By: David Finnigan Movie Advertisements Included Fictional Critic
(Mediaweek.com) The
publisher of a Connecticut newspaper received an apology from a
senior Sony Pictures Entertainment executive Monday following
Newsweek's revelation that Sony created a fake film
reviewer and attached the fake name and fake review excerpts to
Sony movie advertisements appearing in the newspaper.
"He apologized," said Tom Nash, publisher of the weekly
Ridgefield (Conn.) Press, of his telephone
conversation with Jeff Blake, Sony's president of worldwide
marketing and distribution. Nash said Blake told him, " '...all I
can do is apologize. We're taking care of it here.'"
Sony spokeswoman Susan Tick confirmed that reviews quoted by
David Manning praising Sony's "A Knight's Tale," "Hollow Man,"
and "Vertical Limit," and the just-released Sony-distributed,
Revolution Studios' "The Animal," were concocted and attached to
film reviews in the Press. Sony admitted Manning does not
exist and was created last year by a film advertising executive
and said it is investigating who is responsible.
The Press will carry a story about Sony's fake critic in
Wednesday's edition. Nash predicted that Manning-gate will be
"probably one of the least important but one of the most read
(stories) of the week."
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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