Saturday, October 31, 2009

One of Hollywood's most known entertainment publicists wins a half dozen track medals

World senior winner of most track medals is Hollywood Publicist 91-year old Julian Myers, who promotes AmigoDay by winning six medals in one day at World Senior Meet in St. George, Utah


"AmigoDay: Just greet anyone anywhere, your way, any month's first Sunday"


--> Everyone has a shining light in their small circle of friends, mine happens to also be my Hollywood Mentor Julian Myers, who last year invited me to his 90th birthday, where he invited 390 of his closest friends to celebrate his own marathon-90-miles from San Diego To LA only to end on the same day as the LA Marathon in downtown LA. Myers is one of a few people who still has a few gimmicks up his entertainment publicity sleeve and he's not afraid to take the calculated risk that always pays off. Myers has a passion for friends, publicity, mentoring, teaching, running and most of all for living. He's a true entertainer and publicist. Myers is always entertaining, never a dull moment and always smiling radiating his energy that is infectious.
Co-founder of AmigoDay, Myers, recently competed in six track and field events (Oct. 06, 2009), in the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah. He won six medals, most won in any sport.
At a recent Halloween party over the weekend Julian Myers talks about his trip to Utah:
-->

"I'm saluting this event, because it welcomes women and men from all over the world," explained Myers. "To show AmigoDay's admiration I participated in the Javelin throw, long jump, and four running competitions, the 50, 200, 800 and 3,000 meter races."
Six is the maximum number a woman or man is allowed to enter. Myers won the 3,000 Javelin and long-jump, and was second in the three other running. Six events are most anyone is permitted to enter in track and field.

Myers and his wife and partner, Patsy, trademarked AmigoDay six years ago, and have been promoting it ever since. They won't accept any personal contributions, but they believe some organizations or corporation  will realize the potential of the concept and want to sponsor it in their own ways.

One of Myers' boosters is David Bowman, former actor in "Murder, She Wrote," "Dallas" and other TV series, who is now president of the international Assn. of Consulting Firms and runs to support him on Myers' Marathons in LA and Las Vegas. Myers has competed in 25 marathons all over the world and competes again on March 31st in LA. He'll warm up in the Vegas half-marathon before that on Dec. 6th. 

Julian Myers career started with Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Bette Davis and James Stewart, but hasn't written a book on his career, yet. I think I would be the first buy his books and would enjoy publicizing it for him.

I first met Julian Myers when I was on the board of Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS). When I ran for president and was elected 2006, one board member wanted to replace him, because they thought he was too old. I told that board member, if Julian leaves the board I will resign or step down as EPPS president. "He's a Hollywood institution and valuable to our organization," I remember explaining to this less experience publicist. Myers remained on the board and he was always and remains an inspiration
in everything he has worked on. Keep trucking Julian, you bring energy and inspiration to the entertainment industry and publicity business.

By the way I should mention, the next time you feel like you've walked or jogged too far, consider this  just for a moment and you'll be inspired to run more....Julian Myers tells me he still runs six miles every morning on the beach at age 91. We'll all be happy if we can just walked up hill at half his age. 

Congratulations on this month's marathon in Utah and good luck in March!

MAYO PR - "We don't guarantee media, we just get it!"

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

TMZ’s Harvey Levin says Sheriff's Subpoena of his cell phone records in Mel Gibson case 'Outrageous and disgusting'




TMZ Founder Harvey Levin, a lawyer, a former People’s Court TV interviewer and investigative reporter at KCBS-TV said he plans to challenge what he claims was a civil rights violation. He told RTNA “the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department illegally obtained my cell phone records” in its probe of who leaked a report on Mel Gibson's 2006 drunken driving arrest, including written details of the actors actor's anti-Semitic conversation about Jews.

“When I found out what Mel Gibson did, what he said to the deputy, I started calling the Sheriff’s department, “Harvey Levin, founder of TMZ told a Radio TV News Association (RTNA) crowd (Monday, 10-20-09) at a UCLA-City News Service sponsored media workshop. “And what I got back was ‘it happened without incident,’ and when I started citing line and verse what I was told they (the Sheriff’s dept.) lied.” “I was also told that if you do the story, you will ruin your career, TMZ and you will never get over this.”  




