Author "Sweet Smell of Success" dies, leaves movie as legacy!

Ernest Lehman: In Memoriam. 1915-2005

What a good run he had. He won the honorary Oscar a few years ago, well deserved. (((Glenn Ford really needs to get this award while he is still with us!))) Ernest Lehman wrote the screen adaptations for "Sabrina", "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf" and "Hello, Dolly!", but I will always remember "The Sweet Smell of Success", the best damn movie Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster ever made! What an inspiration!

He became a freelance writer, and his first sale was a profile of entertainer Ted Lewis to Colliers magazine. Freelancing was, he claimed, a "very nervous way to make a living," so Lehman went to work writing copy for a publicity firm specializing in theatrical productions and celebrities.

That experience later informed 1957's "The Sweet Smell of Success," which he scripted with Clifford Odets based on one of Lehman's novellas, "Tell Me About It Tomorrow." Starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, the movie focused on the relationship between a powerful gossip columnist and an unscrupulous press agent and has come to be considered a classic dissection of the underside of show business. In 2002, it served as the basis for a Broadway musical.

[Reuters]

###

SOON to be yet another TV Movie --or -- Whatever happened to the "good samaritan" in these united states? There ought to be a law -- against cops!

Grrrrrrr -- makes my blood boil, too ! from the goodpr_badpr web blog:

YOU CANNOT BE A GOOD JOHN Q. PUBLIC CITIZEN ANYMORE --

Why am I posting this? It's personal with me. To the AP it's National. To the average citizen, it will be yet another reasson NOT to get involved but get nmore self-involved and go into their own "reality" *(or, yes, make that sub-non-reality) shows. Move over, Andy Warhol, here come Mister and Missus Nutz! NEXT: TV Movie - Police VS Citizens of Texas, on the USA Network!

----------------------------------------------------

AP: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue

Dave Newman, 48, disobeyed repeated orders by emergency personnel to leave the water, police said. He was charged with interfering with public duties.

"I was amazed," Newman said Monday after his release on $2,000 bail. "I had a very uncomfortable night after saving that guy's life. He thanked me for it in front of the police, and then they took me to jail.

"Abed Duamni, 35, of Houston, said he had just finished eating at a restaurant Sunday when he decided to go for a swim in a nearby river. Duamni said he didn't see any signs warning swimmers of dangerous currents.Newman said he pulled Duamni out of the water, swimming under a waterfall and over to the shore opposite from the restaurant. He could hear law enforcement personnel telling him to come back to the other side.

According to police, Newman smirked and seemed annoyed by officers' requests. He stood in the water for about 15 seconds before swimming downstream."When he came across the river, the officer stuck out his hand like he's going to help him out of the water, and he put cuffs on him," said John Parnell, pastor of St. Augustine Old Roman Catholic Church in Fort Worth.

###

There may be a method to his madness - Spielberg and Cruise teamup, W O T W, makes 113 Million at the Boxoffice, Movie is # 1!

Cartoon courtesy of T-ShirtHumor.com - [Eating crow for not admitting Cruise trying to crazily think out of the "on message" box -- pass the tabasco, please!] As for Mission Impossible #3, Tune in Tomorrow....

###

TVWeek.com - enough already! TOO MANY "stars"? No, not for us!

{{{Come on, you love it, don't you? Admit it! ESCAPISM! Live vicariously - no, wait, YOU can be the diva!}}}

Blinded by the Star 'Lite' - TOM SHALES
One of our celebrities is missing! Call out the Botox-sniffing dogs! Or maybe the cocaine-sniffing dogs, though they tend to get distracted and forget about the assignment at hand. The truth is-can you handle the truth?-we can actually afford to let a star or two, or three or four or more, go missing, because we have too darn many as it is.

###

I am a publicist, I am not a magician! But is a journalist a blogger?

Reporters Eye Blogs
Published: June 27, 2005

A new study shows that while journalists may not see blogs as highly credible, they read them.

Most journalists use blogs to do their work, even though only 1% believe blogs are credible, according to a survey by Euro RSCG Magnet done in partnership with Columbia University.

The study finds that more than half of journalists use Weblogs regularly, with 28% relying on them for day-to-day reporting. By comparison, the Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that only 5% of the online population reads blogs regularly.

