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	Phil's Blogservations Monday, December 01, 2008 Posted by philgomes 6:20 AM NYT Profile On Jolie's Media Management Shows Profession Has A Long Way To Go NYT Profile On Jolie's Media Management Shows PR Profession Has A Long Way To Go I'm still not sure whether The New York Times was repulsed or intrigued by the fact that that Angelina Jolie exhibits greater media savvy than the average Hollywood type, taking more than 1,500 words to tell its very literate readership what it already intuitively (or explicitly) knows about celebrity PR. Where The Old Gray Lady sees a "carefully orchestrated image", I see a very smart woman who has a greater level of media savvy than the average actor or actress. Like Princess Di, Jolie also knows that she can channel interest in her celebrity life to bring attention to the topics and world issues she cares about. Putting aside for the moment that the article puts "celebrity magazines" and "strict journalistic standards" in the same sentence, and appears to give more credence to anonymous sources than quoted ones, it clearly aims to portray anyone who manages their media presence as manipulative in the extreme. (While putting onerous conditions on coverage does smack of a certain arrogance, the most egregious examples are quite easily explained away in this piece, somewhat contradicting the slant of the headline and the lead paragraphs.) It might raise almost as many questions as putting... Umm... Angelina Jolie and Princess Di in the same sentence, but I digress. In the popular imagination, it's clear that anyone who manages how he, she, or his/her company is portrayed in the media must be some kind of Svengali... As cynical as Aaron Eckhardt in Thank You For Smoking, as vapid as Colin Farrell in Phone Booth, despicable as Tony Curtis in Sweet Smell Of Success, or as even as promiscuous as Samantha in Sex In The City. In any case, such a person must be worthy of examination. Or... Such a person exhibits a new standard of self-comportment and care in an always-on, media-saturated, 90-second-news-cycle world. Again, it will be a long time before PR can cast off its pejorative connotations. Worth keeping an eye on... Especially People's Larry Hackett's response... Technorati Tags: celebrity, pr, public relations, angelina jolie | HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil's demented imagination. Hell, to be perfectly honest, even Phil disagrees with what he thinks sometimes. This site has virtually no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Clicking on a link doesn't automatically send a 1/2-cent donation to UNICEF. You can't buy, sell, auction, swap, find a date, win friends, influence people, cross the chasm, or decode the human genome using this site. You won't get free email. You won't win a free video game console. This site will not end world hunger, foster peace in the Middle East, help you smell better, teach you how to swing dance, or move the global economy from petroleum to hydrogen fuels. You'll learn a lot about this site's master, though, which amounts to a haphazard collection of strange and useless facts that pretty much won't help you at all.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This is the blog of Phil Gomes, SVP with Edelman Digital and senior advisor to the Society for New Communications Research. This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. Phil currently resides in Chicago, IL. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes.com View my page on PROpenMic SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.