Max Clifford
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maxwell Clifford (born April 6, 1943 in Kingston, Surrey) is a British publicist
Clifford is a known as being ruthless in his pursuit in gaining his client publicity or subverting a damaging story, representing unpopular clients (such as those accused or convicted of crimes) and acting as an agent to people selling "kiss-and-tell" stories to tabloid newspapers
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Training as a journalist, after working in newspapers for a few year Clifford replied to an advertisement and joined as the second member of the EMI press office. Resultantly he helped to promote The Beatles early in their career.
As a result of representing EMI artist Jimi Hendrix globally, he gained connections in America and left EMI to subsequently represented Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando
[edit] Freddie Starr
On 13 March 1986 The Sun carried as its main headline: FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER - one of the most famous British tabloid newspaper headlines of all time. According to the story created by Clifford, Starr had been staying at the home of Vince McCaffrey and his 23-year old girlfriend Lea La Salle in Birchwood, Cheshire when the incident took place. Starr was claimed to allegedly returned home from a performance at a Manchester nightclub in the small hours of the morning and demanded that Lea La Salle make him a sandwich. When she refused, he went into the kitchen and put her pet hamster Supersonic between two slices of bread and proceeded to eat it. Starr now admits in interviews today to the fact that it was very much a much-needed publicity coup, if not factually correct - but the story brought Clifford to the British public's attention
[edit] Clients
Clifford has since represented David Copperfield, O.J. Simpson, Mohamed Al-Fayed, brain-damaged boxer Michael Watson, former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson, and Norfolk farmer Tony Martin, imprisoned for fatally shooting a burglar.
Reporter Louis Theroux followed Clifford in the BBC2 2002 programme When Louis Met… Max Clifford. Clifford is regarded as being one of the wisest players in his market, and in July 2005 he told reporters that he would not represent Michael Jackson after he was found innocent of child abuse charges, saying: It would be the hardest job in PR after Saddam Hussein [1].
[edit] The Conservative Government
In light of Clifford's view of the deteriorating state of the NHS, and the moral difference with members of the John Major Government, Clifford worked to expose stories to help the Labour government in to power. Clifford was instrumental in exposing David Mellor's affair with Antonia de Sancha, that derailed John Major's Back to Basics agenda. He also helped to expose Jeffrey Archer in his bid for the post of Mayor of London.
In 2005, Clifford paid damages to settle defamation proceedings brought by Neil and Christine Hamilton after he represented Nadine Milroy-Sloan, who was later found to have falsely accused the Hamiltons of sexual assault.[1]
[edit] The Labour Government
Although a supporter of the Labour party, Clifford has applied similar moral judgements to their key cabinet members. First was the story of Welsh Assembly leader Ron Davies. Then Clifford was accused by David Blunkett at the beginning of November 2005 of having a role in his second resignation. This derived from claims made on behalf of a much younger woman, who had become involved with Blunkett, over Blunkett's business interests, which were published in The Times. Later that week Clifford was accused of arranging a distraction from the assault made by his friend Rebekah Wade on her husband, Eastenders actor Ross Kemp, via the "coincidence" of the other "Mitchell brother", Steve McFadden being in a similar incident with an ex-partner. Clifford denied all responsibility.
On 26 April 2006, Clifford represented John Prescott's diary secretary Tracey Temple, in selling her story for "an awful lot more" than £100,000 to the Mail on Sunday about their two year affair between 2002 and 2004 [2]
On 4 May 2006, Clifford announced his intention to expose politicians who fail to abide by the standards expected to them in public office. He named his team of undercover reporters as "a dedicated and loyal bunch".
[edit] Motivation
Clifford says what motivates him is much more than just money - he says he cannot stand hypocrisy in public life, and reserves a particular disgust for lying politicians.
Clifford's only daughter, Louise, who has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis since childhood - is also a motivation behind many of his decisions. He says he has watched with growing anger at what has happened to the health service over the past 20 years. Clifford is from this and a working class background, resultantly a traditional Labour supporter who worked to bring down the government of John Major because he personally felt that the National Health Service was mismanaged.
Clifford himself later developed epilepsy at the age of 46[3].
[edit] The good and the bad
Clifford sometimes works for free. A contestant on the BBC gameshow The Weakest Link who was a call girl turned to Clifford for help with tabloid harassment: he didn't charge her because he claimed he felt sorry for her. He also did not charge Martyn and Kay Tott, who tried to get £3m from Camelot on the winning lottery ticket they bought and mislaid.
On the other hand, he has received death threats demanding he axe links with the five men who were suspected of the killing of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. Clifford says he has never represented them, but had merely put them in touch with ITV interviewer Martin Bashir. He also received death threats when he represented O.J. Simpson during his trial.
[edit] Tips for Fame
In a show for Fame TV in December 2006, Clifford gave his tips on gaining as[4]:
- Appear on a reality series
- Enter a talent contest
- Be abysmal on a talent show
- Gain fame by association
- Date a celebrity
- Flaunt your body
- Date a Royal Family member
- Make a home sex video
- Be a success on MySpace
- Be in the right place at the right time
[edit] References
- ^ US fans shun Michael Jackson CD
- ^ Prescott angry at lover's claims
- ^ http://www.companyguide.co.uk/gm270601.htm
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6168077.stm
