In the wake of coming home from Poland and reconnecting, with an astonishing amount of clarity and detail, with my roots, I am finding it hard to adjust to the idea of April Fool’s Day when there seems to be so much capacity for evil in the world. Is humanity essentially evil? Are we really…
I’ve been in and out of the papers this month, commenting on a number of subjects, from the perils of PR spin on behalf of dictators to Sarah Ferguson’s latest misadventures by way of the redemption of Chris Brown and, since I’ve been in Poland, as mentioned in my previous blog, I hope you’ll pardon…
What’s in a name? That’s the question I have been asking myself this week. Back in the day, I thought that trading under my name was a great idea. Some have challenged the conceit, but it was the need to create a family business that was my biggest inspiration. I was proud of my father…
I went to the wake for Jay Landesman yesterday evening and it was wonderful to see a collective spirit present and some great people gathered to pay tribute to the great man. Perry Benson was there; John Cooper Clarke paid tribute in his inimitable style; it was also great to see the amazing Jim Haynes,…
Because it’s been an unrelenting year so far, and because we all need a good laugh, and because Victor Lewis Smith is a funny man, and because we always need reminding how awful Little Chef is, here’s Victor’s wonderful review of Little Chef from the Guardian six years ago. And here’s the link to the…
One of the last goddesses from the pantheon of great Hollywood stars has died. Let’s give thanks for the life of true movie icon Elizabeth Taylor. As a fledgling publicist I met her retinue at a film shoot at a long forgotten theatre, axed by funding cuts in another age. The encounter left an indelible…
I received an urgent comic tweet instructing me to watch OMG! with Peaches Geldof on ITV2 last night from my old pal Kevin O’Sullivan, aka @Tvkev the legendary Sunday Mirror TV critic. ‘You’ve got to watch this at least once!’ he said, so I tuned in with my two sons. We lasted a little under…
As the bombs rain down on Libya, there are already people looking beyond the images of the destruction wreaked who are eager to get in to the country, post-conflict. Big PR will be planning already how to own the hearts and minds of the world with regards to Libya. There will be lots of meetings,…
Looking at the pictures of dedicated, anonymous plant workers risking their lives in Japan to prevent the meltdown of Fukushima’s reactor, I fell to thinking about all the unnamed heroes in the world, especially as it’s Comic Relief tonight. I find myself regretting that charity is so heavily reliant on celebrity to sell a good…
Can I ask a dumb question – is it safe to build a nuclear power station on a known fault line and then leave it there for 40 years? The Japanese authorities are only finding out now, and yet the full horror of the situation remains shrouded and shadowed. As the Fukushima reactor appears to…