Kate Winslet’s Libel Lawsuit

When you think of Kate Winslet what is the first thing that comes to mind… for me that would be her role in Titanic. But she has starred in many more movies; her most recent roles which have given her many awards and nominations were in the movies Revolutionary Road (2008) and The Reader (2008).

On November 3, 2009 Kate Winslet won a libel lawsuit receiving $40,000 from the British magazine: Daily Mail. A libel lawsuit is defined as anything: that is in writing, print, signs, or pictures and damages a person’s reputation. So the reason that Kate was filing this type of lawsuit against the Daily Mail was because they accused her of lying about her work out regime.

But the Daily Mail doesn’t just say a few words and that is the end of it, they are thoroughly going at Kate Winslet. They have quotes from earlier years and complain about how she has switched from being “their Kate” from England to a starlet in Hollywood.

(Quoted from People Magazine) “I strongly believe that women should be encouraged to accept themselves as they are, so to suggest that I was lying was an unacceptable accusation of hypocrisy,” the 33-year-old mother of two said in a statement. In January, Winslet told reporters she was going “easy” on herself and not exercising at all during the hectic awards season.

After Kate Winslet went to High Court in London, the Daily Mail decided that they would apologize for what they printed earlier in the year and that they would pay for the damage that they caused and all of her legal costs.

Winslet was quoted saying: “I am delighted that the Mail have apologized for making false allegations about me,”

I agree that Kate had a strong argument for starting this lawsuit. Being accused of lying about something that you feel very strongly about is wrong, especially when they are people that have so much power in the media. And this one article could have started crazy rumors about Kate Winslet and could have caused a lot of damage to her career. Because this started overseas, it might have taken longer to reach the United States but it would have gotten here eventually, and the media would have had a field day talking about this Oscar winning starlet lying about how she has obtained the body she has after having two kids! If something like that would have happened I am not sure how it would have affected her creditability.

Add a comment November 26, 2009

Risque Performace at the American Music Awards!

Adam Lambert was on the latest America Music Awards live broadcasting by ABC and he decided that he wanted to give the audience a show. He mentioned that he wanted it to have the shock value of a Madonna or Britney Spears performance. It was said to have been crude and had the audience’s jaws dropping when Lambert kissed his straight keyboardist. There were other raunchy things going on in this performance and because of this they have taken it off of YouTube based on copyright laws.

If I was Adam Lambert’s PR agent I would have him apologize to the American people either on national television or tell him to have his own press release. I would encourage him to talk about why he wanted to make his performance so risqué and what he thought the reaction of the people was going to be.

I would ask him to explain himself in a way that wouldn’t put blame on anyone, and wouldn’t accuse American’s for being homophobic. One thing I would make sure to tell him is that he should not be sorry for who he is but should apologize for his behavior which was inappropriate for the event.

. I think he should have mentioned something to his producers about it, but I feel that it should be on the same level as the Madonna/Britney kiss in an earlier music awards show.

As Lambert’s agent I would also make sure that he doesn’t try to please people by not being himself, I think it would be better for him to present himself as he is and have other people come to the understanding that this is one kind of person and this is how  he acts.

I would have him possibly tone down his attitude, wild side, or language but I would make sure that what he is saying is truly how he feels.

I suspect that this way of presenting Adam Lambert would agree with the Code of Ethics presented by the PRSA and we wouldn’t be breaking any of their rules.

Add a comment November 26, 2009

Bride Wars

On January 9^th 2009 “Bride Wars” hit over 3,000 theaters. This movie was about two best friends Liv (Kate Hudson) the lawyer, and Emma (Anne Hathaway) the school teacher. Both of their boyfriends propose to them on the same day, and they both want to have their weddings at the Plaza Hotel; they each want the other to be the maid of honor.

Together they go to the best wedding planner in New York Marion St. Claire. As the movie plays out we find out that Marion’s secretary has made a major error in the dates of these two best friends’ weddings, she has scheduled them both on the SAME DAY June 6^th. After both women make it clear that the other does not want to change the date of their wedding… the war starts.

Liv turns Emma’s spray tan from a light golden brown to orange and Emma turns Liv’s hair blue.More and more things start going wrong up until the day of the wedding these to women are both feuding with each other.

