more speaking engagements....she gains the weight back after having baby Lola, then can't ....lose it...and half just hangs on....she is human after all... This is exposure and exposure is still exposure, is still EXPOSURE. Go fer it, girl! Go get another 15 mins!

http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/celebrity_fit_club_4/106885/episode.jhtml

http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/carnie-wilson-talks-about-joining-vh1-celebrity-fit-club-4-cast-1008839.php

Carnie Wilson talks about joining VH1's 'Celebrity Fit Club 4' cast

UPI News Service, 06/20/2006 - Carnie Wilson may have lost 20 dress sizes following gastric bypass surgery, but the new mom picked up some pounds when she got pregnant with daughter Lola.

She has lost 65 of the pounds she gained, but with 40 left to get rid off, Carnie seeks professional help by being on the fourth season of "Celebrity Fit Club," Entertainment Tonight reported Tuesday.

"I may be this person known as the spokesperson for gastric bypass, but I have struggles and challenges too. I'm only human," said Wilson.

"It took me nine months to lose 15 pounds," she said. "That was really frustrating. Then you just want to give up. It was one step forward and two steps back."

When she was approached about doing VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club," she decided it might be the answer to her weight struggle.

# # #

"Four of every ten patients who undergo weight-loss surgery develop complications within six months, the federal government said (July 23rd)

(((( Oh, WHAT ARE MY FAT CONTEMPORARIES (FELLOW FOOD ADDICTS) GOING TO DO? WHERE WILL THEY TURN?)))))

Well, I may have have died on the table. I am glad I chose another path, and the "Huckabee" way. God is my co-pilot on this one. I am powerless over sugar, flour and large amounts of food that I would be triggered to eat if I go for the refined stuff. If more people who weigh 300+ accept this, they will no longer turn to the knife. WE CAN DO IT! -- Abbe Buck, PR flack, on a mission, I think (smile)

New York Times: Officials Cite Obesity Surgery Complications
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, July 23 — Four of every 10 patients who undergo weight-loss surgery develop complications within six months, the federal government said today.

The number of such surgical procedures has been rising rapidly, along with the incidence of obesity, which now afflicts about 30 percent of adults in the United States, health officials said.

Obesity surgery is helping thousands of Americans lose weight and reduce the risk of diabetes and other life-threatening diseases, said Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a unit of the Public Health Service. But she added, “This study shows how important it is for patients to consider the potential complications.’’

Many of the complications were so serious that patients were readmitted to hospitals or visited hospital emergency rooms within six months.

In a procedure known as bariatric surgery, doctors reduce the number of calories that a person can consume and absorb. One of the more common techniques restricts the size of the stomach and the length of the intestine, where nutrients are absorbed.

Federal researchers found that complications from obesity surgery significantly increased costs.

Over all, said William E. Encinosa, an economist at the health research agency, medical costs averaged $29,921 for obesity surgery and six months of follow-up care. For patients who experienced complications, the costs averaged $36,542. And for those with complications that required readmission to a hospital, the average costs were $65,031.

Prior studies found that 10 percent to 20 percent of patients had complications while they were in the hospital. In the new study, Mr. Encinosa said, federal researchers found that 39.6 percent of patients had complications within 180 days of surgery.

The most common complications included vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal hernias, infections, pneumonia and respiratory failure, as well as the leaking of gastric juices caused by imperfect surgical connections between the stomach and the intestines.

Joanne Kayser, a retired New Hampshire state employee, said she weighed 320 pounds when she had bypass surgery in 2003. “The operation went well,’’ she said in an interview. “It reduced my food intake. After the surgery, I lost 60 pounds.’’

But Ms. Kayser, now 64, said: “My incision did not heal for seven months. I could not exercise, and I stopped losing weight. The incision became infected, and I had to have surgery by a wound-care specialist. In addition, after four months, I developed a hernia, a bulge in my tummy.’’

Bariatric surgery often alleviates conditions that occur with obesity, like diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. That was the case with Ms. Kayser, who said she no longer needed to take diabetes medications because her blood sugar levels were under control.

Dr. Philip R. Schauer, president of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, estimates that 175,000 to 200,000 weight-loss procedures will be performed this year, up from 47,000 in 2001. The number of people receiving the operation “may be less than 1 percent of those who need it,’’ said Dr. Schauer, who is director of bariatric surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.

The government study was based on insurance claims filed with health plans offered by 45 large employers in 49 states. The data included information on 2,522 weight-loss operations in 2001 and 2002.

Dr. Schauer said that surgical techniques and the quality of care had improved, so patients were less likely to suffer complications. In 2001 and 2002, he said, “there were not a lot of standards for doctors and hospitals getting into the field of bariatric surgery.’’ Since then, he said, the society has adopted standards, and some hospitals that specialize in the procedure have been designated “centers of excellence.’’

In addition, Dr. Schauer said, more than half of the operations are now done with a technique known as laparoscopic surgery, which requires only tiny incisions. This approach sharply reduces some types of complications, he said.

In the cases reviewed by federal researchers, 85 percent of the patients were women.
Dr. Schauer suggested several reasons: “Women have a somewhat higher incidence of obesity. Women seek medical care more than men. And obesity is more socially acceptable in men than in women.’’

But he also said: “Obesity is more deadly in men because they are more likely to have secondary effects of obesity like heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.’’

Arthur G. Richards, an insurance agent in Portland, Ore., said some insurers were refusing to pay for obesity surgery and its complications. Such complications can lead to lawsuits, even when doctors meet the prevailing standards of care. Mr. Richards said his company was developing special insurance policies that would pay doctors for treating foreseeable complications.

# # #

Liz is my hero - and she tells it like it is! It's Liz -- not Madonna, the REAL mother of reinvention, still getting Fab PR!

And I like the idea that I look kinda like her....(smile) well, my husband says so, but he's biased as hell. She is still a beauty at 74.

Elizabeth Taylor: 'I Enjoy Food Too Much'

Elizabeth Taylor says she enjoys food too much to starve herself like other Hollywood starlets.

NEW YORK, Jul. 10, 2006 (AP) Elizabeth Taylor, who has been thin and not-so-thin, says she won't starve herself to be like Hollywood's size-zero starlets."I wish I could be that size, but I can't be," Taylor says in the August issue of Harper's Bazaar, on newsstands July 25. "I enjoy food too much. In the end, I'm too hedonistic. I enjoy pleasures."

When asked by fashion designer Michael Kors, who conducted the interview, whether she dresses for men, women or herself, Taylor reveals she prefers to impress the opposite sex."Men first. Myself. Then other women. `Cause you can't please women. They are horribly critical of each other. And more so if you're famous. Meow."

