Smart Mouth: Guy And Madonna’s Celebrity Bazaar
“MADONNA & Guy – the inside story of the scoop of the year,” says the Independent’s front-page headline. Inside and the paper that didn’t get this scoop or any other scoop is in conversation with the Sun’s Gordon Smart, PR to the stars.
Says Smart:
“I felt that a lot of the showbiz columns had become incredibly bitchy, they were dominated by gur-rls… I thought it was time to do it differently. I was quite keen to write positive copy as well, I felt that people were unnecessarily negative.”
Positive copy about stars is known as ‘PR’. Tales of so-and-so’s new wonderful film, this one’s terrific new tour and whathisname’s amaaayzing new song are Smart’s stock in trade.
Every day Smart fills page upon page upon page upon page of copy until a genuine story breaks, like, say, a celebrity divorce or Lily Allen’s new shoes. Says Smart of the puff piece:
“It works a treat. If you can champion a film, actor or a band they will really look out for you. People realise I’m not a vindictive person and will respect off-the-record conversations. Long term, I think a lot more is going to come your way and it’s certainly easier to look into people’s eyes the next time you see them rather than staring at your shoes feeling guilty for stitching them up.”
So better to stare at Lily Allen’s shoes. Smart puts in the hard yards plugging the star’s new song, new book, new shoes, and then once you’ve told readers how Guy Ritchie’s new film is stunning, amayzing, bwilliant, the phone rings and you scream at the top of your voice:
“Madonna: Guy’s a Gold-Digger“. It’s a “World Exclusive by Gordon Smart, Bizarre Editor“. Madonna has told a pal “he wants to take, take, take“.
But Smart only wants to give. In today’s page Smart shows readers a picture of Madonna cradling her three children, and tells us:
Meanwhile, movie director Guy has been up in Manchester filming scenes for his latest flick, Sherlock Holmes, starring ROBERT DOWNEY JR and JUDE LAW.
That’s S.H.E.R.L.O.C.K. H.O.L.M.E.S. Indeed, it’s elementary PR, my dear Smart.
And that’s an Anorak scoop…
Posted: 27th, October 2008 | In: Reviews Comments (5) | TrackBack | Permalink