"The findings of the study validate what we have known for some time: that blogs are playing a more significant role in the way information is transmitted to readers and journalists alike, and may profoundly alter the media and communications landscapes," said Aaron Kwittken, CEO of Euro RSCG Magnet. "The fact that the media are using blogs for reporting and research also demonstrates that blogs have an enormous potential to not only influence the general public, but to influence the influencers — journalists and the media — as well."

The study finds that some 70% of journalists who use blogs do so for work-related tasks. Most often, those work-related tasks involve finding story ideas, with 53% of journalist respondents reporting using blogs for such purposes. But respondents also turn to blogs for other uses, including researching and referencing facts (43%) and finding sources (36%). Fully 33% of journalists say they use blogs as a way of uncovering breaking news or scandals.

"As blogs continue to gain in popularity, quality and influence, it is becoming imperative that journalists and journalism students continue to integrate blogs, especially blogs that cover technology, into their reporting practices," said Steven S. Ross, associate professor at Columbia University and a partner in the study.

Although many journalists use blogs, few post to blogs or publish their own. The report noted that such activities might be seen as compromising a journalist's objectivity and credibility — not to mention that reporters are paid to write, so writing for free might not be a good career choice.

Other highlights of the study include:

> 45% of journalists are less trusting of the professional behavior of their own colleagues — up from 34% in 2003.

> 93% note that they are less trusting of colleagues who are paid to act as spokespeople.

> 79% believe that recent revelations about journalists taking payment from third parties has had a strong effect on media credibility.

> 78% believe that Rathergate has profoundly altered the media's credibility.

> 93% of journalists said they are being "excruciatingly careful" in fact-checking their stories in 2005 — a huge increase from 59% in 2003, likely a reflection of the press's declining credibility.

Journalists agreed that Weblogs have a healthy future in the coming year for spreading information on the corporate level and functioning as watchdogs: 68% of them say blogs will become a more popular tool for corporations seeking to inform consumers, while 56% agree that blogs will remain an independent and unorthodox means of disseminating information.

For an in-depth look at how blogs are being used by corporate America, read eMarketer's The Business of Blogging report.

###

PAGE SIX: 4 little words - some things should never change

.

SAVE THE PLAZA HOTEL

.

The battle over the landmark Plaza Hotel isn't over quite yet.

..

The son of the late cosmetics queen Estee Lauder wrote an impassioned column last week stating his fear that the hotel will go the way of the old Penn Station, the McKim, Mead & White masterpiece demolished 44 years ago.

.

A rep for Lauder said: "We want transparency, we want to see the plans and we want adequate opportunity to review their designs for the future of the Plaza before changes are instituted that will kill this grand hotel."

###

Cannes: those gueriila paparazzi! Divas love them (come on, admit it!)

Reuters - Mon Jun 27,11:38 AM ET
They're cursed at, knocked down and have objects thrown at them. They're loathed by their subjects. Yet the demand for the photos they shoot is stronger than ever. Welcome to the world of the paparazzi: the guerrilla-like photographers who will go to any length -- from renting a helicopter to dressing up like a llama -- to get the 'money shot' like those rare, candid pictures of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt frolicking on a Kenya beach that fed on the public's obsession with the stars and sold for an estimated $500,000.
Press photographers work during a photocall for the film 'Lemming' in Cannes in this May 11, 2005 file photo. (Eric Gaillard/Reuters)

NYT: Frank Rich and the State of Public Broadcasting - just give PBS, NPR and CPB a frontal lobotomy, that should do it!

.
Op-Ed Columnist
The Armstrong Williams NewsHour
By FRANK RICH
Published: June 26, 2005

HERE'S the difference between this year's battle over public broadcasting and the one that blew up in Newt Gingrich's face a decade ago: this one isn't really about the survival of public broadcasting. So don't be distracted by any premature obituaries for Big Bird. Far from being an endangered species, he's the ornithological equivalent of a red herring.

Let's not forget that Laura Bush has made a fetish of glomming onto popular "Sesame Street" characters in photo-ops. Polls consistently attest to the popular support for public broadcasting, while Congress is in a race to the bottom with Michael Jackson. Big Bird will once again smite the politicians - as long as he isn't caught consorting with lesbians.

