Vanilla Ouch!

      This week’s blog post is about a rather sad story. Former rapper Robert Matthew Van Winkle (Vanilla Ice) was arrested Thursday for domestic battery. His wife called the police claiming he punched and kicked her after an argument. While the argument did occur, the stories differ about the abuse. Robert claims he did not touch her during the argument, however he has a record for domestic abuse and was arrested on his wife’s accusations.        

       From a PR perspective, Robert’s arrest is a horrible crisis situation. His previous domestic abuse also hurts his public perception more. If I was representing Robert, I would first issue an apology and tell the media how he plans to change. I would also recommend that he should attend anger management classes and marriage therapy. These actions would help the couple and show the public that they are trying to work everything out.

       Although these are just recommendations, I hope they follow something similar for their personal benefit. It is sad to see someone who was once famous hit rock bottom. I hope that the couple gets their life back together just for their children’s sake. 

Matt gone wild?

 

This week photos were released from quarterback Matt Leinart’s house party. One photo shows him holding a beer bong for a girl (above) and another in a hot tub with several women. Matt’s last football season wasn’t very productive for him. He shared time with veteran Kurt Warner and later sustained an injury that benched him for the rest of the season. I guess now we can clearly see he is healthy again. The blogging community is very upset about his actions, even saying “The NFL is for men. Beer bongs are for drunk, stupid college kids.”

Matt has already apologized to his disappointed coach about the photos and even informed him before they were released. Now the next thing Matt needs to do is lay low. America seems to forgive athletes if they perform and give them something to cheer about. Matt needs to train hard and prove that his private life does not hurt his career. While he is training for the season, he should do some charity work to show that he doesn’t just party in his spare time. 

The Cardinals had a bad season last year. Matt you need to get it together and prove to everyone that you can live up to your potential.  You were great in college football, now show the world you can do it with the pros. 

Richie Sambora’s DUI

  A few days ago Richie Sambora was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Laguna Beach, California.  After his hummer was weaving through traffic lanes, he was quietly arrested and taken to the station. Richie wasn’t driving alone, he had his ex wife Heather Locklear and their ten year old daughter in the car. He now might face charges of endangering the life of minor. The spokesman for the group has no comment.

Wow. Everything can change in one reckless decision.  A quick start for a resolution is a formal  apology either from Richie or on his behalf. This statement should also include what Richie is doing to help resolve his problem with drinking. After this released, Richie needs to show up for his court date! Nothing is worse than someone skipping a court date because it can been interpreted as if that person’s situation has not improved. 

We expect famous musicians to live the life of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. But keep it in the hotel rooms and off the streets where others lives can be lost. If Richie lays low and does the right things, people will forgive his actions and wait for the next big single to be released.

Amy Winehouse’s Career Crisis

 

With current technology and the Internet, celebrities lives are less private and easily monitored the simple hit of the refresh button.  Amy Winehouse is a Grammy award winning singer with a voice that shines promise and talent. The only thing in the way of her career are her poor decisions. Amy has been spiraling down with a severe addiction to various illegal drugs. Recently a video was leaked showing her smoking crack.  

 

The vast majority of major publications have been negative to Winehouse’s addiction. There is a lack of approval of her public appearances and  poor live performances.  Questions are being raised about her health and if she will face a career collapse like Britney Spears. Although the articles do not have pictures of Amy at her worst, articles have descriptions such as “sucking in crack fumes in a glass pipe” and her excuse for taking Valium to “Bring myself down.” Winehouse stayed in rehab to improve her conditions and overcome the dangers of drug addiction. Her representative also stated  “Amy has regular appointments with a doctor at the Nightingale hospital. I’ve spoken to her and she is in good spirits and walking tall.” Since the release of the video, many other quotes have also revealed the various drugs Winehouse uses in the lyrics of her songs.  Despite her dangerous levels of drug usage, everyone hopes that she does recovery and not suffer an early death like other young musicians with amazing talent. 

 

  In the blogging world it seems Amy is vilified. Various headlines mock her name by calling her things such as “Amy Wino” and portray her as a drug addict who then became successful. One blog even has a quote from Courtney love stating “But I’ve never seen someone take as much coke as Amy. Even I wasn’t that bad.” The worst photos are often used when talking about her, which is never a positive subject, and everything from her actions to her appearance is critiqued.  Bloggers tend to portray her as just another celebrity who becomes famous and destroys all their success. 

 

The Bloggers and the press both accurately describe Winehouse’s addiction. The both also do not approve or condone her drug uses. This is the only two similarities shared by the news sources.  Bloggers belittle Amy while the news articles hope for a recovery. While it is amusing to poke fun about someone’s situation, constant negativity is excessive and in bad taste. Bloggers can state their opinions without the worry of losing their job and this freedom allows them to say whatever they please. This may be why they quickly turn and hold little respect for celebrities. 

