Hi I know you are being inundated with questions at the moment but i just wanted to know a PR question. When all the news media source says they have had something confirmed to their paper/magazine how is this done? Is it a mass email or do the press usually go with the first newspaper then lie and say they had it exclusively to them also?
Hi! So, no one has ANY exclusive when everyone has the same story, other than the FIRST one to publish it. And, while it is serious for ACTUAL press, entertainment press is not actual press but mainly a joke (Sorry for being so frank, but it's the truth). They know not of being professional, unless they are that specific type of entertainment press that is about the business, and there's only ONE publication like that, it's called Variety. So if it's Variety, they would get the name of who talked in the first place, call them and get the same news as the original magazine themselves. All others? Rarely bother to call and just go with "a source said" repeating what the original magazine who printed that said. The theory is that every single one of them should call the same person who leaked the news, or get a faxed or emailed statement from the same person who originally leaked the news.
Bottomline: unless you see names and last names of those who released the news, none of this can be considered reliable. "A rep for the actor" means absolutely nothing. Mr. C. has one PA and one Publicist. Who the hell would "a rep for the actor" be? There's only one. And no, his AGENCY is not "a rep for the actor". People who do contractual talks to get him parts are NOT "reps". And they most certainly don't deal in gossip, they represent. Rep is someone who does specifically press and publicity. There's only one person. So that should make you think long and hard about the wording of this thing. Makes no sense. If it was the actual publicist, her name would be printed because there's only one. The fact it isn't, and they say "a rep" when there's only one, well... you do your math.
I will repeat: who benefited from this? Who got the most publicity and exposure from this that they never would have had? The answer is Sophie Hunter, not Benedict Cumberbatch.
