You spin me right round, baby right round

I'm on sensory overload when it comes to PR right now.

I'm two-thirds of the way through Everyone Worth Knowing, Lauren Weisberger's disappointing follow up to The Devil Wears Prada. The fact that I'm in the industry probably enhanced my liking for The Devil, but now it's what's keeping me from really enjoying Everyone. Oh, it's still a page turner. But the plot has an integral flaw, in that the first rule of PR is to stay out of the press - let the clients shine, and our fictional heroine is being pimped by her boss to garner more visibility for their firm. I've been pimped out for the sake of my clients, but never for the sake of the firm. Do we need to take a lesson from the Lee Anne DeVette school of public relations - when you garner nearly as much publicity as your client, it's never a good thing. Speaking of, that story made news in both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times this weekend. Granted, it's Tom Cruise, but I didn't think most people realized or cared about the spin doctors behind the scenes.

Then, we have this. Kim Stewart - Rod Stewart's daughter, Paris Hilton's second-choice sidekick, and, um, really nothing else. And Talan, who was, until June, in high school. Laguna Beach high school, but really, he had such a small part on that show it's a wonder he even bothered moving to Hollywood with the rest of the crowd. Pulling the ultimate publicity stunt - the sudden engagement after an "I-didn't-even-know-they-were-dating" relationship. Actually, I believe Wikipedia defines the ultimate publicity stunt as "exposing a long-forgotton sex tape", but I guess since Paris and Britney and Pamela already pulled that one, Kim went for the unoriginal third choice. (Number two, "the quickie wedding", has also been overused, by Nicky, Britney, Renee, etc.) At least (so far) they've spared us the fourth most popular publicity stunt - "getting knocked up" as pioneered by Gwenyth two years ago and gaining in popularity in 2005, by TomKat, Heath and Michelle, Bennifer II, and so forth. They should all be taking a lesson from Jennifer Aniston: she didn't do a damn thing this year except get divorced and she's GQ's Man of the Year. Or maybe Matthew McConaughey, who hasn't been in a movie for ages and still managed to snag People's Sexiest Man title.

I'm just so tired of all the crap that gets regurgitated day in and day out. Pet monkeys, Greek heirs, car crashes, pending divorces. Is it possible I've surpassed my own tolerance for gossip? I need a vacation.