The 74-year-old legend, known for her violet eyes, has been married eight times. When asked whether she is a romantic, she concedes: "I'm afraid so."When she was married to Sen. John Warner, she says she was told not to dress ostentatiously during his 1978 campaign."I ended up in a tweed suit," she says. "Me. Little tweed suits. What I won't do for love."

On the Net: http://www.harpersbazaar.com

MMVI The Associated Press.

# # #

Olsen twins create nutrition show: Yes, we need MORE Insanity - they certainly cannot focus on fashion anymore!

=[Yes, the] Olsen twins create nutrition show - [AND it makes the wire in the UK!]
Monday July 3, 11:45 AM - By WENN

Click to enlarge photo -[your choice]

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are creating a show about health and nutrition for young children, according to media reports in the US.

Ashley and her twin sister Mary-Kate - who was underwent rehab for anorexia in 2004 - have met with US TV executives about the new program aimed at four-to-five-year-olds called Sportee Kids.

A source tells American publication Us Weekly, "It will focus on fitness and healthy eating."

The duo have reportedly received a mixed reactions about their new concept.

The source adds, "Some execs are weirded out to do a show about food and nutrition with the Olsens."

A representative for the pair has hit back saying, "There's no truth to people being scared to work with them. They're healthy and fine." [The twins' regular publicist is Michael Pagnotta].

###

Yes, Star Jones Reynolds has left The View - and another Media Feeding Frenzy begins --or---slooooow newz day - hit snooze button NOW

fox: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,201940,00.html jane hall, gabler, cal thomas, the usual suspects

MSNBC - just google it anywhere

###

Jossip editors, oh, where out thou NOW?

Good! SHAKE IT UP! Do we need new blood in the mix, or should we care?

FILE UNDER - mediabistro reports to the "insiders"

###

i need a martini, jerk! hurry up!

The "I can get sued" Dept. - No, I can't! Star Jones (already) on the comeback trail - not a publicity stunt - I AM THE VICTIM HERE

http://goodpublicitybadpublicity.blogspot.com/2006/07/star-jones-and-al-roker-rebuilding.html#links

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=FAB77296-31CF-4B4A-BE9C-B52F4A9C5ED6&f=00&fg=copy

Star Jones is the ultimate DIVA - love her, hate her, she is a S T A R. But now she is out of the closet - she 'fessed up to Al Roker on TODAY. Bigger than Larry King which was a benchwarmer. It was long segment -- Longer than "Hillary Clinton and the vast right wing conspiracy" (!) It will take one hell of a brand reshaping here, But Savvy Star is getting busy so she lands another gig NOW. She is taking the high road.

Hindsight is 20 - 15: Yes, she should have had the public join the journey at Day #1. Just a purely PR opine, natch. But this is a very good route. Confession to Al Roker. Good move. Apologized to viewers (ala DeGeneres) Better move. And if a "Medical Intervention" is the bypass, well, alrighty, then! (She and Al had the same doctors, after all). [By the way, I know Dr. Paul Lin personally--he almost did a re-do for me!]

Good luck, Mrs. Reynolds! Be ready: Barbara Walters will speak OUT sooner or later!

Abbe B., -92 now. Sans bypass and redo of a roux -n-y.

###

"The Obesity Tsunami": --or--REASONS for morbid obesity other than food are:

AFP: Chewing the fat: New theories on world's obesity pandemicJul 01 11:33 PM US/Eastern

Fatty hamburgers, sugar-laden sodas and a couch-potato lifestyle: these are the familiar villains in the crisis of obesity sweeping developed countries.

But what if they had been convicted without fair trial?

What if the global fat explosion had other causes?

What, for instance, if air conditioning or lack of sleep helped make you fat? Or what if obesity were caused by a microbe -- what if, bang, you caught an unlucky sneeze and this made you chub out?

These ideas challenge the mainstream view that the bulging waistlines of an advancing society can be overwhelmingly pinned to diet and lifestyle.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) last September warned that a billion people were overweight and obese, and the toll could rise to 1.5 billion by 2015, driven by low- and middle-income countries.

The WHO accepted there were "a number of factors" for this increase, but especially blamed "a global shift in diet towards increased energy, fat, salt and sugar intake, and a trend towards decreased physical activity due to the sedentary nature of modern work and transportation, and increasing urbanisation."

Some worry that this view is dangerously monolithic.

Writing on Tuesday in the International Journal of Obesity, a team of US public-health experts caution against focussing obsessively on the "Big Two" -- a slower lifestyle and modern food marketing.

"This has created a hegemony whereby the importance of the Big Two is accepted as established and other putative factors are not seriously explored," they say. "The result may be well-intentioned but ill-founded proposals for reducing obesity rates."

They contend the evidence against junk food, supersize-me portions and high-calorie corn syrup is "equivocal and largely circumstantial" and offer some intriguing ideas of their own for other drivers of the obesity tsunami.

Among them:

-- Industrial chemicals called endocrine disruptors that disturb metabolism, encouraging the formation of fat.

-- Giving up smoking: people who give up cigarettes very often gain weight.

-- Air conditioning, which establishes a comfortable temperature zone. In temperatures above this zone, people eat less. The rise in number of air-conditioned homes in the United States virtually mirrors the increase in the US obesity rate.

-- Fat people marry other fat people. These individuals may be genetically vulnerable to obesity, a trait that could handed on to their children.

Another hypothesis is that lack of sleep jolts the metabolic system into demanding doses of instant energy. SUGAR, ANYONE?

University of Chicago researcher Esra Tasali notes that waistlines in modern societies started to expand when people started to sleep less. Today, the "sleep deficit" is about two hours per night compared with 40 years ago.

In work unveiled at an obesity conference last October, Tasali recruited a group of healthy young adults and divided them into three groups. One group had eight hours' sleep; another had their sleep regime extended to 12 hours; and the third was limited to only four hours.

The sleep-deprived group swiftly developed cravings for high-calorie sweets, and their metabolisms were akin to those of diabetics.

Meanwhile, Nikhil Dhurandhar of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University believes obesity could be caused by a bug.

At least 10 different pathogens are known to cause obesity in animals, causing dramatic changes to the metabolic system so that more energy gets converted into fat.

Dhurandhar believes that something similar may happen among humans exposed to cousins of the common cold.

He tested the stored blood of 500 Americans and found that 30 percent of obese people had antibodies for Ad-36, an adenovirus which causes coughing, sneezing and cold-like symptoms.

