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becomeacelebrityjournalist.com
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1. Who am I and why are you listening to me?
Im an Australian journalist who has lived in Los Angeles since 2003.
When I moved to LA, I had zero celebrity journalism experience. But fast
forward to today 6.5 years later - and Ive now interviewed pretty much all
of the worlds top movie stars.
Ive sat down and interviewed the likes of Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise,
Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConoughey, Russell Crowe,
Jamie Foxx, Beyonce, Jon Bon Jovi and Leonardo DiCaprio to name a few.
Ive interviewed those stars for newspapers and magazines all over the world.
In America, Ive written for People, US Weekly, In Touch, Star and OK. Ive
been a regular radio guest on the number one breakfast program in New
York City, The Scott and Todd In The Morning on WPLJ. Ive produced weekly
entertainment reports for Q104 FM in Cleveland.
In Australia Ive written for all the top magazines and newspapers including
Ralph, Womens Day, New Idea, Sydney Morning Herald. And in the UK, Ive
written stories and done celebrity interviews for Cosmopolitan, Loaded, Now,
Closer, Grazia, More, The Sun, News of the World, Daily Mirror and The Mail
on Sunday. Ive also done celebrity interviews for magazines in Dubai and
South Africa.
I mean Ive pretty much covered most of the worlds top media. Ive also
travelled the world with my job. Ive attended and covered six Sundance Film
Festivals in Park City, Utah. Ive covered six Toronto Film Festivals. Ive been
to Cannes in France to cover the Cannes Film Festival. Ive also attended the
red carpet for a host of celebrity events including the Golden Globes, Oscars,
MTV Movie Awards.
Ive done it all - and Im not even that good as a journalist!
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Pitt. You, too, can interview the worlds top stars.
So lets get started
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Finally, the journalists need the publicists to grant them interviews with the
stars. The bigger the star you can put in your magazine or on your TV show,
obviously the more people are going to buy that magazine or watch that TV
show. So everyone needs everyone else. Journalists need publicists, publicists
need stars and stars need journalists.
Let me illustrate further how the game works. Have you ever walked by a
news agent and seen a dozen or so magazines with various Hollywood stars
on the front covers?
Lets take a recent film for example, The Hangover. It was one of 2009s
biggest films and made more than US$400 million at the worldwide box
office. What you probably didnt particularly notice at the time was that in
the weeks leading up to The Hangovers theatrical release, there were dozens
of interviews about the films stars in the worlds media. Heather Graham
interviews were published in mostly womens magazines and Bradley Cooper
interviews could be found in mostly mens magazines. You may remember
watching your local entertainment TV show and seeing either one of these
stars interviewed. These print interviews and TV appearances dont happen
by accident. These interviews were done at an official movie junket (which
well explain fully later) over one weekend in Los Angeles.
I know this because I attended The Hangover junket. I interviewed Bradley
Cooper and Heather Graham in a fancy suite at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills.
So about a month before The Hangover was released worldwide, I had lobbied
successfully the Warner Bros. film studio publicists to grant me access to
Heather Graham and Bradley Cooper. I sat down with both of these stars for
separate 20 minute 1-1 interviews. A month later, my interview with Cooper
was published in OK! and Ralph magazines in Australia and Loaded magazine
in the UK. My magazine editors who ran my interviews were thrilled because
they got a great interview with Cooper, who would go on to become one
of the biggest male stars of the year. And the Warner Bros. publicists were
happy because The Hangover was promoted in those publications and they
knew that meant hundreds of thousands to millions of readers would now
potentially be spending their money on a The Hangover movie ticket.
So that gives you a brief overview as to just how the game works. Publicists
need the journalists, journalists need the publicists, the stars need the
journalists and the journalists need the stars.
That is how the celebrity journalism game is played.
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It sounds difficult doesnt it? Well,
trust me when I say it really isnt.
Now Im not suggesting we are
only trying to convince these media
organizations to hire you fulltime.
In todays economic climate a lot of
media organizations arent hiring,
theyre firing. What I am saying is you
can have a very successful career as a
freelance journalist doing this. You can
convince these media organizations
to hire you on a freelance basis at
worst.
