Ground Control To Major Tom

2005-06-29

Tom Cruise's recent public meltdown is certainly not news to most at this point, but what has fascinated me most about this development is that we've seen SO MUCH melting down.

In a town replete with egomaniacs, kooks, and those with tendencies for the unusual, it's rare that a celebrity removes all their clothes, so to speak, to allow us to see all the blemishes.

If you've ever wanted to know what it is that a Hollywood celebrity publicist does, I'll lay it out for you; very simply, they protect their clients from themselves.

When someone in Hollywood is unknown, they'll appear virtually anywhere, do any interview, get in any photograph to achieve stardom. But once they're famous, that publicist's job is to, more often than not, say NO. This helps keep the spotlight on the celebrity only as long as is necessary, and also helps shape the image in the best possible way.

As loathsome as most entertainment industry press agents are (and I speak from experience as I ran Rhino's PR department for 11 years and had to mingle with them frequently), they do serve a purpose. [note: Rhino's version of PR is quite different from that of Hollywood celebrity press, and to be fair, most music industry press people at the labels are actually very nice and on the up and up, I'm referring above to agency and celebrity publicists].

Tom Cruise was represented for years by a woman named Pat Kingsley who is very well known in Hollywood for zealously protecting the interests of her clients. For some reason unknown to me, Cruise fired her a little while ago and instead (here we go) hired his sister to oversee his PR. I know nothing about his sister, Leeanne Devette, but when I heard this I instantly had images of David St. Hubbins asking his girlfriend Jeanine to manage Spinal Tap after the band fired their longtime manager Ian Faith.

Publicists are by and large out and out liars, but when a star's career is on the line, they do help mask problems fostering longevity.

Tom Cruise did not become a wacko overnight. I submit that he's been a jingle bell for many years, but it's only now apparent just how good Pat Kingsley was at doing her job. Pat, I think you should consider raising your rates.


...On another topic, how is it that 15 senior executives at the Health South Corporation, including 5 former CFOs all pleaded guilty to crimes, but the one person who was innocent was their boss Richard Scrushy. I work for a large corporation and I can tell you that we can't spend a dime without someone knowing about it, let alone cook the books. This man is so OBVIOUSLY GUILTY that I can only come to the following conclusions: 1) we absolutely MUST re-think the jury system in this country as it clearly doesn't work. We're allowing morons to make serious decisions that they are clearly incapable of making, or 2) the state of Alabama must secede from the union.