Only 11 percent of people of normal body weight had this telltale of Ad-36 infection.
Dhurandhar stresses, though, that infection is likely to be only of a bouquet of causes for obesity.

"In 10 years, people may be able to walk into a clinic and be told that their obesity is due to X cause, such as genes, the endocrine system or pathogens. That may have a more productive outcome than a blanket treatment right now, (which) is not very successful."

Neville Rigby, of the European Association for the Study of Obesity, says that such unconventional views usually get a good hearing among scientists, for no one claims to have a monopoly of wisdom when it comes to this fast-growing disease.

"It's a very complex story, it's not a single issue," said Rigby. "But the overarching question is how much we consume and how much we burn."

Copyright AFP 2006

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Star Jones' star dimmed --OFF The View! 'being unlikable hurts my show' says Babs (NYT)

file under: I will need an entertainment lawyer if i post this dept.:

HighVizPR's getting good PR, dealing with bad PR: a case study approach: Star Jones' star dimmed - OFF the view! "Being Unlikable hurts my show", says Babs

uh-oh. I called it when rosie was announced!

DAMN! No cat fights over the roux-n-y!

###

-88 "HighViz P.R." for myself, or, I owe GOV Mike Huckabee (R-AK), a great BIG HOOAH!

a HIGHVIZ

Memorandum:
From: Abbe Buck[PR]
To Joe Quinn, Policy Director for State of Arkansas, Gov. Mike Huckabee
cc: (undisclosed recipients)

fyi* Hey, Joe, as you know, I was given a death sentence in August, 2005. I was told that if I did not lose some of my girth, I would be sentenced to a wheelchair. To me that equivalates DEATH. I potentially need a full (two) knee replacement and was too FAT to get one. On November 11, 2005 I gave up all SUGAR, FLOUR and REFINED FOOD cold turkey.

I simply did what GOV Mike Huckabee is doing, and will do it for the rest of my life. As Billy Sunday was a preacher in the 1920's, and as himself is an ordained minister, GOV Mike Huckabee is preaching the gospel, but instead of "give up drinking the demon rum" Mike Huckabee's approach of "Quit digging your grave with a Knife and Fork" is a need in our life and times. It can be a lethal addiction, everyday eating, because you/we, can put down the bottle! You see, food is our daily "fuel", like gassing up our cars!

You may not realize it, as large as I was/am, that one of the WORST ADDICTIONS that we, as a people are wired into in the USA is one of FOOD. TWO THIRDS of the US POPULATION are not my fellow alkies, or druggies, but my fellow food addicts, addicted to sugar and flour that lead to binge foods. Yes, like a junkie. Non non-sequiters needed saying 'junk food junkies'. It's all too true! I weighed 352 lbs tops.

Of course, being fat, in a wheelchair, as your "virtual sexy sounding PR gal", I could keep working for you (see www.highvizpr.com/washington_woman), but like Gov. Huckabee, as he and I turned the corner at 50, we would be lucky if our lifetime clocks kept ticking as we turned 51....52.....55....57......You see this could mean DEATH. Yes. OBESITY = lifetime illness. And OBESITY KILLS. Trust me on that.

I lost 88 lbs in 7 mos. I have 88 to go. Then I will stay there. No gastric bypass (Carnie Wilson, Al Roker and Star Jones, take note--YOU ARE STILL ADDICTED TO FOOD, kids - Carnie admits it, bless her) No hoodia (just another addiction - PILLS, ask Limbaugh--and he's fat again!) and alcohol....it is pure sugar, and refined food that will give you just as much a "kick" - just try a whole Tiramasu, babay!

For more on my story (Hey, Jim Bell/Today Show, you may finally want that interview - I would go one on one with Al Roker - you bet!), I can be reached at 1-800-380-2825. --Abbe Buck[PR]

Trackback at HighVizPR:
http://highvizpr.blogspot.com/2006/02/ap-governors-urge-change-in-our-eating.html

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The Real Arianna

www.maureenorth.com

Article at Maureen Orth site. Arianna gets it done. Mrs. Tim Russert knew her WHEN.

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HighVizPR = Politics = show-biz or how did Tony Snow get that job?

AbbeBuckPR -in the business of "High-Viz-Ability": [Groan Dept.] Connie Chung, Blow-torch singer for one night ONLY!

[Groan Dept.] Connie Chung, Blow-torch singer for one night ONLY!

nyt reports (LOL!)

Connie Chung, Torch Singer for a Night

By JACQUES STEINBERG - Published: June 20, 2006

Those who caught a glimpse over the weekend — either on television, or later on the Internet — of the torch song that Connie Chung warbled to mark the end of her short-lived program with Maury Povich on MSNBC, take note: She says she meant her performance to be a gag. [It was a great gag!]

Video: Connie Chung's Farewell (youtube.com)

"I sing off tune so perfectly," she said yesterday, "I just find it's a great way to capture the audience."

Ms. Chung, in a shimmering evening gown and long white gloves, slithered atop and around a grand piano while singing a version of Bob Hope's signature song, "Thanks for the Memory," in a style best described as evoking a tipsy Marilyn Monroe. At one point Ms. Chung even shook her behind at the camera. The lyrics — written by Lizz Winstead, co-creator of "The Daily Show" and executive producer ofMs.Chung's program — mostly made fun of Ms. Chung and her husband, Mr. Povich, whose own long-running talk show tends toward seamier material than did "Weekends With Maury & Connie."

A sampling of the lyrics: "This half a year flew by/My Maury, what a guy/Instead of asking, 'Who's the daddy?'/He could talk Dubai."

Asked if she had required a drink beforehand to get through lines like that, Ms. Chung, a former co-anchor of the "CBS Evening News," laughed, then said, "I should have had a drink before I went on."

Thanks in part to the Web site Youtube.com, clips of Ms. Chung's rendition have been rocketing through cyberspace. Not everyone, it seems, got the joke.

The media-centric Web site Gawker.com was reminded of something Dave Barry once wrote about Richard M. Nixon's resignation remarks — "a semicoherent speech about his mother that may well rank as the single most embarrassing moment in American history." The site then added, "The 37th president can finally rest in peace."

Did such barbs sting? "I always have a hard time with them," Ms. Chung said. "I decided what the heck?"

"Weekends with Maury & Connie" — a half-hour program in which the two hosts sought to comment on the news through analysis, point-counter-point and humor — was at least partly intended to counter the conventional wisdom about each of them, she said. "It showed Maury was a thinker, a reader, an intelligent news person," Ms. Chung said. "It showed, on my side, that I can have as much fun as anyone."

