Tom Cruise Hires Publicist to Replace Sister
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James Joyner | Tuesday, November 8, 2005 |
Upon seeing the headline, “Tom Cruise Hires Publicist to Replace Sister,” I simultaneously thought that was very insensitive of Cruise and wondered whether this was a trend that would catch on. After all, lots of people don’t like their sisters and other relatives and many could probably use a publicist. The real story is less juicy, unfortunately.
Cruise Hires Publicist to Replace Sister (AP)
Tom Cruise has replaced his sister with a Hollywood insider as chief handler of his publicity. The 43-year-old actor hired veteran publicist Paul Bloch, who’s also a co-chairman for publicity firm Rogers & Cowan, according to the Daily Variety trade paper. Bloch also will oversee publicity for the actor’s production company Cruise-Wagner Productions.
Bloch replaces Cruise’s sister, Lee Anne DeVette, who took over as his publicist in March 2004 after he left longtime representative Pat Kingsley. “Lee Anne has done a wonderful job on behalf of myself and Cruise-Wagner Productions over the last few years,” Cruise said in a statement. “But she has always expressed a desire to oversee and expand the day-to-day activities of my charitable endeavors.”
[...]
The shakeup comes after Cruise generated some negative publicity earlier this year by criticizing Brooke Shields for taking anti-depression drugs and by berating “Today” host Matt Lauer for suggesting that psychiatric treatment might help some patients. He also created a sensation on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” when he got down on his knees and repeatedly jumped up on the talk-show host’s couch, saying his love for actress Katie Holmes was “beyond cool.”
I’m afraid that 43-year-old men who have been in the public eye since they were teenagers and haven’t figured out for themselves that doing these things might hurt their image need more than a good publicist.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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If replacing sisters is now cool, I suggest that so is the opposite, hence I call upon Pat Buchannan to let his sister do the talking from now on.
Next item. Does Hillary have a brother?
DL,
Yes, Hillary has a brother. Hugh Rodham. If I recall he spent his days in the White House selling pardons.
Going by memory from reading entertainment/gossip newsfeeds, so some stuff could be wrong:
Tom Cruise's sister is the one that recruited him to Scientology when he was kind of young.
When his career took off, his publicist advised him to not talk about his private life very much, especially religious and political views. IIRC, she told him that if the public is kept in the dark, that they'll stay interested longer (I wonder if she was just hoping he'd keep his mouth shut about Scientology).
Sometime last year(ish), Tom fired his long-time publicist and put his sister in charge. She had been working for the former publicist as some kind of assistant, or maybe a junior publicist. That's about the time he started the heavy promotion of Scientology (seems to me that Scientology might have pressured him to promote Scientology, which might have been the reason for him switching publicists).
We all know what happened this last year, so maybe he's trying to resurrect his reputation with a real publicist again.
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