Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell is sitting on a goldmine. But navigating the media maelstrom and keeping his integrity intact will be a job that could prove impossible

The BBC PR machine misfired badly by promoting tame lesbian drama Tipping the Velvet as sexually shocking. The viewers could only be disappointed

Edwina Currie’s decision to come clean about her affair with John Major may have seemed like a good idea at the time but she’ll be left to pick up the pieces after it’s all gone wrong

The contestants on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! may think they’re salvaging their careers, but in fact they’re just making fools of themselves in public

He made 14 smokeathon movies, including Basic Instinct, but now a repentant, and cancer-ridden, screenwriter is trying to get Hollywood to quit…

While our boys mess about in the skies over Swindon, US troops spend £6.3m on a top-of-the-range computer game called America’s Army – who’s had the better PR advice?

My advice to Angus Deayton – publish and be damned. Meanwhile, media moguls are planning to emulate the success of the Blair Witch Project PR campaign. The scriptwriters down at Have I Got News For You? have created a suave, sophisticated and knowing Deayton persona…

World Cup time, and the usual suspects have lined up to part with £20m a shot for the right to slap a logo on some merchandising tat and a load of hoardings. Nike and Pepsi have opted for “ambush marketing” instead.

Alex Ferguson’s recent petulant outburst shows football clubs still have a lot to learn about media management.Football could fairly lay claim to being unique among multimillion-pound industries in its slapdash approach to media management.

Whilst Ulrika Jonsson’s playing the old PR game to perfection, she may have gone just one step too far by exploiting a situation in which the losers could be an entire nation. And what sporting hack will put up with that?

Gordon Brown and Count Dracula come in joint first for PR scoop of the week. Some would say it was two bloodsuckers who topped the bill in the stunt stakes this week. Ladies and gentleman, first I give you the amazing fiscal magician Gordon Brown…

As church, nobility and government gather to mark the Queen Mother’s passing, it’s worth pausing to consider where the real power lies. This is the stuff of which Historic Moments are made. Or rather manufactured. History is being written for us, by the mass of the media.

As Graham Norton would say, it’s all SOOOOOO exciting! Naomi Campbell has walked victorious from the court with enough damages to buy half a Prada handbag, the Mirror has landed itself with a £200,000 advertising (sorry, legal) bill and the successful prosecution counsel, Keith Schilling, has set himself up for a nice little number as celebrity lawyer number one.

The Tories are on the up, but surprisingly, Iain Duncan Smith is keeping his head down. As the wags have it “he knows what’s best for the party” (ha ha). As the news broke about the Conservatives’ improved rating in the polls, IDS conspicuously failed to whore around the airwaves or shove the story up the news agenda.

The Academy Awards ceremony – an emotionally fraught, “and the winner is …” edge-of-your-seats spectacular – was once a genuinely innocent, onion-juice in the eye-liner number. Superficially it still is. Performers wear unusual dresses, some reveal more breast than is considered decorous by the press and the press print close-up pictures over four pages to prove it, winners evince shock, delight and surprise, and the saintly, warm smiles of the losers fail to disguise the bitter rank jealousy that they feel inside – so no change there.

By hyping the horror of the photographs of dead heroin addict Rachel Whitear, the media has inadvertently diminished their impact. The story attached to it is cautionary and heart-breaking; the parents’ decision to publish is courageous, given that their pain becomes public property and their history becomes subject to unwelcome scrutiny.

The Stephen Byers affair is a classic example of the press wielding its power to remind the establishment who’s really pulling the strings. What the media least likes is the feeling that someone’s trying to get one over on them – as Sir Richard Mottram, Martin Sixsmith, Jo Moore and Stephen Byers now know to their cost.

What do you do as a PR when you need column inches to flag up a failing career? Put in a trunk call to Gerry Cottle and ask to borrow an elephant, of course.

While the nation is gripped by Pop Idol fever, the ‘stars’ involved are set to make a mint. But are the real losers in the show – or on the sofa? This is the big new entertainment business – sellebrity. Hype people’s hopes, get them to shell out time and money in the (illusory) pursuit of fame, and clear off when you’ve cleared a profit.

Jamie Theakston’s recent brush with the tabloids did wonders for his image. Was this a cunning PR stunt or has the media changed its tune? Jamie’s future looks extra-rosy to me. His image is now nicely tarnished with a tantalisingly grungy edge, a frisson of unpredictability and danger, that makes him just a little cultishly appealing.