The show, which was broadcast for six months, on Saturday mornings at 10 (and rebroadcast throughout the weekend), never caught on with viewers, drawing an average audience of slightly more than 200,000 on Saturday mornings. The cable channel quietly noted its demise earlier this month.

Throughout her career Ms. Chung, 59, has periodically sought to show that she has a sense of humor about herself and her work. She was a frequent guest on David Letterman's late-night talk show, particularly when it was on NBC.

And this is hardly the first time she has sung off-key, as a gag, publicly. She once did so on "The View," serenading Barbara Walters after she announced her retirement from "20/20." And about a decade ago, she said, she did so at an awards dinner, crooning to Dan Rather (with whom she had been briefly, awkwardly paired on the evening news).

Of her singing, she gloated, "It makes Maury cringe."

###

--and in an off-key range of five keys, ALL OF US can cringe right with him, and my dogs can howl, too!

Connie, "we thank you, so much"

Love,

Abbe Buck, once a singer

###

Mrs. Maury Povich: When your ratings are that bad, and no one cares, do your own THANG!

This is still our Diva, our media babe. Katie Couric is one of a kind. Diane Sawyer ditto. Ann Coulter may take cheap shots at the 9-1-1- widows dressed in Dana Buckman drinking Moet, but Connie Chung is a drunken singing swan dive! BOOM! She bombs! Ann will too in a couple of books from now. We all do.

FILE UNDER HIGHVIZPR meets high camp, please!

And no, Bob Hope is NOT turning in his grave.

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2745632?htv=12

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Hang in there, Jer! SEE YOU ON LABOR DAY, BABY!

Checklist:

• Send flowers immediately
• Call Jerry's spokeswoman (publicist Candi Cazau).
• Do pro-bono stuff on 'net for Jerry and MD for Labor Day telethon
• Say prayers. He had a good run, and he did a lot of good, mania, depression or not. (((This manic depression is so common with us Jews and Italians, isn't it?)))

AP - Jerry Lewis Suffers 'Mild' Heart Attack - Jun 13 8:19 PM US/Eastern

LAS VEGAS- Comedian Jerry Lewis postponed a July engagement to perform live after suffering a heart attack Sunday that a casino spokeswoman described as "mild."

"At present, he is under hospital care and is expected to make a full recovery," said Candi Cazau, spokeswoman for the Orleans hotel-casino in Las Vegas, where Lewis was to perform July 13-16.

Lewis, 80, is also suffering from "a touch of pneumonia," Cazau said in a statement. A call to Lewis' manager, Claudia Marghilano, was not returned Tuesday.

Last week, a wise-cracking Lewis appeared healthy at a news conference in Las Vegas when he announced his first return to live performances in five years after a battle with pulmonary fibrosis, a crippling lung ailment.

He also appeared at a roasting as abbot of the Friars Club in New York on Friday, with fellow comedian Robert Klein and the Amazing Kreskin in attendance.

Lewis announced last week that he planned to direct a version of his hit 1963 comedy, "The Nutty Professor," as a musical on Broadway by October 2008.

Those plans have not changed, said executive producer Ned McLeod of The Michael Andrew Company, which bought the rights to develop the show in March.

"We support and will be by Jerry on any health issue that comes up for him as well as he would for me or Michael," McLeod said. "It's not going to affect us."

###

((((Life goes on. Jer is 80. I willl be 50 tomorrow. Geez. So much for the 'new 30'!)))

"The girl can't help it!" or Stanley Bing tells us how to get "100 BULLSHIT media jobs" (AHAHAHAHAHA!!)

Excerpt: 100 Bullshit Jobs...And How to Get Them - www.mediabistro.com, (my home page!)

In his new book, Stanley Bing lays out just which media jobs are full of bull
By Stanley Bing – June 12, 2006

Agent
A:Talk on phone, take percentage
$$: Seven figures is not out of the ordinary, and the lunch action is astounding.
B: 54-172.
Skills Required: Shine people on or cut them dead, depending on the situation. One must possess a serious love of bullshit in all its many forms.
Duties: Make sure no client of yours ever takes it up the butt.
Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent. —Shakespeare
Famous Examples: Swifty Lazar, who will be remembered for his Oscar parties; Norman Brokaw and Lou Weiss of the William Morris Agency, who I believe knew Jolson; Binky Urban, whose name comes up more often in New York book chat than Proust's or Jerry McGuire.
How to Get It: To become a successful agent, all you need to do is get a foot in the door at the very lowest level and then show yourself to be a meat-eating barracuda from the get-go. A lot of agents, although not as many as in the past, come in through the mailroom. Others start as assistants and very quickly begin to take on unknown and marginal petitioners, one of whose success will immediately reap huge career gains. You don't have to be all that educated, either. Just smart. Or not. There are certainly a lot of stupid agents.

RELATED:Essay: Bullshit Media Jobs
I'm not currently represented. I'm with the William Morris Agency. —Larry Gelbart, to Johnny Carson

The Upside: Lots of people groveling as you eat your gravlax. A sense of achievement in the success of others, as long as you're getting a piece of it.
The Downside: People sucking on your face all day. And there comes a time when Steve doesn't seat you at the right table.
The Dark Side: You die alone and unmourned.
Where You Go From Here: Upward and upward into the stratosphere of the profession, where the lines blur between superagent and producer and lawyer.

--NEXT!

Book Editor
A.Take breakfast meeting with writers, assign ideas generated by others, hound writers for manuscripts, have lunch, hound writers for manuscripts, have drinks and dinner. Repeat as necessary.
$$: $16,000-$450,000, depending. The lower you are paid, the less bullshit your job is; conversely, the more you make, the more access you have to the highest, rocket-grade bullshit imaginable.
B: 15-104. What a range! Entry-level editors must rewrite and proofread manuscripts (like this one instance for), and field angry phone calls from authors and agents so that their bosses can talk to other people with bullshit jobs (see Best-Selling Author).
Skills Required: There are still some book editors around who actually mark up manuscripts, but the truly successful ones wouldn't risk inkstains on their Armani cuffs. The great ones operate in pure ideas and conjecture—like which to order for lunch at Michael's, the sweetbreads or the Cobb salad? Occasionally, they will weigh into the process by barking, "Where's my book?" The great book editor is at once a gifted salesperson, an arbiter of taste, a babysitter of lost souls, and a closet boulevardier. God bless them, both of them.
No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft. —H.G. Wells
Duties: Ability to "read" a 300-page book before lunch, while answering emails on his Blackberry.
Famous Example: Maxwell Perkins, a towering figure of the 1920s and '30s, whose aggressive yet thoughtful shaping of the great modern authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolf, hewed solid monuments of literature out of flaccit, egotistical lumps of prose. The fact that Maxwell Perkins existed has made it possible for generations of book editors who came after him to feel good about their profession.
How to Get It: Take a job for no money upon graduating from an Ivy League school; live at your parents' house for three years until you make a living wage; then inherit a best-selling exercise book from an editor who's left for a better bullshit job.
The Upside: Meet Oprah.
The Downside: You are seated with James Frey and Nan Talese at the PEN dinner.
The Dark Side: Must eat at Elaine's.
Where You Go From Here: Elaine's.
**
Celebrate the release of 100 Bullshit Jobs...And How to Get Them June 14 at mediabistro's next Edit Staff Party in New York