That doesn't mean the right's new assault on public broadcasting is toothless, far from it. But this time the game is far more insidious and ingenious. The intent is not to kill off PBS and NPR but to castrate them by quietly annexing their news and public affairs operations to the larger state propaganda machine that the Bush White House has been steadily constructing at taxpayers' expense. If you liked the fake government news videos that ended up on local stations - or thrilled to the "journalism" of Armstrong Williams and other columnists who were covertly paid to promote administration policies - you'll love the brave new world this crowd envisions for public TV and radio.

There's only one obstacle standing in the way of the coup. Like Richard Nixon, another president who tried to subvert public broadcasting in his war to silence critical news media, our current president may be letting hubris get the best of him. His minions are giving any investigative reporters left in Washington a fresh incentive to follow the money.
That money is not the $100 million that the House still threatens to hack out of public broadcasting's various budgets. Like the theoretical demise of Big Bird, this funding tug-of-war is a smoke screen that deflects attention from the real story. Look instead at the seemingly paltry $14,170 that, as Stephen Labaton of The New York Times reported on June 16, found its way to a mysterious recipient in Indiana named Fred Mann. Mr. Labaton learned that in 2004 Kenneth Tomlinson, the Karl Rove pal who is chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, clandestinely paid this sum to Mr. Mann to monitor his PBS bête noire, Bill Moyers's "Now."

Now, why would Mr. Tomlinson pay for information that any half-sentient viewer could track with TiVo? Why would he hire someone in Indiana? Why would he keep this contract a secret from his own board? Why, when a reporter exposed his secret, would he try to cover it up by falsely maintaining in a letter to an inquiring member of the Senate, Byron Dorgan, that another CPB executive had "approved and signed" the Mann contract when he had signed it himself? If there's a news story that can be likened to the "third-rate burglary," the canary in the coal mine that invited greater scrutiny of the Nixon administration's darkest ambitions, this strange little sideshow could be it.

After Mr. Labaton's first report, Senator Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, called Mr. Tomlinson demanding to see the "product" Mr. Mann had provided for his $14,170 payday. Mr. Tomlinson sent the senator some 50 pages of "raw data." Sifting through those pages when we spoke by phone last week, Mr. Dorgan said it wasn't merely Mr. Moyers's show that was monitored but also the programs of Tavis Smiley and NPR's Diane Rehm.

Their guests were rated either L for liberal or C for conservative, and "anti-administration" was affixed to any segment raising questions about the Bush presidency. Thus was the conservative Republican Senator Chuck Hagel given the same L as Bill Clinton simply because he expressed doubts about Iraq in a discussion mainly devoted to praising Ronald Reagan. Three of The Washington Post's star beat reporters (none of whom covers the White House or politics or writes opinion pieces) were similarly singled out simply for doing their job as journalists by asking questions about administration policies.

"It's pretty scary stuff to judge media, particularly public media, by whether it's pro or anti the president," Senator Dorgan said. "It's unbelievable."

Not from this gang. Mr. Mann was hardly chosen by chance to assemble what smells like the rough draft of a blacklist. He long worked for a right-wing outfit called the National Journalism Center, whose director, M. Stanton Evans, is writing his own Ann Coulteresque book to ameliorate the reputation of Joe McCarthy. What we don't know is whether the 50 pages handed over to Senator Dorgan is all there is to it, or how many other "monitors" may be out there compiling potential blacklists or Nixonian enemies lists on the taxpayers' dime

We do know that it's standard practice for this administration to purge and punish dissenters and opponents - whether it's those in the Pentagon who criticized Donald Rumsfeld's low troop allotments for Iraq or lobbying firms on K Street that don't hire Tom DeLay cronies. We also know that Mr. Mann's highly ideological pedigree is typical of CPB hires during the Tomlinson reign.

Eric Boehlert of Salon discovered that one of the two public ombudsmen Mr. Tomlinson recruited in April to monitor the news broadcasts at PBS and NPR for objectivity, William Schulz, is a former writer for the radio broadcaster Fulton Lewis Jr., a notorious Joe McCarthy loyalist and slime artist. The Times reported that to provide "insights" into Conrad Burns, a Republican senator who supported public-broadcasting legislation that Mr. Tomlinson opposed, $10,000 was shelled out to Brian Darling, the G.O.P. operative who wrote the memo instructing Republicans to milk Terri Schiavo as "a great political issue."

