Flight of the flacks
Studios' PR pressure cooker stirs turnover
David Lux last week left his job at 20th Century Fox, the third corporate-studio PR person to leave in the past six months, after Paul Pflug (Universal) and Stacey Ivers (Warner Bros).
It's a specialized job that few are qualified for, but often a thankless one that typically has a lot of turnover.
When one left a few years ago, the bosses asked for suggestions on who might fill the job. The flack's answer: "I can't think of anybody. There aren't many who understand this job, and those who do understand it don't want it."
Basically, the studio PR person is a weird hybrid, dealing with corporate issues, film openings, marketing, even awards campaigns.
That means they get pressure from all sides: studio execs, the press, filmmakers, even execs at other wings of the conglom.
As one says, "You try to keep some sort of integrity and piss off as few people as possible."
From the media point of view, these people who are friendly seem like either snakes or idiots.
Told that a story is going to run, it's either, "Look, this is not a story, why would you want to run this?" or, "This is way too premature to write about."
The studio PR exec is a rare breed because they're not really in the business of publicity; they're dealing with news.
Studios control the spin and timing of such things as the release of photos. So when a studio PR person tells an exec, "The newspaper wants an answer in 24 hours," the response is often, "Can you hold them off for six months?"
What puts the flacks in a bind is that many execs think they can dictate terms. One exec was so excited about a story, he told the flack he wanted to make sure it was on page 1, and to "make sure it's with a photo, in a shaded box."
As one flack says, "Everyone at the studio thinks they have the right to call you and complain."
There's a small coterie of people who have done this job. After a remarkable 10 years at Fox, Flo Grace is now at Sony, and Disney vet Andrea Marozas is now at WB. Then there's Heidi Trotta's three years at Disney (i.e., the record holder in a current job); Steve Elzer at Sony; and Janet Hill at Paramount (who's had a trial by fire in her first year).