Stanley Bing is a columnist for Fortune and the author of a host of best-selling books, including What Would Machiavelli Do?, Throwing The Elephant, Sun Tzu Was A Sissy, Rome, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the First Multinational Corporation (Atlas Books) and most recently, the ground-breaking 100 Bullshit Jobs... And How To Get Them (Collins).

> Have a comment? Send a letter to the editor.> Read more in our archives
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Viva la Jerry! Third time is the charm AT THE FRIARS CLUB!

(AP) Jerry Lewis is used to making jokes. This summer, he'll bear the brunt of them.The legendary comedian will take his third turn suffering insults and slams _ all in good-natured fun, of course _ at a Friars Club celebrity roast on June 9, it was announced Thursday." Since I had nothing better to do, why not?" Lewis quipped.

Actor-comedian Richard Belzer will lead the roast, which will be presented at the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan.The 80-year-old Lewis, who earned fame in showbiz and respect through his prodigious fundraising for children with muscular dystrophy, was previously roasted in 1971 and 1986. He was also honored with Dean Martin in 1955 at a testimonial dinner.

One likely target roasters are expected to aim at is Lewis' renown popularity in France, where he has reached near godlike status."Once again, we're very proud to honor our Roastee, the comedic genius Jerry Lewis," said Freddie Roman, the club's dean. "We're happy to prove that 50 million Frenchmen can't be wrong."

On the Net: http://www.friarsclub.org/MMVI The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

FILE UNDER: Keeping up with the (religious) Jones' PR or Pat Robertson does media really stupid one more time!

"If this 700 Club guy can bench press 2000 lbs, I have tits like Pam Anderson." --Abbe Buck,HighVizPR

Nuff Said!

WONKETTE (written by a guy, but what the hell) STORY HERE

MY HighVizPR LINK HERE

###

HighVizPR's getting good PR, dealing with bad PR: a case study approach: I [Love!] Richard Edelman, SEE: EDELMAN PR - WSJ

The link to sister blog Good PR, Bad PR:

HighVizPR's getting good PR, dealing with bad PR: a case study approach: I [Love!] Richard Edelman, SEE: EDELMAN PR - WSJ


###

The current abbebuckpr sites - May, '06

HighViz PR My current working site - closing June 15th*
Good PR/Bad PR I [HEART] Richard Edelman was my last post.
HighViz PR - Politics = Show Biz!
Kilroy2005 (www.kilroy2005.blogspot.com)

and

AbbeBuck.com(vocals)

*( a long story--going a new path. Contact me for details.)

###

Tony Snow crosses to the other side

Show Biz and politics collide once again -- Tony Snow will be on Lou Dobbs - CNN today-- see www.cnnpipeline.com.

Tony Snow is non-biased, eh? Mmmmmhmmmm....Shedding his FNC skin and playing up the virtues of the BUSH PR MACHINE with Dibbs. How benign of him! Can Wolf Blitzer and Larry King be next up?

---Abbe Buck PR

###

The sad times of the Saginaw Chippewa

This was not what I had in mind when worked for GT Law for "Team Abramoff" clients. And in spite of the scandal, this did not have to happen, did it?

Washington, D.C. Former Abramoff tribal client not moving forward with school project
http://www.kbzk.com/Global/story.asp?S=4741034

April 8, 2006 12:48 PM EST

One of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's former tribal clients is severing ties to millions of dollars in federal aid he helped arrange.

Leaders of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan say they will not move forward with plans to build a school on the reservation.

The project received three (m) million dollars in funding from the federal government with help from Abramoff. The lobbyist pleaded guilty in a Justice Department corruption probe.

The tribe announced its decision yesterday in letters addressed to the four lawmakers who chair the Senate and House appropriations subcommittees that oversee the Interior Department. Senator Conrad Burns was among them.

Saginaw Tribal Chief Fred Cantu and Tribal Sub-Chief Tim Davis wrote that the tribal council voted against the construction, because it's -- quote -- "not financially prudent to pursue this project at this time."

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Page Six Editor Richard Johnson said, "I don't know anything about this. Sounds like horse-s*** to me. Call Howard Rubinstein"...

...only the BIGGEST PR MAN IN NEW YORK.

ny daily news:
The billionaire, the Post and the $220G shakedown
Page Six writer wanted $$$ to stop inaccurate coverage
ny times running front page story tomorrow!

PR NEWSWIRE
The Following Statement Was Issued by Michael Sitrick, a Spokesman for Ron Burkle, in Response to Media Inquiries

LOS ANGELES, April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- For more than a year, Mr. Burkle,
his attorneys and other representatives have been complaining to New York
Post editors, management and attorneys about the inaccurate items that have
appeared about him in the Post's Page Six column. After his
representatives' pleas produced no results, Mr. Burkle wrote a personal
letter to the Post's owner Rupert Murdoch. Mr. Burkle has repeatedly said
that he understands that a person might not always like what is written
about him, but that his complaints were not about unflattering items, but
false ones. Unfortunately, even his plea to Mr. Murdoch appeared to fall on
deaf ears.

Mr. Burkle said that while he has been asked not to discuss the details
of Mr. Stern's conversation with him -- because of the ongoing
investigation -- he did say that the story in the NY Daily News was
accurate and that he was shocked angered and saddened by what he heard.
"Corporate governance is not just for the boardrooms," Mr. Burkle said.
"It is also important in the newsrooms. I am a big believer in the fourth
estate. I feel strongly that honest, hardworking journalists make a major
contribution to a free society."

SOURCE Ron Burkle

Issuers of news releases and not PR Newswire are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Terms and conditions, including restrictions on redistribution, apply.

Copyright © 1996-document.write (thisYear);
2006 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved.
A United Business Media company.

###

Estee Lauder said that - and we mean it!

"I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard."

Estée Lauder (1908-2004)
American businesswoman

--->History Question: which department store became Estée Lauder's first big customer in 1948?