Then, on Thursday, a Rove dream came true: Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, ascended to the CPB presidency. In her last job, as an assistant secretary of state, Ms. Harrison publicly praised the department's production of faux-news segments - she called them "good news" segments - promoting American success in Afghanistan and Iraq. As The Times reported in March, one of those fake news videos ended up being broadcast as real news on the Fox affiliate in Memphis.

Mr. Tomlinson has maintained that his goal at CPB is to strengthen public broadcasting by restoring "balance" and stamping out "liberal bias." But Mr. Moyers left "Now" six months ago. Mr. Tomlinson's real, not-so-hidden agenda is to enforce a conservative bias or, more specifically, a Bush bias. To this end, he has not only turned CPB into a full-service employment program for apparatchiks but also helped initiate "The Journal Editorial Report," the only public broadcasting show ever devoted to a single newspaper's editorial page, that of the zealously pro-Bush Wall Street Journal. Unlike Mr. Moyers's "Now" - which routinely balanced its host's liberalism with conservative guests like Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, Paul Gigot and Cal Thomas - The Journal's program does not include liberals of comparable stature.

THIS is all in keeping with Mr. Tomlinson's long career as a professional propagandist. During the Reagan administration he ran Voice of America. Then he moved on to edit Reader's Digest, where, according to Peter Canning's 1996 history of the magazine, "American Dreamers," he was rumored to be "a kind of 'Manchurian Candidate' " because of the ensuing spike in pro-C.I.A. spin in Digest articles. Today Mr. Tomlinson is chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal body that supervises all nonmilitary international United States propaganda outlets, Voice of America included. That the administration's foremost propagandist would also be chairman of the board of CPB, the very organization meant to shield public broadcasting from government interference, is astonishing. But perhaps no more so than a White House press secretary month after month turning for softball questions to "Jeff Gannon," a fake reporter for a fake news organization ultimately unmasked as a G.O.P. activist's propaganda site.

As the public broadcasting debate plays out, there will be the usual talk about how to wean it from federal subsidy and the usual complaints (which I share) about the redundancy, commerciality and declining quality of some PBS programming in a cable universe. But once Big Bird, like that White House Thanksgiving turkey, is again ritualistically saved from the chopping block and the Senate restores more of the House's budget cuts, the most crucial test of the damage will be what survives of public broadcasting's irreplaceable journalistic offerings.

Will monitors start harassing Jim Lehrer's "NewsHour," which Mr. Tomlinson trashed at a March 2004 State Department conference as a "tired and slowed down" also-ran to Shepard Smith's rat-a-tat-tat newscast at Fox News? Will "Frontline" still be taking on the tough investigations that network news no longer touches? Will the reportage on NPR be fearless or the victim of a subtle or not-so-subtle chilling effect instilled by Mr. Tomlinson and his powerful allies in high places?

Forget the pledge drive. What's most likely to save the independent voice of public broadcasting from these thugs is a rising chorus of Deep Throats [if they can make it in time before they lobotomize and dismantle PBS!]

###

So you wanna book a rock star? Anybody can -- if the price is right.

Want Madonna? The Rolling Stones? Tony Bennett? (just like in a movie cameo!) Now you, Joe Middle America, can have them all -- for BIG BUCK$$$$$ !

FORBES:
"...From a pure business sense--and they don't call it the "music business" for nothing--private gigs are win-win for entertainers. Tacking a private show or two onto regular tour stop doubles a destination's productivity--one night at the Gund Arena plus one night in some wealthy dentist's backyard equals two paychecks from Greater Cleveland. Also, they're a great way to recoup the exorbitant costs of mounting a major tour. "Artists like doing private gigs quite simply because they pay," says Barry Weisblatt, head of WhiteLeaf Entertainment Group, a New York-based boutique event production outfit. "From a financial standpoint, private gigs pay the bills and can help subsidize the cost of a tour...."

###

Don't bring Tinkerbell back! And I don't care who you are!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

from Today show blog:

June 22, 2005 4:15 p.m.
The poop on the pooch (Paris Hilton’s Tinker Bell, that is)
(---from Jennifer Long, “Today” show producer)

I knew I would get into Page Six someday but I was hoping it would be to announce my impending nuptials to George Clooney... (See the New York Post, “Paris’ Pooch Bites Producer”)

Here is the real poop, so to speak, and unfortunately, not nearly as dramatic - [more]

I###

Goodbye, Rev.Billy Graham

Newsweek: Point Man for the 'Kingdom'
Billy Graham's publicist thinks of marketing as his mission.

