<![CDATA[Gawker: ken sunshine]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: ken sunshine]]> http://gawker.com/tag/kensunshine http://gawker.com/tag/kensunshine <![CDATA[Lance Bass Still Gay; Possibly Also Alcoholic]]> lancebassPublicist Ken Sunshine perhaps needs to take a small vacation? In response to questions about a claim his client Lance Bass made in an interview about having been married in Vegas seven years ago (to a woman), Sunshine said that Bass had in fact, never been married and replied: "By saying he was married in Vegas, it was a way to get free drinks." Way to quash those barely-at-bay rehab rumors.

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<![CDATA[Honorees Will Actually Attend Mediabistro's 10th Anniversary Party!]]> laureltouby_2.jpgMediabistro, the little $23-million media company that could, is turning 10! So they're throwing themselves a party tonight, with a special extra: The Golden Boa Awards, which recognizes 10 media stars from "from within the 10 verticals that mediabistro.com serves," according to the press release. Mmm, verticals. Each lucky honoree will go home tonight with an actual bronzed feather boa—provided, that is, that they show up—in honor of nutty genius and former owner and for-now senior vice president Laurel Touby. But which of these 10 "media stars" might you see if you crash?

We checked around to make sure it wouldn't be a total flop, and it turns out that a good chunk of the Golden Boa Ten are actually planning to attend!

That does not include Harper Collins CEO Jane Friedman, who had no idea what the hell we were talking about when we called. (Hey, she's busy.) New York Times Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet will also not make it.

But! It does include NPR cutie Adam Davidson, Craig's List non-hermit Craig Newmark, New York mag editrix Adam Moss, uberpublicst Ken Sunshine and designer and art director Luke Hayman, who all said they would attend.

And what about Stephen Colbert? Doesn't he go to everything? He must spend a lot of money on sitters.

We hope the winnders are also planning on bringing dollies of some kind, because we just really can't see Craig Newmark staggering home on the crosstown bus with a bronzed accessory under his arm. Adam Moss—well, he's used to that kind of thing.

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<![CDATA[Ken Sunshine Would Never Have Paris Hilton]]> Last week, PR man Ken Sunshine went on Anderson Cooper's little house of 360 right after Larry King's interview of Paris Hilton to help dissect it all. Sunshine was an interesting choice for the program, since Paris Hilton is just the kind of client Sunshine seems to avoid!

Sunshine made his name as former Mayor David Dinkins' chief of staff, a job he held from 1990-1993, and started his own firm when Dinkins lost to Giuliani in 1994. To this day, he continues to draw on his background in left-wing politics, representing local unions like the huge SEIU-1199, the healthcare union; and Transit Workers Union Local 100 (he helped them emerge in a relatively good light after the strike in December 2005, for example).

Some of his most prominent clients—like Michael Moore—are also notorious for wearing their political affiliations on their sleeves. (He also reps big old liberal softie Barbra Streisand, who was one of his first clients.) Other celebrity clients include Leonardo DiCaprio, John Mayer, and Ben Affleck. Today, the firm is called Sunshine/Sachs Associates, after Sunshine promoted his longtime underling Sean Sachs to partner.

"People in the industry think he's a mastermind," says a journalist who covers Hollywood celebrities. "Mainly because his clients tend to be pretty well protected. He handles them really well."

When we spoke to Sunshine by phone, he was vague about his tactics. "We pride ourselves on our anonymity," he told us. "There are too many people who do this kind of work to get exposure for themselves—that's the antithesis of the way we work. There have been many situations over many years involving high-profile, crisis-oriented situations with celebrities, that no one even knew we were working on."

Last May, when New York Magazine put together its list of the city's most influential people, the magazine noted that he's been called "the Madonna of PR"—and that "Sunshine's credited with making stars change their behavior so the tabs won't find them."

Indeed, that strategy largely entails helping them avoid what he calls the "stalkerazzi"—and trying to keep their names out of tabloids and those oh-so-reckless celebrity blogs. In a CNN special last year about the paparazzi called "Chasing Angelina," Sunshine said, "We've never had so much media that it seems to be desirous of printing or covering every possible aspect of so-called celebrities' lives. I think the world's gone a little crazy."

Sunshine has something like no respect for tabloids. He said, "These people just lie. Standards are so low everywhere. Among many journalists, it's anything goes. The paparazzi-tabloid game makes me so crazy. It's a joke. There's no modicum of fact-checking or sourcing. Or they just blatantly make it up!"

Mainstream outlets also might tread carefully around a Sunshine client. In that same "Chasing Angelina" show, People executive editor Peter Castro said, "If you piss off Ken Sunshine, not only are you not going to get Ben Affleck, you are not going to get Leo DiCaprio. You're not going to get Justin Timberlake and so on and so on." That's the way that publicists have operated for decades, but the number who can still pull that sort of thing off is dwindling.

Then again, it's not like Sunshine takes on clients who are notoriously difficult—you don't see him repping Lindsay Lohan, or Britney Spears, or Paris Hilton, after all. On the other hand, he does rep someone like John Mayer, who went off and had that weird thing with Jessica Simpson for, like, a year! He couldn't have been very happy about that. Of course, neither were we.

[Image via]

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<![CDATA[Anderson Cooper Basically Called Paris Hilton A Painted Whore]]>
In the wake of last night's Larry King interview, Anderson Cooper devoted most of "360" to rehashing the old man's feather-light Paris Hilton inquisition. While Anderson was visibly disgusted by having to cover the subject, hey, you know, ratings is ratings. Anyhow, here's Andy questioning P.R. legend Ken Sunshine as to whether or not Paris should be doing one-hour interviews at all; he's apparently disgusted by "that lip-glossed mouth of hers."

Earlier: Paris Hilton On Larry King

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