SAX FIFTH AVENUE!

###

Who controls the Main Stream Media (M S M)? And why should we care if we really like Coke Zero?

[Approximately] 118 people Control the "Mainstream Media". A research team at Sonoma State University has recently finished conducting a network analysis of the boards of directors of the ten big media organizations in the US. The team determined that only 118 people comprise the membership on the boards of director of the ten big media giants. This is a small enough group to fit in a moderate size university classroom. These 118 individuals in turn sit on the corporate boards of 288 national and international corporations. In fact, eight out of ten big media giants share common memberships on boards of directors with each other. NBC and the Washington Post both have board members who sit on Coca Cola and J. P. Morgan, while the Tribune Company, The New York Times and Gannett all have members who share a seat on Pepsi. It is kind of like one big happy family of interlocks and shared interests...

From Daily KOS: http://www.dailykos.com/story/20...6/27/23291/ 0890

###

And now for something completely -- different! Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds

Yes, this was the Ford Futuracar, which became the famous Batmobile. The production still and trailer are from "It Started with a Kiss" (1959)

Of course, after refreshing my memory of our own much more subtle “war”
with A.M.P.A.S. trying to secure a long overdue Oscar for Glenn Ford a couple years back, I suggested to Virgil that what he really needs is some well-orchestrated HighViz attention focused on this festering land-grab problem that the Keepers have fallen victim to. Perhaps if you have a chance to vacation in Vermont again this summer or fall, we could finally meet and give you the Grand Tour of the Keepers site so that you might see the possibilities for yourself first-hand that exist at the Keepers’ site in Rotterdam Junction.

The photo below is Anne Francis talking with Virgil January at the Keepers during the film festival at the Glove Theatre in June 2003.

Thanks for all of the favors past and future.

Tom

###

Now you've gone and done it! WMAL, you better prepare to duck and cover!

Mention was made on this morning's TODAY show regarding racial profiling and profiling any and ALL Muslims. This is incendiary. But it is also bosso-profundo HighVizPR -- ride the wave, baby!--[Bloomquist] -- but prepare for backlash.

Once again, from DCRTV's Dave Hughes:
http://www.dcrtv.org/rant.html

MALer Calls Islam "Terrorist Organization" - 7/26 - Michael Graham (above, right) has again gotten himself into hot water with area Muslims for comments he made on his late morning WMAL show. The DC-based Council On American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has asked the ABC-owned news talker to take disciplinary action against Graham, who repeatedly described Islam on the air as "a terrorist organization" that is "at war with America." According to the DC Post, WMAL Program Director Randall Bloomquist said Graham's comments were "amped up" but justified within the context of the program. And he said the station has no plans to reprimand Graham. "The problem is not extremism," Graham said on his show, according to both CAIR and the station. "The problem is Islam." CAIR denounced the comments as "hate-filled" and "Islamophobic" and asked its members to contact the station's advertisers to express their dismay. The Post-Democrat (as Graham calls it) adds that Bloomquist said he received more than 100 e-mails protesting Graham's comments. CAIR has made other complaints in the past year about Graham's on-air rants. WMAL is clearly enjoying the controversy - repeatedly hyping the story during Tuesday's "Grandy And Andy" morning show. More at cair-net.org and at wmal.com.

DCRTV's take is in our 7/26 Rant.....

###

Shameless AbbeBuckPR blogging - I sing. Really. I sing like a thrush.

www.abbebuck.com/amazon.html*

Chanteuse is the French term for a “girl singer”, “canary”, “thrush”, “warbler”,

“female vocalist” and in some cases, “Diva”, which is overrated and misunderstood….for more, see www.abbebuck.com

###

DRCTV.com is on-target - and David Burd is the best light commentator in town!

Buck's PR POV: Yes, I second DRCTV -- WMAL, just FIX IT. Randall Bloomquist, no matter how many hard-hitting marketing promos you have, content is still content. People get tired of the flutter and sputter of Fred Grandy's tired congressman jokes and Andy Parks' buffoonery. Plus, all of the local paid-for programming? No, thanks. You did lose a grand guy in the Burdman. And here's what Mort Sahl has to say about Sean Hannity: "Isn't it possible for them to get a real fascist instead of this guy who plays one on radio and TV?" So my dial is set to 107.7 again for Dave --and to XM Radio, to listen to television news. Go figure.

I do believe there is hope for Chris Core. He is warm, and a real guy. Has been for years.

Just my two cents -- the Buck stops here, too, ya know.

Abbe B.

---from WWW.DRCTV.COM

Rant - 7/23 - Another installment in my occasional "How I'd Fix" series. Well, after seeing the latest ratings and how far righty news talker WMAL continues to fall, let me offer some suggestions for rebuilding this once noble station.

First, fire Grandy and Andy. The morning show needs a complete makeover. Think young. Think female. Think ethnic. Sure, politics is fine. But make it more of a fair fight - righty AND lefty voices. And don't make it so shrill, so hackish and partisan.

If I was running MAL, I'd put late morning talker Michael Graham back on the bus to Richmond. There are smart conservatives and stupid conservatives. He's the latter. But, maybe if you paired him with an equally dopey liberal you'd be able to salvage the show.

Evening talker Chris Core is the best thing WMAL has going for it. And the station desperately needs to localize its afternoon drive. So, take Sean Hannity's last hour and move it to 8 PM, and start Core's local show at 5 PM.

And, please don't over "infomercialize" the weekends. Canning the weekend "morning news" and letting the brilliantly funny David Burd go to WTOP was a huge mistake(!)

Also, add more sports to the station's mix. Bid for the Nationals next season. The Orioles work well for Baltimore news talker WBAL.

Never forget - WMAL sits in the middle of a "blue state" zone, Democratic territory. Almost all of the DC area's major localities voted for John Kerry in the last election. If you want ratings - and respect - you simply can't alienate this core group of potential listeners. And that's exactly what WMAL has been doing.


###

AP: "The Sound and The Fury" -Updated from 1929 to Today, wins (faux) Faulkner Prize

ole Bill Faulkner would be proud. Have another tumbler of whiskey, old man.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050723/ap_en_mo/faux_faulkner

The characters take on a whole new dimension. They echo the current administration. Bush is now slow...in the head...and Saddam in Mississippi...

Only in America.


###

Sometimes you just need to take a donut break...

...and go to carbohydrate heaven - but it's all about the BRAND. It must be Krispy Kreme!

Oh, Krispy Kreme, I love you so.

Take the "challenge" and the box of the best donuts on the planet is on me!