Thank you, Rev. Billy Graham. And thank you, PR man Larry Ross for taking care of him.

June 27 issue - So Moses turns for advice to his public-relations man as he's wondering how to cross the Red Sea, according to a story Larry Ross told in New York last week.

And the guy says, Here's what to do: stand at the water's edge and raise your staff, and the sea will part for you and then the Egyptians will all drown.

And Moses asks, Is that really going to work?

And the PR guy says, I don't know, but if it does, I can guarantee you two pages in the Old Testament.

The point being, behind every great man in history, there's a public-relations consultant spinning posterity on his behalf. That, in fact, is exactly Ross's preoccupation these days, as his longtime client, the 86-year-old evangelist Billy Graham, prepares to lay down his burden after more than six decades of preaching. Graham takes his crusade to New York City for three days this weekend, and has no plans beyond that; he has been invited to England in the fall but says he won't make up his mind until after the New York revival. Ross refers to his efforts for Graham as "reputation management," which means assuring he's remembered for the millions of people he has brought to Christ, for his reassuring presence at the side of presidents at times of crisis and not for any embarrassing things he might have said in casual banter with Richard Nixon.

[More]

###

Teen queen Lindsay Lohan goes diva route at Love Bug premiere

---first she fights the power paparazzi over banging up her Benz, which was a good thing -- and pow!--- her handlers shoved her into a ladies room at the premiere of "Love Bug Herbie: Fully Loaded" http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/lohanusatoday062105.html

"I was upset when I didn't hear my song ("First") during the race scene, where I originally thought it would be," Lohan said while signing autographs. "I was like, 'Whoaaa,' because nobody stays to hear the song in the closing credits."

"So I ran out."

"First" is especially important to her because "I recorded it right before I got sick (from exhaustion) and went to the hospital. And then I shot the video for it and re-sprained my ankle. I pushed myself to get it done for the movie when I probably should have waited."

###

The Runaway Bride is on Today - Katie Couric splits woman in two with ReganBooks

You will not read about Jennifer Wilbanks here, other than see her name, and that there are unhealthy relationships goin' on in that there southern family. Judith Regan can find someone to write the book for her.

###

There she goes...away? Is this Goodbye, Miss America? NO! WE MUST FIGHT FOR HER!

.
No date set for Miss Atlantic City. SEE: "a dateless Miss America"

What's next? Mr. Peanut? Miss Universe? Help me, there is no sense of tradition, no vaseline, not even in a one-piece bathing suit! This is sad.

Please save the Miss America Pageant! You can e-mail the pageant. Call them. We don't want to lose another one of our American institutions, do we? HELL, NO! Think about it this way: what if you could never drink another 7-up? What if you couldn't vote? What if there were no Sears stores?

fyi* just in case you want to get ACTIVE! Art McMasters is Acting President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Miss America Organization
E-MAIL: pr@missamerica.org
The Miss America Organization
Two Miss America Way,
Suite 1000
Atlantic City, NJ 08401
Phone 609-345-7571
Fax 609-347-6079
info@MissAmerica.org

###

Scarlett is NO Scientologist - MI-3 not for her

.
from the new Radar who wants to be "Spy" (smile)

http://www.radaronline.com/fresh-intelligence/2005/06/17/index.php#001291

###

"The Pelican" is staying "up the river"

.
LA Times: Investigator charged with conspiracy, threats against reporter.

(P.I. to the stars convicted of conspiracy charges. No more tapes for Steven Seagal. (Sorry, Budda Boy.)

###

This is NOT a Publicity STUNT - but it does involve stuntment and PR

.
--AND THEY ARE TAKIN' IT TO THE STREET -- IN AN OSCAR PROTEST!

Hollywood's stunt community will take the action to the doorstep of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Thursday in a bid to get a long-desired Oscar category for stunt coordinators.

[MORE]

The stunt groups say they have wide industry support including Screen Actors Guild president Melissa Gilbert, directors Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and actors Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

###

Paris out of the spotlight>? Paris, is your PR flack running out of ITEMS?

