..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

Puff Peace

William Goldman will likely have "nobody knows anything" etched onto his tombstone. I'm not convinced that observation about the people that run Hollywood is true, but I certainly appreciate where the sentiment derives.

Personally the phrase that continues to pop up when I speak about the town is: everything you know is wrong. Exemptions aside, this is one tiny universe where myth and reality are not separated by fuzzy borders - they dwell in the same house. And as someone once observed, if you repeat something often enough it becomes the truth.

One of those venerable old saws I like to kick around is the chestnut about there being no such thing as bad publicity. If people thought about it more than a second they'd realize it just isn't true and could probably provide a handful of instances where negative publicity had disastrous consequences.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Times ran a piece about publicist Bumble Ward dissolving her agency and devoting her time to writing novels. Apart from violating the old newsman's rule that you don't write about something that isn't happening - as in she's getting out not getting in - the article blathered on endlessly and one had to be very attentive to catch one tiny little nugget. Ward told the writer that observing the reigning grande dame of Hollywood publicity Pat Kingsley waiting on the red carpet to open the door of a limousine when a client pulled up filled her with horror. It was too much for her to consider doing the same thing when she got to be 72-years-old.

The image Ward painted is striking. However, it shouldn't be simply read as a senior still forced to kowtow to the misplaced ego of a performer often young enough to be a grand nephew. Kingsley doesn't have to do this sort of menial task, but chooses to rather than farm it out to a junior member of her staff. Part of her lives in the mortal fear that one of her brood will develop a personal relationship with a client and eventually whisk him/her away. It says a great deal about the climate of fear and, by implication, Ward's frustration that good work in itself is not rewarded. Talent needs to be stroked, cajoled, even brow beaten to stay within the fold because they all appear to have short memories.

The story also served to jog a memory of a vintage New Yorker cartoon I'm now sorry I didn't cut out of the magazine and paste on the wall. The drawing had three glasses of water lined up with each filled to the 50% level. Above the first glass was the word: Optimist and the caption beneath read: the glass is half full. The second was labeled Pessimist and below it said, the glass is half empty. The final glass was denoted as Publicist and that voice was: oh, my god, it's going to overflow, quick get me a mop; call the fire department …

The scribble provided an amusing cliché of talent wranglers. We've seen this sort of character in countless movies and sitcoms but it's just not the way reputable publicists handle themselves today or yesterday. The most effective publicists I've encountered over the years have been rather level headed about their jobs. They also invariably have great personalities _ warm, vibrant and indelible, rather like the people they manage or the executives they mingle with socially and professionally.

Some people are true artistes in the area of damage control but my closest associations have been with publicists that take a cold, hard look at a product - in this case a movie - and attempt to determine the best way to present it to the public. The best have an adroit sense of the balance necessary between underlining the cogent, serious elements of a film and the razzamatazz factor involved to get someone's attention.

They can somehow overcome the grim perception that if a movie doesn't work it's the publicist's fault and if it's a success, the film sold itself. It has about as much validity as actors making up the dialogue as they're working.

There are unquestionably instances in which luck does play a part in the launch of a movie. No one could have possibly predicted that Three Mile Island would occur just prior to the opening of The China Syndrome. The studio had fretted that the film's title would be too obscure and real events intervened to solve that dilemma and elevate the picture to front page status.

Similarly, the squabble between Michael Eisner and Harvey Weinstein about the distribution of Fahrenheit 9/11 just prior to the picture's debut at the Cannes Film Festival proved to be an unexpected godsend. Weinstein lost, the picture won the Palm d'Or and six weeks later opened in the U.S. to great controversy and box office.

Director Gurinder Chadha recently related how fate played a hand in the opening of Bend It Like Beckham. The titular soccer star, David Beckham, had agreed to show up for the world premiere in London and Chadha was elated that her small independent film would be guaranteed some celebrity status and attention in its initial exposure.

"He was playing a game the night before and was planning to drive down from Manchester in the morning," recalls Chadha. "I decided to watch the end of the game on the telly thinking he'd be in a a really good mood if the team won. Maybe five minutes before the end he got hit from behind and fell to the ground and I was horrified and was yelling 'get up, get up.' Then they came out with the stretcher and took him off the field and I was still thinking maybe it's not so bad."