Levin also said then he found out that, “the deputy had been ordered to removed the information from the report, rewrite the report, and not include any of that.” Levin said he received a dozen phone calls and each time the sheriff’s office denied the report. “Then we got the four pages of the report that had been excised, and the reaction was, ‘we are submitting everything to the district attorney,’” Harvey said. “And when I asked what about the part ‘it happened without incident and you’re going to ruin your career,’ he repeated his line of submitting everything to the DA.”

The media workshop was about “Making and Breaking News, and the state of the news business 2009” and Levin actually was breaking news himself, and caught several panelists and journalists in the audience by surprise. All panelists, V.P. and News Director Jose Rios, KTTV-TV/KCOP-TV, Andy Ludlum, program director KNX/KFWB Radio news,  vowed to support Levin’s battle, which he said violates the first amendment, and will “open a Pandora’s box,”


(left to right) Harvey Levin, TMZ founder; Kris Knutsen-Managing Editor, Local News Service and KNBC-TV; Jose Rios-V.P. and News Director, KTTV-TV and KCOP-TV; Andy Ludlum-Program Director, KNX 1070 Newsradio and KFWB NEWS/Talk 980 AM and Moderator Frank Mottek, host, KNX Business Hour, Los Angeles.
(photo by George Mc Quade)


Fox KTTA-TV station’s Jose Rios said, “This is not about new media, old media or traditional media, this is an attack on the media and the First Amendment, and I think its institutions like the Sheriff’s dept. sometimes do things that they probably later regret, but I think it is our job to call them on it when we find this behavior.”

KNX-KFWB’s Andy Ludlum when asked about the incident said, “I agree with everyone else, my question for Harvey is- do you feel you have received adequate support from the journalism community here in Los Angeles?

Levin replied, “I do. This is very new and we’ve spent the last week looking at things we kind of took for granted, so this really caught us off guard, we had no inkling of this, and it has taken a week just to get our bearings,” he said.

What was the motive? “I don’t think the motive is relevant here, they could have whatever reason for doing this, but it does not justify what they did. I think they (Sheriff’s dept.) are upset that this particular document leaked, because it embarrassed them, because they lied all day, and it was particularly embarrassing because of that.”

Other panelist included Kris Knutsen-managing editor, Local News Service and KNBC-TV and Moderator Frank Mottek, host of KNX Business Hour. The leaking of a police report is not rare, because the story first leaked to the LA Times. Moderator Frank Mottek use the LAT Levin story to kick off the panel discussion.

Evolution of media and news distribution
“I think that for a generation that has already grown up a lot of what we have done has become irrelevant and isn’t because we haven’t done good work, but rather there is a different way of digesting material,” Levin observed in noting the new audiences are getting younger and younger. “The material can be the same, but treatment matters, which has been difficult for traditional media. If you look at what’s happened to newspapers, radio, television stations and news operations critically, how much have they changed fundamentally in 30 years?,” Levin asked. “For newspapers there weren’t such a thing as videos, or photo galleries, there wasn’t news on demand and there wasn’t the competition that there is now, and the options that people have. You can go forward and make the same argument for magazines, radio stations, TV stations and reality is things
have changed.”

Vice President and News Director Jose Rios agreed with Harvey and said, “the challenge is we are trying to change an existing structure of TV news.”And Program Director Andy Ludlum, who’s recent all news radio station went from news to a Newstalk format said, “We have staff we encourage to twitter our stories, because I think people like getting news bits from a reporter like Vicki Moore, than just KNX,” adding new media is good, however people will always listen to radio, because it offers intimacy that the Internet doesn’t,” he said.

“In five years it is pretty clear to me that things are going to move Online, because it is the way of digesting information and it is the way people want it,” said Levin. “It’s the gravity of things, it’s the speed of things, and it’s the ability to get it when you want it, the ability to blend media.” Levin also believes that Television will not look the same, and TV Online will not look the same, “because it is all evolutionary and Online is going to be very different as everyone at home will have one box that services the web, TV and it will be called something different and it will all be blended together. TV shows will be programmed differently along with everything else.”

The most interesting thing about producing Online right now said Levin is people will be looking at a whole new concept, and the big question will be, “How to we deliver programming, information, news in a way that honors or exploits?” The audiences are getting younger, the world has changed dramatically and the media has not,” explained Levin.