In this movie there are a lot of products that they pop up in the background or subtly in the hands of the characters or simply placed on a table or in a closet. Some of the products that I have found in this movie were:

The Plaza Hotel, Ipods/Iphones, Northface, Dolce and Gabanna, Tiffany & Co., Splenda, Budweiser, Dell, Mac/Apple, Burberry, Vera Wang, Bloomingdale’s, Tropicana, Diet Pepsi, Black Berry, Sprint, Victoria Secret, American Express, Mystic Tan, Cosmopolitan, Babys R’ Us, Advil, Fiji water, and Chanel.

All of these multi-million dollar companies spend millions of dollars in advertising every year, and this movie just added to their sales and promotion of these products.

These companies will have put their products in this movie because they want to get women to buy the designer clothes and dream for a Tiffany’s engagement ring. Showing people how they can look perfect for their weddings as long as they have a Vera Wang wedding dress.

Because this movie can be considered a “chick flick” most of the products placed in this movie will appeal to women. But the Budweiser clearly shows that this movie wanted to make sure that if men went to see it they would know that men who drink Budweiser can get girls that look like Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson.

Two products that I think had the biggest effect in this movie was the Plaza Hotel and the Tiffany & Co. engagement rings. I think this because the Plaza Hotel was the dream location for both weddings, it was the reason all of the conflict started. The Plaza Hotel played a large and prominent role in this movie, it was the only place to have a wedding. With average women obsessing over having the perfect wedding while watching this movie they will feel that the only way to have that, is if their wedding too is at the Plaza Hotel. And this obsession and thought of being perfect at the Plaza is exactly what they want for business, it will spark influxes of scheduled wedding dates no matter what the price.

For first ten minutes of the movie both Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson would only talk about getting that little blue box with the white ribbon and how that was the only engagement ring that they wanted, and if it didn’t come in that little blue box it wasn’t worth the money or the time of picking one out. Because of this constant talking about Tiffany’s it influences other women to only desire that kind of engagement ring, making all of their boyfriends buying those kinds of rings.

I am sure that specifically the Plaza Hotel and Tiffany & Co. received an immense increase in sales and revenue because of the products they placed in this movie.

Add a comment November 23, 2009

Spin the Bottle

The movie “Spin the Bottle” was very interesting; I enjoyed watching this movie more than some of the other movies that we have watched. I thought that the people they had speaking in this movie were being realistic and they were not over exaggerating the importance of this issue of underage drinking.

This movie emphasized the fact that alcohol in advertisements are very glamorized, that the ads always show the high point or positives of drinking and alcohol; but they will never show the low points or the negatives. They explained how advertisers exploit the idea of if you drink you will meet and beautiful woman, or you will end up in bed with one or more girls even if you are just an average looking guy.

One effective strategy that this movie had that previous movies did not; was they had kids speaking their mind and talking about either their own personal experiences or ones that they have watched their friends go through. All of them agreed that the way drinking is portrayed in movies makes getting completely wasted a right of passage. That kids need to drink to be accepted in college and it is also just thought of as something that everyone does, no one really takes into consideration the negative effects of alcohol because they are never shown in movies or ads or any other type of media.

One thing that was mentioned often was how kids because that is what they are expected to do, and then they think they can just turn off the drinking habits once they leave college. But the reality is that they are turning themselves into full-fledged alcoholics. This happens because students drink so heavily in college that they don’t know how to “turn it off” when they leave and their not kids anymore.

This movie went into specifics about men and women, which I thought was fascinating because it really tried to tell you that for men drinking was all about how much you could drink and if you could get in bed with someone by the end of the night. Whereas with women they drink because it is said that a girl should be good and studious during the day, but be a bad drinking machine at night. And most woman don’t drink beer because they want to avoid the calories so they drink hard liquor which ends up intoxicating them quicker than if they would have drank the beer. And a lot of times woman will make themselves so drunk that they throw up at the end of the night just so they can avoid gaining the calories from the drinks which can lead to serious eating disorders.

I thought that this movie was exceptional! I really enjoyed watching it and realizing that the media has the biggest role in making kids think that it is okay to drink before they are twenty one and drinking excessive amounts.

Add a comment November 20, 2009