Cover Story — November / December 2012

Rules of the game

The sometimes nauseating, often fun, and always absurd life of a movie publicist

By Reid Rosefelt

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As a witness to the period and you in it, I liked your piece alot, Reid. Why is it that every preceding age becomes a golden one? All the folks you mention, with an exception here or there, were pretty straight shooting, classy folk, and make me-- if not long for the day--at least appreciate it more than perhaps I did at the time. Only one observation: that managed, targeted, hand-crafted, conceptual publicity that came out of PMK in the 80s and replaced the wheelbarrow variety has been since over-done and over-thought in its application by the grandkiddy publicists, who've learned the new rules but don't know what makes sense and what doesn't. It's very nearly turned into anti-publicity, as in how can we not publicize except to The Today Show (oh, whoops, they're over, so scratch them) and the NY Times (which is never over). And because it's all so tightly managed now, Viral is the Volf at the door--for good or verboten.

#1 Posted by Harlan Jacobson, CJR on Thu 1 Nov 2012 at 05:57 PM

Harlan, it means a lot to me that you liked my piece. I think the internet is not just the wolf at the door... it has devoured the door and the whole house. There was the age of the studio publicists who could invent anything they wanted and keep stuff out of the papers, followed by the pre-internet age I worked in, and there's now. .. The word snarky didn't exist back then and that kind of says it all.

#2 Posted by Reid Rosefelt, CJR on Sat 3 Nov 2012 at 11:58 AM

Great article Reid. I'll be passing on what you wrote about mystery and intrigue - mystery is at the heart of the creative process, and it's a relief to hear you encourage artists to value it. So many of my generation of artists are overwhelmed by the promotional demands of the era; I think it's because they feel a demand to be aggressively self-revealing. It's a lot more powerful to offer fascinating work, yet remain intriguing. Thanks for the sagacity!

#3 Posted by Zoe Greenberg, CJR on Sat 3 Nov 2012 at 08:39 PM

Thanks, Zoe. Revealing and not revealing might seem a paradox but I know you can navigate it. I hope you're well. Reid

#4 Posted by Reid Rosefelt, CJR on Tue 6 Nov 2012 at 04:07 PM

Reid, I remember dealing with you in your start-up office and how cool and indie you were, the anti-PMK (not that I didn't have some favorites there, like Ms. Smith). Journalists always appreciated publicists who were actually film-literate and not bullshit artists, and we knew damn well we weren't getting the whole story but were just trying to bring enough to the table that it wasn't a glorified press release. Part of why I ended up stopping was that access got so dwindly it didn't feel genuine.

Now the culture seems divided between people who tweet and do every magazine cover and people who don't do any, but I'm just not as interested in reading about them, maybe the mystery is gone or the artistry is too hard to accomplish in a town that makes fewer and fewer pieces of art.

I hadn't seen Lois in years but she remains enshrined in my heart as not just a great publicist but as one of the people who make working in or covering the business feel a little less grubby. never met Pat in all those years but you have painted such accurate portraits of everyone else I trust you. I remember Peggy letting me in to some screening with the proviso, "Are you gonna be NICE?" With daggers in her eyes. I remember nicer dealings with Catherine, Leslee Dart, Alan Einhorn, Mara Buxbaum, it was like its own studio.

I was ready for this piece to go on much longer -- I hope this is part of a book proposal.

#5 Posted by David Handelman, CJR on Sun 11 Nov 2012 at 08:49 PM

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