 

I think Amy’s Publicist did the correct steps in this situation. Once all the facts were gathered, a statement was made on the behalf of Amy. This statement did not deny any allegations but rather informed the audience what Amy is doing to resolve the situation.  All the correct PR moves were done to keep this situation from becoming any worse than it is.  This statement also allows Amy to do positive things to improve her tarnished image. Amy is on the breakthrough of her career and she needs to do more positive things to improve the public’s opinion about her. 

 

 

 

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Mainstream Media Sources 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article715263.ece

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-al.eye10feb10,0,554213.story

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/arts/music/24wine.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,324549,00.html

 

Blog Sources

 http://thesuperficial.com/2008/01/amy_winehouse_enters_rehab.php

http://www.damnimcute.com/the-juicy/courtney-love-winehouse-biggest-cokehead-ive-seen/

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/2701_amy_winehouse_living_dead.shtml 

http://britmusicscene.com/amy-winehouse-is-suicidal-refusing-rehab-even-after-drugs-collapse/

 

A Maximum Error

A band called The Black Crowes recently complained about Maxim magazine giving a poor review for their album without even listening to its entirety. The current rumor is that Maxim heard only one song and the review was bascially “an educated guess.” Maxim apologized about the review and admitted it was an inaccurate article. No big deal right?

Rumor has it that rapper Nas has an upcoming album that received another inaccurate Maxim review. The best part is that his album is not even out yet! So Maxim screwed up again, but what should be done from a PR standpoint? Being straight forward and apologizing is a great start. Maybe the magazine should include an article detailing what happened and how they plan on fixing the problem. If editors are too busy to hear entire albums and give detailed reviews, maybe they should cut down on the number of reviews each month. In return the reader will get a quality article that will be a better description of the artist’s newest work. A change is definitely needed and I hope Maxim will improve their current situation.

This is the End….

I guess it was only a matter of time before I had to make a post about Britney Spears. I was at the checkout in a grocery store when I ran across the new Rolling Stone cover. When I got home a television show had an interview with the creators of The Smoking Gun. Just by luck, they mentioned Britney Spears and her current situation. The Web site creators said that they hesitate when posting about her because they feel guilty from all the troubles she currently is going through.

This got me thinking what Britney’s PR representative does to help her image. A negative cover page story does hurt, but maybe this person had been delaying other articles from being published since the beginning of her downward spiral. So how does someone improve her image? Getting her to start teaching kids dance is a good start, any positive press can only help. Maybe she should write a short book about her life and go to the Oprah show. Anything that will help show that she is getting her life back together.

Normally I usually like to end my posts by saying negative remarks about the person I’m posting about.  Not today, maybe everyone should just leave Britney alone for awhile.

Little Hilton Arrested

Paris Hilton’s 18 year old brother Barron Hilton was arrested for driving under the influence and having a fake ID. Although this is nothing new for the veteran party animal Paris Hilton, she should at least show some support for her family.  While her little brother called from jail asking for bail, she denied his request and continued  to party.

What would have been the right PR move for Paris is to bail her little brother out! Family should come first before anything else, no matter how much money you have. What Paris can do to fix this negative press is to help with the community service that little Barron will receive. They can bond and find out they have a lot in common with each other, like prison stories.

Paris, you need to start doing something right to start off the year. Your new movie sucked and not helping family won’t make things better. Stop putting your nightlife ahead of everything else and act like a presentable celebrity.

Tom Cruise Sparks Online Scientology War

Ever since the Youtube video of Tom Cruise and his views on Scientology , an Internet backlash began. Soon after his video was placed on-line, it was removed and parodies and edited versions filled its place. Tom’s image is becoming damaged each time he mentions anything about his religious beliefs. Removing the video on Youtube was a good move, but the damage has already been done. The video can be found by using Google and probably will never be completely removed. People’s tolerance for Scientology is growing thin and for some people on the Internet, it may have been the the straw that broke Xenu’s back.

Days after Mr. Cruise’s Youtube fiasco a video posted by a person named only as Anonymous. In his video he proclaimed an end to the existence of Scientology on the World Wide Web. Since then numerous websites about the religion have been hacked and shut down. A backlash toward this religion has occurred and Tom Cruise’s video only hurts him.

Listen Tom, you need to lay low for awhile. Find another hit movie to gain some positive press. Stop naming your kids strange names, talking about your strange religion publicly, and doing anything else that may continue to make you a key figurehead in Scientology. The people have spoken. You’re a great actor, just keep the press out of your religous life as best as you can and just make movies. The more you start babbling on about your boy L. Ron, the more your hurting your image.