The next morning Chadha received a phone call from a reporter asking her how she felt about the fact that Beckham had broken his leg and wouldn't be attending the premiere. The irony was that for the next two weeks the headlines were dotted with references to her film including such allusions as: Mend It Like Beckham and Break It Like Beckham. The circumstances of his non-appearance proved to be more of a boon than had he showed up for a couple of minutes for the paparazzi and catapulted the film to the top of the charts and one of the all-time British independent box office successes.

Conversely, timing can be a killer. Just prior to the opening of The People vs. Larry Flynt, Gloria Steinman wrote a damning piece on the real-life subject that opened the floodgates for negative attacks on the film for its omissions. Despite generally positive reviews the film was commercially hobbled and never recovered from the blow.

In similar fashion, a lawyer for Rueben "Hurricane" Carter deemed the film version of his life a fantasy. It cast a cloud over Hurricane that remained fixed no matter how strenuously others came to the picture's defense or how greatly Denzel Washington's performance was admired.

Happenstance cannot be ruled out nor can it be factored into the vitality of a movie. However, it's rarely the most significant element in the launch of a film.

There is a craft required in providing a positive and significant profile for the debut of a motion picture. It's orchestrated by people and involves hard work, thoughtfulness, invention and perspicacity. Recently, a producer's representative of a film nominated for an Oscar fretted that the film was in danger of missing out on an award's opportunity because the distributor had opted to coordinate the film's publicity around its theatrical launch and that was two weeks after the close of Academy Awards balloting.

The interviews had been done but the stories were being held. He felt (and I cannot disagree) they should run immediately and that it could possibly be a benefit in Oscar voting. The prospect of debuting an Oscar winner seemed a better scenario that just opening a nominee. But he felt his hands were tied and forcing the circumstance would be an act of brinkmanship.

There is another aspect to publicity that's more prevalent at this time of year than any other. It is - for lack of a better term - anti-publicity. Though no one is officially on staff at a studio to carry out this function, there's someone designated to disseminate disinformation or negative perspectives to counter the momentum of a picture perceived as a rival. In the high stakes arena known as the Oscars, there's a plentiful array of targets.

It's often unnecessary to wage a campaign in the media if one can sustain an effective assault on a grass roots level. A few well placed people at Academy screenings can get the ball rolling by milling around afterward, scratching their head and saying things like "I don't get all the fuss" or simply "I expected something better." The method is most effective when there's no clear frontrunner because the tactic appears less obviously directed. At the same time it's more difficult to gauge the result.

The more frontal approach would to be to attack the very essence of a picture and as with Larry Flynt or Hurricane that's easiest to do with fact based movies. In retrospect, considerable damage could have been heaped upon Schindler's List with a couple of well placed pieces that drew less flattering conclusions about Osker Schindler's motivations than the ones drawn in Thomas Keneally's book.

While there has been some dialogue about Finding Neverland's scant mention of author J.M. Barrie's alleged pedophilia, no one has stepped over the line to call the film a whitewash. Nor has there been an assault on The Aviator as painting a rosy portrait of Howard Hughes or Ray sidestepping Mr. Charles's womanizing and drug addiction. If there's been a campaign against Sideways as a glorification of alcoholism it's eluded me and any smears directed against Clint Eastwood as an activist for assisted suicide appear to have left no stain upon Million Dollar Baby.

Any of the above scenarios are still possible and, like a political campaign rife with dirty tricks, some canny publicist will earn his keep by riding herd on damage control or finding a way to obviate the situation with a counter-spin. In that regard Bumble Ward will be missed because she worked hard and intelligently for films and personal clients. But what were the rewards? The odd mention or a warm thank you.

The truth is that good publicity work isn't highly valued and most people in the industry that do the hiring see no reason to pay more than minimums. It's difficult to show its cause and effect on a graph or translate the value of a perfectly timed magazine article to ticket sales. Marketers are better at that sort of razzle dazzle and can equate a Super Bowl ad to asses in the seats. Perhaps the publicists need to hire a marketing firm to sell themselves.

- by Leonard Klady