###

PAGE SIX: Nicole was a Scientologist? Yes?

PAGE SIX.COM: July 18, 2005 -- DID Nicole Kidman become deeply immersed in Scientology before she became disenchanted and quit the quirky "religion"? Scientology insiders tell PAGE SIX Kidman didn't just "take a few courses" while married to ex-husband Tom Cruise, as was commonly assumed, but actually reached an elite level of the religion called "OT II" that only select Scientologists attain. The extent of Kidman's involvement was kept under wraps, our spies tell us, because Scientology elders worried it looked bad to have a public figure delve so deeply into the religion and suddenly bolt. Kidman's alleged disillusionment with the faith would explain her friction with Cruise over Scientology, which many people close to the couple blame for their 2001 divorce [among other things...] One major issue was whether the couple's two adopted children would be raised in the sci-fi-based religion — which seems to be happening. As we reported last week, 12-year-old Isabella Cruise has begun taking courses in the celeb-obsessed sect. [Nicole, save your children!] A rep for Kidman did not return calls.

###

Fly the friendly skies? Got any Topamax? Lexapro?

AP: Pilots Arrested for Disability Payments - [or - BUNCHA fake Section 8's up in the air, I reckon -- glad I wasn't behind that control panel--suppose one of those nutty fly guys flew over THE WHITE HOUSE!]

By KIM CURTIS, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 22 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO - Forty pilots were arrested after an investigation found they were licensed to fly but were receiving Social Security disability payments for a variety of illnesses, federal officials said.

The pilots, who include commercial and transport pilots, claimed to be medically fit to fly airplanes. However, they may have been flying with debilitating illnesses that should have kept them grounded, ranging from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to drug and alcohol addiction and heart conditions, said Marlon Cobar, a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's office in Fresno.

An 18-month review of 40,000 pilots in Northern California began in July 2003 as a
Homeland Security project to look into the fraudulent use of Social Security numbers.

When dozens of names turned up in both Social Security Administration and
Federal Aviation Administration rolls, "they realized there was probably criminal wrongdoing — either lying to the FAA or wrongfully receiving benefits," Cobar said.

The FAA immediately revoked 14 pilots' licenses and medical certificates, which are necessary to maintain a valid license, the U.S. attorney's office said. Others were referred for administrative revocation.

"We chose the most egregious," Cobar said Monday. "You can't really fly a plane if you're telling the Social Security Administration you have a disabling back condition or bipolar disorder."

Other pilots not yet charged were found to be lying about having illnesses in order to collect the Social Security payment, Cobar said.

FAA spokesman Donn Walker said it was unclear how many of the pilots flew for a living, but that at least a dozen of them held commercial or airline transport licenses.

Thirty pilots are charged with making false statements to a government agency, and 10 are charged with making and delivering a false official writing.
___
On the Net:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can

###

Danielle Iverson, Publicist: The Next Level

My story in Washington Woman must be very small potatoes compared to this. Ahhhhhh, I can dream, can't I?

Just doing that PR thing
Rebecca Eckler, National Post, Toronto

She spends over 900 minutes a month on her cellphone, but Danielle Iversen still calls the cab dispatcher 'Sweetie'

During the hour I spend with Danielle Iversen, at her home office in Yorkville, on the first day of the Toronto International Film Festival, her cellphone rings 17 times, her land line rings nine times, and the doorbell rings five times. I see that she has 50 e-mails waiting on her computer. I'm standing in her kitchen, and before I know it, I have three new party invitations in my hand. Iversen has lovingly -- if you can say that -- become known as the Lizzie Grubman of Toronto, a well-known publicity woman who not only publicizes people or their products, but organizes parties and events as well. [Ah, Yes, we all know our Lizzie!--Grubman is the famous New York publicist to the stars who was embroiled in scandal when she allegedly backed her SUV over a lineup of people waiting outside a nightclub in the Hamptons, and went to jail. Now bigger than ever! The celebrity publicist!]

Danielle Iversen, 31, will be throwing parties for everyone from Harry Rosen to Ron Jeremy (in the movie Porn Star) during the film festival.

"I've heard that Lizzie comparison a lot, especially since she's become that 'famous Lizzie.' Of course, I don't drive over people. I drive like Lizzie, though, which is aggressively. But I don't hit people."

At 31, Iversen is the type of person you want to hate. And not only because she is beautiful, blond and green-eyed, with a body to die for. ("I golf, play tennis, swim, but no aerobics. My life is my aerobics," she says.) When I first called her, asking to do a profile, she asked me to hold on the phone, for what seemed like half an hour. On her end, she was carrying on a conversation with someone else -- while they were having lunch.

When we meet, she's answering phones, putting on mascara, making me coffee, booking new clients, aiding present clients and, at one point, doing it all while running around in her bra. When she answers the door to greet me, my hair is a mess, and I'm wearing wrinkled clothes. Iversen tells me I look "fantastic." I know I look like crap. Still, I can't help but be pleased, even though, I'm sure, in Iversen's world, everyone looks "fantastic." Without knowing it, I start to smile at her compliment.

Damn, I think, this girl is good.

Iversen is the founder and head of her own company, called That PR Thing. On any given week, I'll receive at least five e-mail invites to parties thrown by Iversen. I find out I'm one of 1,500 people on her e-mail list.

"When people asked me what I do, I would always say, 'Oh, I do that PR thing.' So I decided to name my company that." [hear, hear viva la HighViz-ability!]

People like Iversen fascinate me. They're the type of people who can do a million and a half things at the same time. During the film festival, Iversen does three and a half million things at the same time.

While the rest of us can live happily with the three basic necessities -- food, clothing and shelter -- Iversen's three basic necessities are her Palm Pilot, her cellphone and her business cards. In fact, on the back of her front door is a reminder: "Danielle, before you leave, make sure you have your Palm Pilot, your cellphone, your business cards."

Iversen makes me laugh, telling me the story of how she got her latest cellphone, the newest one on the market from Nokia. "I went through so many cellphones. But I needed one that could vibrate, has call display, call waiting, all with a headset. I needed it all." [same here]

She talks "way over" the 900 minutes given to her a month. She has 5,000 names in her Palm Pilot, also the latest on the market.

And ... yet ... she ... never ... seems ... to ... get ... frazzled. Ever.

Lying on her made bed, featuring nine -- count 'em, nine -- pillows, are clothes from Danier leather (including a $595 black leather jacket). "They hired me for the film festival to get the word out on their product. Aren't they beautiful? I'm going to wear Danier all through the festival."

The phone rings ...

"Oh, I'd love to do it," she says into the receiver. "I have really great ideas already for it. I can do a really great party for you.