Dear Paris-the-Heiress: How can you dance between humble credibility marrying the other Paris, and being good girl so that Mom Kathy has a hit tee-vee show, then do the slut run amok sabre car wash dance for Carl Jr's burgers? I'm confused?

enough of my streaming conciousness:

NEWSWEEK: Paris Hilton Plans to Give Up Public Life
Monday June 13 (online edition)

Paris Hilton plans to give up public life for family life.

The 24-year-old hotel heiress, star of "The Simple Life" reality series, tells Newsweek magazine that when she was younger, "I thought it was cute to play a dumb blonde. On TV, I do it because it's funny. I consider myself a businesswoman and a brand." [she has that right. The dog, too! This is good.]

But Hilton says she plans to give up her public life in two years, by which time she expects to become a mother with her fiance, Paris Latsis.

"I don't enjoy going out anymore," she says in the June 20 issue of the magazine, on newsstands Monday. "It's such a pain. It's everyone saying, `Let's do a deal! Can I have a picture?' I'm just, like, `These people are such losers. I can't believe I used to love doing this.'"

Paris and her mother, Kathy, were the grand marshals Sunday at the Los Angeles Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual & Transgender Pride Parade. Kathy Hilton wore a large white hat; Paris wore a tiara.

Kathy Hilton's new NBC reality series, "I Want to Be a Hilton," in which she coaches 14 contestants in taste and etiquette, premieres June 21.

Newsweek says Kathy and her husband, Rick Hilton, didn't want their name on the show. "We thought it was too cheeky," Rick Hilton is quoted as saying. "It does sound a little obnoxious."

Kathy Hilton says a sex tape of Paris and an ex-boyfriend that became a cyberspace novelty taught her a lesson.

"Well, that was very painful. Very painful. Very painful," Kathy Hilton tells the magazine. "But it taught me that I really can't trust everybody."

The sex tape surfaced in 2003 just before the start of Paris' reality series. She has said she was embarrassed and humiliated that the tape ever became public.

[In my opinion, this is a steady publicity ploy. Paris is NOT going anywhere]

###

Mr. and Mrs. Smith is currently the Number One film in America

Hollywood Reporter: "Smith" on target with
$51 Million opening

Surprised? I'm not. These are smart people, at least, I believe from Pitt's vantage point they are (Angelina has had her moments). But Pitt is a smart man, as cool and unflappable as his character (the) assassin in this film. With a 60-page photo spread in "W" , to ""what affair?" , these are people, and those who "rep them" (Pitt's Publicist is the always top-notch Cindy Guagenti), who clearly know what they are doing, contradicting their relationship every step of the way, but this is control....leave your public wanting more! SEE: THR's Newsmags Take Note - Pitt may have a point:

Now let's go from great show-biz PR to entertainment publicity run amok: Tom Cruise getting married?(!) Let's see if this will sell tickets at the neighborhood multimplex. Speilberg or not, I am not buying. DVD's come out in less than 6 mos. I'll wait.

Watch for my HighVizPR case study "Cruise VS Pitt: Today's film stars in PR contrast"

In the meantime, I leave you with this bit of confirmation: THR: A Tale of two Publicists, on our sister blog HighViz PR's "GoodPR- Bad PR"


###

Do Tina Brown and I know eachother? Wow! This is great!

.
To reference why I am being so tongue 'n cheeky, please read this short paragraph, then track
back-track to something I posted a couple of days ago:

Post: Brad Pitt, Zen Master of the Tabloids - This man is a class act, playing the ABC Network
Link: http://abbebuckpr.blogspot.com/2005/06/brad-pitt-zen-master-of-tabloids-this.html

Tina Brown writes: "Could it be that it will take celebrities themselves to break out of the prevailing cultural coma? Brad Pitt cannily insisted with "Primetime" ABC producers that his few evasive sound bites on his private life came at the price of four long segments about hungry kids in Africa. It may just be a brilliant PR move to counteract dumping America's girl next door for a luscious femme fatale, but it could also be a small sign that obliviousness is getting old."

I urge anyone who reads this web log (all six of you), to please read Tina's latest column. This is why she is exactly where she is today, a known entity, respected too, and I know she knows our celebrity-sodden culture better than anyone.

Fame is no excuse for the Rest of Us, by Tina Brown

(c) Washington Post, June 9, 2005

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/08/AR2005060802551_pf.html

###