After decades as a Hollywood press agent, Dan Harary finds publicity an unpredictable art and he also observes a changing nature of “celebrity.”
In his memoir book “Flirting With Fame,” Harary recounts doing publicity for a behind-the-scenes special effects craft worker Bob Short connected to a strange horror/comedy film with uncertain prospects. Surprisingly, Short generate lots of press coverage driven by eye-catching props and effects, including a David Letterman talk show appearance. The special effects geek was an awkward guest unaccustomed to the limelight.
Oh, and by the way, the publicity helped catapult Short to an Oscar (for best makeup) because the movie turned out to be critically acclaimed offbeat “Beetlejuice” in 1988 from then-little-unknown director Tim Burton.
“When ‘Beetlejuice’ came out, none of its top stars were doing ANY PR!” marveled Harary in his memoir. “Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, and director Tim Burton were busy doing other projects, so a great deal of the promotion that Warner Bros.’ PR Department undertook was enlisting ME to help THEM publicize the film by using MY CLIENT, Bob Short, and his crazy little creatures for media interviews!”
And then there are life’s unwelcome surprises, like the time Harary booked fallen calendar girl/client Amber Smith to sign autographs at the Comic-Con fan convention a dozen years ago.
“While the attendance for the show was record-breaking, guys who wanted to shell out good money for photos of pretty girls weren’t amongst the crowd,” laments Harary. “These geeky guys wanted autographs from ‘Mr. Spock’ from ‘Star Trek,’ and ‘Captain Adama’ from ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ not from half-naked babes. Amber and I lost money that weekend when we factored in gas, motel rooms, food” and transportation costs.
The book (the full title is “Flirting With Fame: A Hollywood Publicist Recalls 50 Years of Close Encounters”) is an easy read looking at Hollywood and the entertainment industry from the over-the-shoulder view of one public relations executive. Harary, 66, calibrates the story with celebrity encounters as mileposts for his career, so there’s relentless star gazing.
But the book points out that in the public relations business celebrity access is critical. Harary mostly worked at independent PR agencies, and signing events and other types of clients often hinged on the ability to deliver Hollywood glitterati for press conferences, festivals, cocktail parties, red-carpet events and the like.
Among the celebrities he had glancing encounters or meaningful work with include: Nicholas Cage, Alice Cooper, Sammy Davis Jr., Micky Dolenz, Robert Englund (“Nightmare on Elm Street”), Sally Field, director James Gunn, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, director John Landis, Jay Leno, Madonna, Shirley MacLaine, Brooke Shields, Steven Spielberg, Sylvester Stallone, Meryl Streep, Barbra Streisand, Danny Trejo, Mark Wahlberg “and last but certainly NOT least, Ann-Margret!” One chapter is titled “Help, I’m in Love With a Super Model!”
Why the celebrity obsession?
Maybe because Harary grew up in hum-drum New Jersey that was devoid of glitterati, where he prized autographs of the few famous that crossed his path, and was a fan of popular culture on TV and cinema. The name of his The Asbury PR Agency business is a nod to his roots in Asbury Park NJ. He began his career at Columbia Pictures in New York in 1980, but soon moved to Los Angeles, where he is now a fixture.
The book will be especially useful to students. If starting out with film-TV-music marketing as an ambition, that career path leads to Los Angeles, the epicenter. Only there can one regularly rub elbows with celebrities, creative talent and behind-the-scenes powerbroker executives.
Even a casual trip to the restroom can be eventful as Harary once found that “I was standing in a middle urinal, peeing, when ‘Spider-Man’ star Tobey Maguire stood at the urinal to my immediate right and Ryan Phillippe, ‘Cruel Intentions’ star and ex-husband of Reese Witherspoon, stood at the urinal to my immediate left. Knowing just what to say, having been in this spot several times before, I stated, ‘Gentlemen, we simply have GOT to STOP MEETING this way!’”
The book is useful illuminating the importance of relationships, one person’s career path and personal compensation economics from Harary’s lifelong experience. In the aftermath of the 2008 national financial crisis and recession, Harary writes that he was forced to declare bankruptcy, but rebounded.
Harary names names for the most part with only about half a dozen industry anecdotes blurring someone’s identity. Two of the unnamed are other independent PR types that he worked with or for, but detests … a reflection of battle wounds from a Hollywood career.
Harary also comments that the essence of Hollywood celebrity changing, with a tight circle of traditional film-TV-music stars now being augmented by less impressive digital influencers.
Earlier this year, Harary worked a pre-Oscars party at legendary Hollywood restaurant Musso and Frank — which is his client — celebrating “Young Hollywood” talent by event-sponsor Vanity Fair magazine. He admits that today’s up-and-coming celebs “walked the gold carpet and were photographed by the rabid photographers shooting pictures for the wire services and for various social media networks and channels. As I stood watching these young kids – ages ranging from 21 to 34, all attractive, shiny people – and especially pretty girls – I was struck by a lightning bolt: I didn’t know who ANY of these ‘famous young celebrities’ were! Not a one!’”
Harary further mused, “These so-called celebrities were either: minor cast members of TV shows no one’s ever heard of, or budding singers and musicians with no or little discernible talent, or gorgeous female – and quite a few male –models hoping to ‘make it’ in showbiz, or actors/actresses who had very small roles in movies that only their parents and closest friends probably saw.”
One thing about Hollywood hasn’t changed. When working on home video productions for Playboy early in his career, Harary met the late bunny king Hugh Hefner several times “and he couldn’t have been nicer to me,” Harary writes. “During the filming of a ‘Playmate Olympics’ [while] two teams of bikini-clad Playmates were competing in sports activities … we watched together as one of the bikini tops flew off of one of the girls. ‘Never gets old,’ Hefner said to me, winking. He patted me on the shoulder and walked off.”
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