SHOOT THE MESSENGER
In film and on television, PR people, or “flacks,” are usually morally vacuous – or stupid. At least some of them are funny, says New York talent booker Celia Converse
It is rare to find a sympathetic portrayal of a “flack” (or communications professional, if you prefer) in film or on TV – they don’t get the noble whistleblower treatment that journalists, lawyers, cops and doctors often receive. A movie that paints the “hacks” versus flacks relationship probably at its most cynical – both symbiotic and mutually repellent – is the classic Sweet Smell of Success.