Home and Garden TV wants her to host a party. Iversen makes arrangements to talk with them next week and moves on.

"You don't understand who's coming to this party. Everybody," she says, handing me an invite to a party next week for Ron Jeremy, the subject of the movie Porn Star. "In an hour, over 100 people RSVP'd to me." She's doing the Harry Rosen and the Global TV parties during the film festival as well.

The phone rings again.

"Lunch? I'd love to. Where do we meet?"

The doorbell rings.

"Oh my God," she laughs. "It's the guy from Bruno's. Every year he sends me a fruit salad and cheese on the first day of the film festival."
Why? I ask, ready to give the delivery boy my address. I mean, I like fruit salad and cheese.

"Oh, when I was doing my first film festival, I ran in there like a madwoman for some food," she says. "So now he knows what it's like for me and just sends food over. Isn't he fantastic?"

We're waiting for a cab to come over to deliver a shirt from her dry cleaners. "Thanks, sweetie," she says into the phone.

"Uh, did you just say 'sweetie' to the cab dispatcher?" I ask.

She did. The thing about Iversen is that, through all her Hollywood lingo, she honestly means well. "I love helping people. I'll do anything for anybody."

I want to play a game with her just to see how plugged in she is.

"Can you get Kate Hudson's PR woman?" I ask.

"Yep."

"Can you get Eugene Levy's publicist?"

"Yep."

"Can you get Brad Pitt's publicist on the phone?"

"Yep."

"When was the last time you stayed in for a night with Roger -- meaning Rogers Video?" I couldn't help but ask her.

"Probably about three months ago," she says. "I got home at 2 a.m. last night, which is early during the film festival. Usually I don't get home until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m."

As I'm leaving her home, I look into her red Jetta parked in her driveway.

"Do you know what colour that car is?" she calls out. "It's called Tornado Red. Like me."

[And to think I drive a green Jag X - LOL!]

###

NYT: EPA allowing ghostwriters and PR - why not?

NYT PR NEWS: PR Campaign for EPA includes ghostwriting articles - business as usual(?)

Public Relations Campaign for Research Office at E.P.A. Includes Ghostwriting Articles

The New York Times
By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: July 18, 2005

WASHINGTON, July 17 - The Office of Research and Development at the Environmental Protection Agency is seeking outside public relations consultants, to be paid up to $5 million over five years, to polish its Web site, organize focus groups on how to buff the office's image and ghostwrite articles "for publication in scholarly journals and magazines."

The strategy, laid out in a May 26 exploratory proposal notice and further defined in two recently awarded public relations contracts totaling $150,000, includes writing and placing "good stories" about the E.P.A.'s research office in consumer and trade publications.

The contracts were awarded just months after the Bush administration came under scrutiny for its public relations policies. In some cases payments were made to columnists, including Armstrong Williams, who promoted the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind and received an undisclosed $240,000. In January, President Bush publicly abandoned this practice.The governmentwide public relations strategies, however, continue to include the preparation of TV-ready news reports on government policies.

An E.P.A. spokeswoman said over the weekend that the effort to raise the profile of the agency's research had a worthwhile goal: calling attention to the work of 1,900 scientists and staff members. Noting that the office's annual budget is $600 million, the spokeswoman, Eryn Witcher, said, "We would like to use less than 1 percent of that to make information accessible to the public."Three similar contracts - one of which was abandoned, the agency said - and the broader $5 million proposal were provided to The New York Times by the environmental group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Its director, Jeff Ruch, said he had received them from an agency employee who believed that research money was being inappropriately diverted to a public relations campaign."The idea that they would take limited science dollars and spend them on P.R. is not only ill advised, it's just plain stupid," Mr. Ruch said in an interview.Ms. Witcher responded: "It's not spending money on communications at the expense of research but rather in support of it. This allows the results of E.P.A. research to be shared with the general public."While the scope of the exploratory proposal is new, Ms. Witcher said, the two smaller contracts "are standard. It's standard to get more help with skills that folks don't have. It's very common throughout the entire federal government."One of the smaller contracts asks the contractor to "develop feature article research and strategy" and to "write the strategy to support a new unit that will be identifying feature story ideas, creating slant, identifying consumer magazines to target and polishing the final article."That contract, for feature articles, was awarded to JDG Communications of Falls Church, Va., for $65,692.62, Ms. Witcher said.

The second smaller contract was also awarded to JDG Communications, for $85,829.06. It calls on the contractor to develop two "perception specific indicators" that "must show whether public relations efforts to create awareness and improve the reputation of E.P.A.'s research and development, its labs and its top-quality scientists has favorably influenced public perception."The more extensive and expensive plan seeks help from public relations agencies to, among other things, "provide research, writing and editing of Office of Research and Development articles for publications in scholarly journals and magazines."

Donald Kennedy, the editor of Science magazine and a former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said in a telephone interview on Saturday that he found the idea of public relations firms ghostwriting for government scientists "appalling."

"If we knew that it had been written by someone who was not a scientist and submitted as though it were the work of a scientist, we wouldn't take it," Mr. Kennedy said. "But it's conceivable that we wouldn't know, if it was carefully constructed."He added that the practice of putting public relations polish on scientific work has already been practiced by industry. "We had seen it coming in the pharmaceutical industry and were sort of wary about it," he said. "The idea that a government agency would feel the necessity to do this is doubly troubling."Speaking of ghostwriting, Mr. Kennedy said: "If the ghostwriting is the kind of ghostwriting that most of the good mentors I knew did with Ph.D. students on first paper, it could be a good thing. But I sincerely doubt if any for-profit P.R. firm hired in the interest of improving a scientific publication is going to be the right person to do that."

The contract for assessing the office's image states that the public relations research data "will also be used to show E.P.A.'s relative position with its competitors." The contract's list of competitors included the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, private industry and academia.Mr. Ruch, of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, suggested that the notion of a government science agency having competitors might reflect an increasing push across the government to solicit outside support, often from industry, for federal scientific research.

But Ms. Witcher of the environmental agency rejected that hypothesis, saying that the other federal agencies mentioned in that contract were not thought of as competitors. "They are looking at other federal agencies that also do science and research to see how they are communicating to the public," she said.As for the issue of ghostwriting for journals, she said:

"Nothing's been done. Nothing's been awarded. What they envisioned is looking at this very technical" material presented by scientists and making it accessible to laymen. The ghostwriters, should they ever be hired, she said, "can't make up the material. They are taking scientists' work and making it more understandable."

[--isn't this part of our job, as publicists, as writers(?)]

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