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On the celebrity watch, the security of established names needs constant replenishment with the fizz of the new. Gossipists need people to write about. Attention seekers yearn for celebrity. Out of this mutual need, a cafe society is born and then, by some curious alchemy, is taken seriously by millions of bystanders. The publicity-mad among the moneyed cultivate the gossip columnists to gain one thing that money cannot buy without the aid of a little limelight: the envy of others. In a nation where television has taught the masses to live vicariously, the gossipists and their chosen chums train a beacon on themselves.
Harder to detect but just as essential to the process are the silent partners in the gossip industry, public relations counselors, who now serve everybody from models and movie stars to lawyers and landlords. While news consumers often feel sorry for the victims of media intrusion, many who face an onslaught of cameras and microphones have actually invited it. Unlike the bereaved survivors of a household fire or plane crash, the people written about in gossip columns typically have no desire for privacy. They aim to be public figures. While they may seek to control what is written, attention is what they crave. "Society people really fear no press," says Newsday's Revson. "What they want ideally is a steady flow of publicity, like a thin layer of butter, spread evenly throughout the year." In times of trouble, press agents smooth out the lumps, making sure their clients are not caught on the defensive.
Thus Ivana Trump's first move, after consulting Liz Smith, was to hire a flack to tout her version of the breakup. She chose John Scanlon, the public relations counsel retained by CBS when it was being sued for libel by General William Westmoreland. During the first days of the split, Scanlon's strategy included fax messages carefully crafted to be usable by a reporter without a gossip columnist's easy access. Philosophized Scanlon: "This has been a liturgical acting out of what is probably one of the single most commonplace experiences of all people, that is, domestic rows, the very thing that brought down the house of Troy. If you look through literature and history, we've always been fascinated with those things." Not to be outdone in the battle for the public's hearts and minds, Donald hired a mouthpiece too, Howard Rubinstein, who has represented erstwhile New York Post owner Rupert Murdoch and embattled hotel queen Leona Helmsley.
The notion of having a personal publicist may seem redolent of show business, where the art has been brought to its tawdriest heights. Many Hollywood flacks specialize in planting premature if not downright phony stories of projects launched and deals done, all in hopes of making the lies turn true. They often haggle over how stories are to be played, what topics may be discussed in an interview, even whether the client can review and change the quotes. In one not-so-extreme case, during Dolly Parton's heftier phase a few years ago, her agent required a New York City publication's photo editor to touch up 30 of the 38 photographs approved from a session, "slimming" or "trimming" as many as six body regions per photo, "omitting" eye wrinkles, "smoothing out" her neck and "lightening under the wig line." Yes, even photographs lie.