Company Town : Hollywood’s PR People : Stature Is on the Upswing, but the Big Paydays Aren’t
Susan Culley represents clients who are rich, famous and powerful.
And Culley? Well, she’s not famous, and she says she isn’t rich either. But she does have power. As a top Hollywood publicist, she controls media access to a handful of big film and TV stars, including Liam Neeson, Christian Slater and Courtney Cox.
To her, the challenge of the job is more thrilling than the power. “It’s not just about creating stars on magazine covers,” she says. “I do long-term career planning with my clients,” including strategizing about which interviews to grant and when.
The challenges don’t stop there, however. Despite the glamorous image, “it’s very difficult to make a living as a publicist,” she says.
Welcome to the paradoxical world of personal publicity.
Once scorned as obsequious flacks, Hollywood’s publicists have seen their clout soar in recent years with the explosion of entertainment journalism. As more magazines and TV shows compete for celebrity news, publicists have become important media gatekeepers, deciding whether and under what conditions reporters will gain access to the biggest stars.
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But behind the profession’s much-vaunted power lurks a tough business reality. Despite their enormous influence with studios and the media, personal publicists are generally paid far less than other professionals closest to stars.
While agents, managers and attorneys each take 5% to 15% of a star’s income, publicity firms typically work on a relatively modest monthly retainer of between $1,000 and $4,500 plus expenses; salaries for account executives in small firms start at a respectable but unglamorous $40,000 or so. Partners or principals can earn $100,000 or more--not a pittance, by any means, but well below the stratospheric salary levels enjoyed by top agents and lawyers.
Insiders cite a number of factors as contributing to the pay disparity, including a glut of publicists, the lack of specific entry-level credentials, frequent client defections to rival agencies and the intangible nature of publicity. Even publicists concede that their labors may not always yield easily quantifiable results.
Personal publicity “is a lot of work,” says Pat Kingsley, a founding partner of PMK, considered by many the most powerful firm in the industry, “but it’s not seen on a page somewhere. It’s like writing on the sky.”
Says Edward Margulies, a co-editor at Movieline magazine and himself a former publicist: “There’s no reason why 20% of stars’ earnings should go to someone who’s not attracting deals to them.”
The top publicity firms have diversified their business to include contracting with studios to help plug big pictures and handling corporate public relations.
Culley says her 5-year-old Los Angeles firm, for instance, has carved out a special niche by offering highly personalized service to a select group of clients. Because such an approach reduces volume without necessarily raising rates, she admits “it may not make great business sense.” Her firm has a staff of six and records annual revenue of $500,000 to $1 million, according to Culley.
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While movie star salaries have undergone eye-popping inflation over the last decade, publicity fees have increased only modestly during the period.
Comic actors Chris Farley and Jim Carrey have received $6 million and $20 million, respectively, for upcoming films. Those kinds of numbers can translate into instant wealth for any agent, manager or attorney who takes a percentage cut.
Says Stan Rosenfield, whose small Century City firm represents Robert DeNiro, Danny DeVito and John Goodman: “The problem with [monthly] fees is that we don’t always get raises. Agents always get their 10%. Would we like it [that way]? Of course.”
To be sure, publicists have it much better now than they used to. When studios ruled Hollywood before World War II, executives signed talent to exclusive contracts and in-house press agents generally took care of publicity. Gossip columnists such as Walter Winchell and Hedda Hopper had the upper hand because they controlled the few outlets devoted to entertainment news.
But publicists have since enjoyed a stunning reversal of fortune. After the breakup of the studio system in the 1950s, newly empowered stars began hiring their own publicists. Meanwhile, television surpassed newspapers as the mass medium of choice. A plethora of print and TV outlets now compete with one another for scoops, which has given personal publicists more power and more discretion.
One key change in their job function has to do with stars’ increasing desire to control publicity rather than to garner as much exposure as possible.
“When you get to a certain level, publicity is not about fame anymore,” says Howard Bragman, whose Beverly Hills firm represents Whoopi Goldberg and others. “It’s publicity with a purpose . . . crafting an image so the public sees you in a certain way.”
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Managers, who often influence actors to hire or fire publicists, say there are good reasons why public relations people don’t make as much as the other players on a star’s team.
Keith Addis, whose firm manages Goldberg, Richard Dreyfuss, Sting and others, notes that a publicist’s role in shaping a star’s career is important but limited.
“Publicists generally don’t read a lot of screenplays and don’t get involved in negotiations that lead to deals,” Addis notes.
Others cite intense competition that drives down prices. “The business is flooded with publicists, and they’re all fighting each other on price,” says Rosenfield.
But publicists are perhaps most at the mercy of their clients, who are often overwhelmed by outstretched palms at payday.
“There was a time in my life when I was making 25 cents on the dollar” after taxes and commissions, says “Melrose Place” co-star Doug Savant, who retains Bragman’s firm. “I’ve had [agents, managers and attorneys] work in my employ, and it’s kind of refreshing to have someone who isn’t looking to make a percentage of the overall” gross.
Kingsley says her firm has remained strong by keeping offices in both Los Angeles and New York and offering a wide range of services to corporate clients, such as Calvin Klein, as well as celebrities. PMK has about 140 clients and 40 workers, and though Kingsley refuses to discuss annual revenue, she says clients’ monthly billings start at $3,000 and climb as high as $8,000 for major clients.
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Marleah Leslie, a former producer at “Entertainment Tonight,” says she has exploited a niche by offering publicity for comic actors such as Carrey, Tim Allen and Roseanne.
Other publicists branch out into corporate public relations; Bragman estimates that at least two-thirds of his firm’s revenue stems from corporate work. Still others sign up to help promote big pictures, at $5,000 a month or more. But some studios, such as Disney, reportedly frown on the practice as an unnecessary expense and rely on in-house specialists.
If Culley wishes she had a bigger slice of the pie, she represents the view of many publicists that the virtues of their profession outweigh the drawbacks.
“This is not the cure for cancer,” she says. “I’m very lucky. People pay me for what I do.”
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Flack Facts
The power of personal publicists, sometimes referred to as flacks, has surged in recent years with the explosion of entertainment journalism. A few facts about the profession:
* Why they’re called flacks: Not all sources agree, but some dictionaries say the word derives from Gene Flack, a movie publicist in the 1930s.
* What they do: Build image and awareness of celebrity clients. This includes everything from pitching story ideas to reporters to holding the hand of a nervous star before a major TV appearance.
* What they earn: Many junior associates in Los Angeles firms make between $40,000 and $60,000 a year. Senior partners can earn $100,000 or more.
* What clients pay: Generally movie and TV stars pay between $1,500 and $4,500 a month, plus expenses. The biggest names may pay more.
* Required training: None. Pat Kingsley, who started by “planting” gossip items for Rogers & Cowan, says she fell into the profession “by accident.” Marleah Leslie was a producer on TV’s “Entertainment Tonight.”
* Largest firm devoted to personal publicity: Probably PMK, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles, lists 140 clients and employs about 40.
--SCOTT COLLINS
