David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. Wavering on waivers
NBC, sweethearts that they are, distributed the following waiver to journalists interested in participating in a scintillating 30 minutes of discourse with Posh Spice:
“I, ___________________________ (journalist) with ____________________________ (outlet) hereby certify that my interview with Victoria Beckham on _______________ (date) will be published/broadcast for the sole purpose of publicizing “Victoria Beckham: Coming to America” for said outlet just prior to but no later than Monday July 16, 2007. Resale of the contents of my interview with Mrs. Beckham is prohibited without approval from Mrs. Beckham and/or her representatives.”
Of course, they later rescinded the demand for a waiver, just as Angelina Jolie was forced to when promoting her pro-journalism film “A Mighty Heart.” (So, for those seeking some sort of comparison between Posh and Angelina, there it is.) When will Hollywood realize that it’s embarrassing enough for a journalist to give the rich and famous free publicity without having to sign away one’s soul to do so?
My first encounter with the celebrity-interview waiver came during a press junket for the movie “Bugsy” – studio publicists pressed them into journalists’ hands mere minutes before the interviews were to begin. (This, for a press event that many journalists’ papers had paid for them to travel to Los Angeles to attend.) No problem – I signed a fake name and went about my business. (The paper I was working for folded later that week, so I never actually wrote about Warren and Annette’s furtive fling during the production of the movie and subsequent family life.)
My second encounter was during the “Far and Away” junket. I declined to sign, so when Tom Cruise entered the room for his roundelay of questioning, I was escorted from the area as if I were some chuckleheaded baseball fan who had just run onto the field to pester Barry Bonds.
The point of these waivers, far as one can tell, is to bottle up the interview into a tidy little vacuum of publicity for one project, so that it can’t be used against the celebrity later when the particulars of his or her personal life run in stark contrast to whatever gushing statements were made about a significant other in happier times (or, in Ms. Jolie’s case, to try to prevent gushing statements in the first place).
Ironically, most of these waivers come for the expediency of interview subjects who don’t have a lot to say. Warren Beatty is notoriously reticent. Unless he’s condemning psychiatry and anti-depressants or jumping on couches, Tom Cruise speaks in bland generalities. And Victoria Beckham – well, you’ll just have to wait for a future blog item to get a taste of her erudition.
So, memo to Hollywood: Cut it out already with these waivers. They don’t work, they just make interviewers tetchy and just accept the fact that there remain one or two things that you can’t utterly control. Contrary to popular opinion, the media is not your personal assistant.