The Flack

This weblog attempts to shine a brighter light on the subtle role public relations plays in politics, culture, media, business and sports. Through greater transparency, the author hopes to make the profession better understood and perhaps more widely appreciated.

What if her nasty fall from the top of the celebrity wall actually helped her climb back to even greater heights? Guy Trebay, writing in The New York Times today, examines super-waif Kate Moss’s new-found luster following her notorious coke-snorting tumble that quickly permeated the world media.

Mr. Trebay astutely notes that Ms. Moss’s visit to celebrity purgatory was surprisingly short-lived, i.e., the incident happened just seven months ago. Today she enjoys unprecedented demand for lucrative new commercial assignments and glossy magazine spreads — much more than she (or anyone) could have imagined.

As I’ve opined on these pages previously, getting arrested perhaps should be just another gig orchestrated by an agent to help client accelerate a stalled career and then some. Certainly, today’s culture points up many examples of misbehaving syncophants who’ve reaped untold financial and career benefits from these periodic, anti-social setbacks. (Well maybe not everyone, Courtney and Whitney.)

In fact, I understand that Courtney, Lindsay and Kate are set to holiday together in Hawaii. Shades of Elvis in Hawaii ? Highly unlikely.

Posted in People, Kate Moss | 2 Comments »

The Road to Redemption

Posted by Peter Himler on 12th January 2006

 

Here is a five-step plan for mending a tainted reputation:

1) Find someone as famous as you for notoriously bad behavior

2) Go to a NYC strip club at 3AM, preferably one cited often in Page Six

3) Do shots of vodka and visit the ladies room with unusual frequency

4) Take lap dances at your table from silicone-endowed hostesses

5) Join your friend on “the pole” for a pied-a-deux to the delight of Scores of rabid Wall Street types

Top off the night by hurling an obscenity at the paparazzo who witnessed it all.
Continue to complain about how you’re (mis)quoted in Vanity Fair. Hey, Conde, how about another cover turn?


Posted in People, Lindsay Lohan, Kate Moss | No Comments »

Fame in 2006

Posted by Peter Himler on 2nd January 2006



So much for New Year’s resolutions. In addition to hoping for some semblance of sanity in Iraq, an end to the war on Americans’ privacy and livelihoods, and an improvement in our nation’s reputation abroad, I had hoped that the diviners of all that’s hip and trendy would temper the practice of elevating the infamous and scandal-plagued to renewed celebrity status. Early indications tell me it’s not to be. Bad behavior will continue to be rewarded with ample ink and airtime.

Following the anticipated career-ending coke-inducing newspaper cover shot, the style prognosticators at W, Vanity Fair and Italian Vogue deemed waif-model Kate Moss cover-worthy. Mary-Kate Olsen, whose child-star status was bulimically blighted by the bright lights of the big city, mugs on the January cover of W and, following a most public meltdown, Mariah Carey is in the midst of a spectacular career revival.

Could this be the trick to scaling new heights of fame, Martha? Get arrested. Appear in a viral porno film. Go anorexic. Get caught shoplifting. Crash your car. Bare your breast on the Super Bowl. Go crazy.

Americans love the comeback, and the editorial arbiters of this phenomenon provide the fuel for celebrity reignition. My first sense of this came many years ago when the late Mamas & Papas star John Phillips walked in to our office seeking PR help. He was facing jail time for cocaine possession, but had teamed with Dr. Mark Gold in New Jersey for a then experimental withdrawal treatment. His daughter Mackenzie had her own set of similar problems. Could we organize some interviews to demonstrate the earnestness of their respective drug rehabilitations? Sure thing.

Exclusive joint appearances on NBC “Today” and the cover of People magazine ensued, which ultimately led to the drug charges being dropped. The Phillips’ were back on the road to celebrity.

At last in Mariah’s case, she has a well-received artistic piece of work on which to re-build her career. Kate and Mary-Kate? Who needs to actually work when America’s editorial gatekeepers don’t seem to care?


Posted in Kate Moss, Olsen Twin, Mariah Carey | No Comments »

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