It's not only entertainment players who get caught up in allegations about and convictions for sexual misconduct.
Those in the damage control industries do too.
Among them had been Max Clifford, known in the UK as "Celebrity Publicist." Among his clients had been television mogul Simon Cowell.
The accusations about his own conduct emerged during Operation Yewtree.
The primary target for that had been BBC employee Jimmy Savile. The latter had been convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of young girls and women.
In 2014, Clifford himself was convicted of eight counts of indecent assault on teenagers. He claimed he was innocent. His sentence had been eight years. Today, at age 74, he died in prison.
One wonders if any U.S. celebrity publicists will get swept up in the current outings of alleged sexual misconduct by television and film personalities.
Way back in 2014, personal public representative to Fox News head Roger Ailes - Bob Dilenschneider - came under media scrutiny.
As that time, the sexual allegations associated with Ailes hadn't caught fire. Dilenschneider was found to be the purchaser of a $15,000 ad in The New York Times Book Review for a flattering Ailes biography "Robert Ailes: Off Camera."
That supposedly was to neutralize the just-published anti-Ailes biography "The Loudest Voice in the Room." Call that The Battle of the Books.
In his negative biography, author Gabriel Sherman only hinted at possible sexual antics by Ailes. He also mentioned that Ailes' pre-teenage son showed up for his internship at the Manhattan The Dilenschneider Group in a limo.
The Dilenschneider caper came to light mostly because the positive biography by Zev Chafets had been published about nine months before. The issue generated was: Something is wrong with this picture. Why was that pricey ad only placed now? Investigative reporters pursued the answer to that question.
After the big story broke about the alleged scope of Ailes' sexual bullying, parent 21st Century Fox was investigated by the federal government.
Among what was looked into ranged from payouts made to the Ailes' victims without shareholder approval to what work was performed by the so-called Friends of Roger for what was assumed to be a $10,000 monthly fee. One issue had been if Dilenschneider had been among those Friends.
As many know, celebrity lawyers such as David Boies of Boies Schiller are being featured in influential media such as The New Yorker and The New York Times for what services they had performed for those in entertainment like Harvey Weinstein. Here is the latest on that.
Takeaway - Doing damage control for celebrities can be dangerous to middlemen's own brand. Beware who's on the client list.
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