Radio TV News Assn. Media Workshop At Lenart Auditorium, Fowler Museum at UCLA

Sponsors:
Western States Petroleum Association
City News Service
UCLA




MAYO PR - "We don't guarantee media, we just get it!"

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Brian McKnight and Julio Iglesias, Jr., along with Emily Bear and Timothy Mitchum To Perform Live at First Annual Noble Awards in Beverly Hills Sunday





Teri Hatcher, Norman Lear, Lionel Richie, Laila Ali, Nancy O'Dell, Joel Madden, Brett Ratner, Kenny Babyface Edmonds, Billy Bush and Annalynne McCord
have been confirmed on star-studded list of celebrity humanitarians attending the red carpet and Noble Awards event this Sunday, Oct. 18th at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills.
Morgan Freeman is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award and is also confirmed.
Brian McKnight
is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, producer, and pop and R&B musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who can play nine instruments: piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussions, trombone, tuba, French horn and trumpet. Brian McKnight has earned himself a spot in contemporary music history. He has released 11 albums to date, 7 of them have gone platinum, with several going 2 and 3x platinum, and has sold over 20 Million albums worldwide. He just released a new album last month. Brian McKnight (Video)
8-year old Emily Bear - One of the youngest if not the world’s youngest composer, who played at the White House will perform live Sunday at Beverly Hilton during the two hour Noble Awards show.  



Emily was the youngest solo performer in the history of the Ravinia Festival, has performed with many well known musicians, appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" five times and performed at the White House. See Events for more info and Galleries for photos and videos.
Julio Iglesias Jr. - Dejame volar
 
Julio Iglesias Jr. was born in Madrid, Spain to well-known singer, Julio Iglesias and Isabel Preysler. He moved to Miami, Florida at a very young age, a place he now considers home. Although he has spent his whole life surrounded by music, his own personal journey into the music industry didn't begin until the late 90's when he released his first album in English titled "Under My Eyes" with Epic Records. With the desire to go back to his roots and reestablish himself, the budding musician searched for new territory to conquer. Julio chose to sing in Spanish and the result is the mind-expanding Tercera Dimension. 

Timothy Mitchum from his Across the Universe preforming part of "Let it Be" with Carol Woods

The two-hour event, hosted by Access Hollywood’s very own Billy Bush, seeks to annually honor up to a dozen charities and celebrities who actively support them, elevating awareness of these organizations and the impact of their work.

Celebrities who will accept awards on behalf of the charities being honored include Laila Ali (Women’s Sports Foundation), Bush (Lollipop Theater Network), Kenny Edmonds (Stand Up to Cancer), Teri Hatcher (Childrens Hospital Los Angeles), Norman Lear (Playing for Change), Joel Madden (The Art of Elysium), Annalynne McCord (The Blind Project), Access Hollywood’s Nancy O’Dell (Best Buddies), Eva Longoria Parker (Padres Contra El Cancer) and Brett Ratner (DoSomething.org).
The Blind Project, The Lollipop Theater Network, Padres Contra El Cancer and Playing for Change will be honored along with six other previously announced charities.
During the ceremony, each will be presented with an award sculpture, designed by Antonio Banderas, with personal touches added by children who participated in The Art of Elysium workshop at the Shriner’s Hospital for Children. Brian McKnight and Julio Iglesias, Jr., along with Emily Bear and Timothy Mitchum will provide live musical performances throughout the evening.
“We are delighted to present these eleven distinguished charities and their celebrity supporters with the inaugural Noble Award,” said Janeen Mansour, creator and executive producer of the Noble Awards. “We hope this will inspire a revolution for giving not only in Hollywood, but globally.” 


