Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe LOS ANGELES, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A recent power struggle between two of Hollywood's most powerful publicists offered outsiders a rare glimpse behind the entertainment industry curtain -- and a lesson in the ways in which the dream factory manages the images of its top stars. The firing of a veteran publicist by one of the industry's most powerful practitioners of the craft received extensive coverage in The New York Times and USA Today. Advertisement The incident may have gained event status because of its timing. It happened just as Hollywood's annual awards season was about to hit top speed -- a time when publicists are expected to earn their keep in the service of the top Oscar contenders. After all, Oscar gold can add -- by some estimates -- as much as $25 million to a picture's grosses. For actors and directors, an Academy Award is the gift that keeps on giving -- as Michael Caine once observed during an Oscar acceptance speech -- because it can drive up fees appreciably for actors, directors and other filmmakers. Advertisement When Pat Kingsley, 72, fired Leslee Dart, 50, from the public-relations company PMK/HBH -- a unit of Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. -- it touched off a round of musical chairs, with some of the firm's highly valued clients leaving Kingsley to follow Dart to her own firm. It is conceivable Kingsley may have anticipated that such clients as Martin Scorsese, Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicole Kidman would leave PMK/HBH to follow Dart -- but it is doubtful that's the result she had hoped for by cutting Dart loose. Despite the coverage the incident got in major papers, veteran Hollywood publicist Jane Ayer told United Press International that, in some respects, it was business as usual. "It has happened in the past, when someone leaves an agency and goes out to form their own company," she said. "The difference is that Pat Kingsley has always had the reputation of being 'the' agency to handle talent, and has had sort of a monopoly on talent." The dislocation that resulted from the Kingsley-Dart power struggle could have at least an indirect effect on the outcome of the Oscar race. Steve Pond -- the author of "The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards" -- said publicists have a relatively narrow window during which to operate during the awards season. Advertisement "The awards season, while sometimes it seems as if it lasts forever, is actually a short, concentrated period of time," he said. "Given that, the people are looking for absolutely every edge they can get. In a lot of cases, the main thing becomes getting a publicist who knows the territory, who has done it before." Given the fierce competition for Oscar gold, any publicist who doesn't have a full dance card from now until after the Academy Awards are handed out in February just isn't trying. The Kingsley-Dart affair also illustrates the growing power of the publicity community in Hollywood. Ayer said the publicity machine has always been there, going back to the days of the studio publicity departments. That dynamic gave way more than a generation ago to a new model, pioneered by such publicists as Warren Cowan -- whose Rogers & Cowan agency was one of the first to provide publicity for Hollywood professionals independent of the studios. "In the last 10 years the power of the other agencies, like PMK, has sprouted up -- and those agencies have gained a lot of power because they have been representing the superstars," said Ayer. Marty Kaplan, associate dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communications and Norman Lear Center, told USA Today the Kingsley-Dart incident is part of a new public awareness of behind-the-scenes image manipulation in the entertainment business. Advertisement "Publicity is becoming like politics," he said. "The spinners and handlers are getting more attention as the backstage mechanics, and people are realizing that fame isn't something that happens accidentally." As in politics, handlers control media access to their clients. Pond, who covered the Academy Awards for several years for Premiere magazine, said entertainment journalists face the same balancing act that confronts political reporters: to maintain ethical standards while at the same time playing ball with the people who can grant, or deny, access to the most desirable interview subjects. "You always find writers and editors complaining about how much influence publicists have," he said. "By the same token, they know that if you want Tom Cruise you've got no choice. You've got to go through the publicist." For all the prominence of the players involved, the Kingsley-Dart story is essentially just another change in a business that gets its energy from a constant process of reinvention. Ayer said that, to be effective, publicists need to keep abreast of changes in the media landscape and adapt nimbly to changing conditions. "You have to look at the media and look at trends and look at technology," she said. "You have to think ahead." Advertisement In the end, regardless of any other service publicists provide for their clients during the awards season, Ayer said there is no substitute for getting the largest number of people possible to see a movie, if it is to have any serious Oscar pretensions. "The work speaks for itself ultimately," she said. "You can pitch and pitch and pitch, but ultimately it's important to see the work." -- (Please send comments to [email protected].)
