Tom's PR on Cruise Control

Eyes Wide Shut star's PR rep enacts tough TV press restrictions

By Daniel Frankel Jul 14, 1999 11:30 PMTags
Media pundits have bristled plenty in recent years about the control the powerful Hollywood publicity machine exerts over the press. Now comes this.

PMK, the Los Angeles public relations firm that represents Tom Cruise, is requiring TV news outlets to sign a restrictive waiver before they can interview the actor, who's promoting the upcoming Eyes Wide Shut.

The "Interview Consent Agreement," distributed to entertainment news programs such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood, local TV stations and various cable networks such as MSNBC, CNN and E! Entertainment, contains the following rules: The interview can't be used for any other purpose but for the one stated. For example, a local TV affiliate can't give its network a portion of the interview to use for something else. All unused portions of the interview must be destroyed, and the news organization must be able to prove it was destroyed if PMK asks. No "blooper footage" can be extracted from the interview, and "the interview and the program will not show the artist in a negative or derogatory manner." Perhaps most vexing of all: the document said news outlets must show PMK Cruise interview rough cuts for approval before broadcast.

PMK founder Pat Kingsley was purportedly out of the country Wednesday and unavailable for comment. But she did tell the Los Angeles Times that the last clause--the one that requires PMK see the rough cut--was included by mistake, and later removed. (A copy of the waiver obtained by E! Online has the clause X-ed out.)

Kingsley told the Times, however, that PMK required the rest of the restrictions, adding that her firm regularly exerts such controls to keep media organizations from exploiting interview footage long after promotion of the star's film is over.

For instance, Kingsley said she turned down MSNBC's request to run a collection of Cruise interviews through the years, a common practice for the cable network.

"If we hadn't restricted that, they'd be able to run it every day for the next 10 years," she said.

Showing the power PMK lords over Hollywood, producers have been reluctant to comment for fear of reprisal. Several indicated, however, that they would probably not sign such a limiting document.

Meanwhile, as news producers steam over restrictions to Eyes Wide Shut coverage, and critics are rankled over digital editing done to Stanley Kubrick's last film, word comes that VH1 has demanded a little prurience-cleansing of its own: to the video for Chris Isaaks's "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing," which is part of the Eyes soundtrack.

Kubrick himself (of course) selected the song off Isaak's 1995 Forever Blue album, and the video features the singer rolling around with scantily clad (of course) model, Laticia Casta. The video was directed by acclaimed photographer Herb Ritts.

The steamiest parts will be snipped out and the toned-down video will air in the pre-9 p.m. hours.