For more information, please visit www.thenobleawards.org


Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Hollywood's Finest Turn Spotlight Around On Their Community Leaders With Noble Awards On Sunday





Noble Awards Announces Five New Nominees - Eva Longoria and Morgan Freeman confirmed as attending star-studded event




Parker (Padres Contra El Cancer)

Eva Longoria Parker (Padres Contra El Cancer)  is among Celebs who will receive awards on behalf of the charities being honored include Laila Ali (Women’s Sports Foundation), Bush (Lollipop Theater Network), Kenny Edmonds (Stand Up to Cancer), Teri Hatcher (Childrens Hospital Los Angeles), Norman Lear (Playing for Change), Joel Madden (The Art of Elysium), Annalynne McCord (The Blind Project), Access Hollywood’s Nancy O’Dell (Best Buddies) and Brett Ratner (DoSomething.org).
The five new award honorees released today for the inaugural Noble Awards this Sunday (10-18-09), at the Beverly Hilton Hotel include:  The Blind Project, The Lollipop Theater Network, Padres Contra El Cancer and Playing for Change. They'll be honored along with six other charities announced earlier Additionally, Academy Award-winning Actor, Morgan Freeman will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for his involvement in more than dozen charities.
The two-hour event, hosted by Access Hollywood’s very own Billy Bush, will honor up to a dozen charities and celebrities who actively support them annually, boosting awareness of these organizations and the work they do. During the ceremony, each will be presented with an award sculpture, designed by Antonio Banderas, with personal touches added by children who participated in The Art of Elysium workshop at the Shriner’s Hospital for Children. Brian McKnight and Julio Iglesias, Jr., along with Emily Bear and Timothy Mitchum will provide live musical performances throughout the evening.  “We are delighted to present these eleven distinguished charities and their celebrity supporters with the inaugural Noble Award,” said TV Celebrity Anchor Janeen Mansour, creator and executive producer of the Noble Awards. “With the presentation of the Noble Awards, our goal is to turn the spotlight back onto these celebrities and charities to provide recognition, to educate, to inspire, and to encourage even more support from the Hollywood community and the public at large,” explained Mansour. Morgan Freeman will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for his tireless work and dedication to over a dozen non-profits.      SPONSORS:Official partners for the 2009 Noble Awards include 7-Eleven which will launch their Cup with a Cause program at the event featuring celebrity designed coffee cups at 7-Eleven retail locations nationwide. Rumblefish Jewelry will design a jewelry line based on The Noble Awards and Be a Noble, where a percentage of sales will be donated to Noble charities.  Look to the Stars which will work year round with the Noble Awards to promote philanthropy in Hollywood     Additional partners include: EIF/iParticipate, The Hollywood Reporter, Audi, Participant Media and Takepart.com, One Hope Wine, The Beverly Hilton, Mobile Cause, Rosenthal and GoodSearch. The film industry has the Oscars, television has the Emmys and the music industry has the Grammy Awards. Now, the charity community and its most dedicated Hollywood supporters have The Noble Awards. More information is at www.thenobleawards.org.   Humanity needs leaders like you (Be Noble and Take the Challenge) MAYO Communications: "We Don't Guarantee media, we just get it!" MAYO PR - "We don't guarantee media, we just get it!"

Monday, October 12, 2009

TV and News Movers and Shakers Huddle at UCLA Campus Monday


Harvey Levin, TMZ


Radio TV News Assn. (RTNA) of Southern California Presents:
A media workshop


PANEL MEMBERS:

Andy Ludlum-Program Director, KNX 1070 Newsradio and KFWB NEWS/Talk 980

Jose Rios-VP and News Director, KTTV-TV and KCOP-TV

Kris Knutsen-Managing Editor, Local News Service and KNBC-TV

MODERATOR: Frank Mottek

WHEN: Monday, October 19th, 2009
Hors d’Oeuvres Reception: 6:00 - 7:00 PM

Program: 7:00- 8:30 PM
Dessert Reception: 8:30-9:15 PM

WHERE: Lenart Auditorium, Fowler Museum at UCLA

PARKING: Convenient parking in Lot 4 on the UCLA campus.
Enter UCLA from Sunset Blvd. at Westwood Plaza. Drive ahead to the Parking Information Booth in Lot 4.

PARKING COST: $10 - Automated pay stations accept $1 and $5 bills and credit cards.

ADMISSION COST: General Admission - $20 Students - $10 UCLA Students and Faculty - FREE Reserve your place by calling RTNA: 562-987-4545
 

SPONSORS
 

Western States Petroleum Association
City News Service
UCLA




MAYO PR - "We don't guarantee media, we just get it!"

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

LA Times Launches theEnvelope.com with more voices, images and stories

-->
(l to r ) Greg Braxton, Rachel Abramowitz, Geoff Boucher,  Sallie Hofmeister, Lisa Fung, Elena Howe, Patrick K. Day  
By George McQuade
West Coast Correspondent
Several hundred mostly Los Angeles Times writers, editors and staffers from LAT packed into a launched party on the top floor of a swank West Hollywood Hotel to launched theenvelope.com and awards season coverage.
“When we launched the Envelope a couple of years ago, we didn’t have as much video, we didn’t have as much breaking news and mainly covered Hollywood events and film festivals with all the guilds,” said Associate Editor Patrick Kevin Day. “We now have a lot more voices and videos.”
TheEnvelope.com, which is billed as the "ultimate awards site," has helped the Los Angeles Times to significantly broaden its coverage of the entertainment business over the past year,” according to Film Critic Betsy Sharkey, formerly the editor.
The new editor is Sally Hofmeister, who introduced additional writers and staffers at this week’s (10-05-09) launch party.
The Envelope's purpose, according to promotional materials, is to raise awareness of award contenders, drive box office numbers, boost DVD sales, influence voting considerations of Academy and guild members and target consumers.
The Envelope receives five million visitors during the off season and much higher numbers during the high season – between November and February. It features interactive photo galleries, video clips of red carpet coverage, celebrity podcasts, blogs and a "Buzzmeter."
This writer asked Day how new media has impacted coverage in the weekly printed version of Envelope and the Online version.
“I think speed is the biggest thing,” said Day. “We have a host of competition from various websites trying into the entertainment awards area, so we have to keep an eye on them constantly and we can’t fall down at any point and be at the top of our game.”
"Don't call me, email works best, because I work out of my home literally blogging all day," said Elizabeth Snead, contributing editor of The Envelope. “I don’t go to as many mixers and late night parties as before, because now I have people I can send to them, so just being here is a rare thing for me.
Elizabeth Snead is the former fashion editor and entertainment writer for USA Today prefers "10 days advance notice of story pitches," since she covers three events a night. "I might not get back to you right away, but I do read my emails," she said.
For almost two years now, Snead has been writing for the http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag  blog. She focuses on news, celebs, awards, politics and pop culture.
A tip: don't pitch a hodge-podge of clients to The Envelope. "We're looking for a window into the lifestyle of a person so exclusives are given much more consideration," said Snead.
The LAT re-launched The Envelope to make it "more accessible to our users and the industry," said its former senior producer Joseph Kapsch.  He is now a producer of the Zap2it.com site of entertainment videos.
The site is broken down into sections on awards and includes photos, features and anything to do with the awards show in the subsections. 
For example there are sections with videos and celebrity images on VH1's Hip Hop Honors, 2009 'VH1 Divas' Arrivals, 2009 Latin Grammy Awards Nominees, 2009 ALMA Awards Arrivals and Red Carpet Rewind: 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards.
"There is Academy news and breaking news on the site. We've created these multimedia models on each page for photos. We also host podcasts of nominees or anyone associated with the awards show," said Kapsch, who is now working for Zap2.it.com, as editorial director.
Kapsch was the former managing editor of AccessHollywood.com, as well as a producer of TV sites at ABC, NBC, Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment and Viacom.
Lisa Fung has been named Online arts & entertainment editor for the Los Angeles Times.
An L.A. Times veteran, Fung has been with the paper for more than 20 years and has overseen its arts and culture coverage for the past nine, including classical music, dance, opera, theater and architecture. In her time at the newspaper she also helped launch the national edition, and worked in Metro and Business before joining the Calendar staff in 2000.
In this expanded role, she will oversee the paper’s multimedia coverage of all arts and entertainment, including Calendar, The Envelope and Company Town, as well as more than a dozen latimes.com blogs, according to an L.A. Times report.
As far as pitching the writers and editors, all say email pitches are preferred.                      'The Envelope' Contacts:
Sallie Hofmeister, Editor Sallie.Hofmeister@latimes.com
Elena Howe, Editor, theenvelope.com   Elena.howe@latimes.com
Betsy Sharkey
film critic
Elizabeth Snead
contributing editor
Patrick Kevin Day Patrick.day@latimes.com
Joseph Kapsch
Zap2it.com
 
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