Let me tell you the story of how I did
it
I was living in London when I flew to LA in 2003. About a week before I got on
the plane, I decided in my mind that I was going to try to become a celebrity
journalist. LA is filled with celebrities, right? It seems like the most logical
place in the world to be a celebrity journalist. But I didnt have any contacts
out there or know anyone in the game. So I picked up a London Yellow Pages
in my Putney house, and cold called the publicity departments of the London
offices of Warner Brothers, Sony, Fox, Paramount, Universal and Disney.
Some of you are probably thinking, Hang on! You said the first step was to
convince media organizations to hire me. Yes, it is. But first of all you need
to know which media organizations are most likely going to listen to you. The
publicists of these movie studios are the ones who are going to tell you. So I
called up the PR and marketing departments of the London offices of Warner
Bros, Fox, Paramount, Universal and Disney.
My conversation literally went like this
Hello, my name is James Swanwick and Im going to live in Los Angeles
next week and interview movie stars for UK publications. May I come, see
someone there to discuss?
Only one publicist Sonys Anna Whelan - agreed to meet with me face to
face. The next day, I caught the London underground to the Sony offices in
Soho Square and sat down with Anna Whelan. I asked her in what publications
in the UK did she want to generate more publicity of Sony films. She told me
she wanted to see more press about Sony films in mens magazines. There
were many men-friendly movies that were not being covered adequately in
the mens magazine market in the UK. Now by mens magazines I mean your
FHMs, Maxim, the kind of magazine that is read by your 18 to 25 year old
guy, a guy who likes scantily clad women and fast cars and all the good stuff.
Now the 18 to 25 year old group of men loves big action movies, they love the
Rambos, gross-out humor comedies. So I went to a newsagent and browsed
through a dozen mens magazines. On the contact page of each magazine, I
wrote down the phone number and names of the features editors, editors,
deputy editors anyone who worked in editorial.
I then literally sat in a park in London with my mobile phone and just called
them. I called them all - Loaded, Front, TNT and Arena and tried to convince
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them to meet with me. When I phoned Loaded magazine and asked to be put
through to the editorial team, then features editor Duncan Baizley answered
the phone.
Me: My name is James Swanwick and Im going to live in Los Angeles next week and interview movie
stars for UK publications. Would you like me to interview movie stars for Loaded? May I come see you to
discuss?
Him: No, were OK. We buy our interviews in. Thanks anyway.
Me: May I come and just introduce myself to you in person at your office, just for 5 minutes?
Him: No, thats not necessary. Send me your CV and well be in touch.
I knew then he would never be in touch. I had to get a face to face meeting.
Me: Duncan, let me just pop across town right now, drop off my CV, shake your hand and then Ill be off.
Just give me 30 seconds.
Him: OK, then. 30 seconds. Be here in an hour.
I raced across the London subway line to the IPC offices in London, went
upstairs, handed Duncan my CV, shook his hand and ended up talking to
him for 30 minutes. Never underestimate just how important it is to get face
time. People will rarely hire you or work with you if they dont see you in
person. At the end of our chat, there was no promise of work. There was no
job. There was nothing concrete at all. All there was an initial introduction.
But that was everything. I continued to meet as many publicists as I could of
as many magazines as I could before leaving.
Below are actual email exchanges between me and a couple of the movie
studios. This will show you just how hard I worked to get face time you can
practically smell my desperation.
To: Liz Green at Fox Studios
james swanwick 03/11/03 12:10pm
Hi Liz.
Please, please, please meet with me for one minute before I fly to LA on Friday.
I know you are extremely busy but I fear you will struggle to remember me if you dont meet me in person.
I am currently on board with Loaded, Front, TNT, Face and Arena magazines as well as the Evening Standard.
Many thanks,
James Swanwick
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From:
To:
Subject: Re:
Hi James,
If youre in Soho on Thursday, let me know and we can hopefully meet up briefly before you fly off on Friday.
best regards
Subject: RE:
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 17:17:32 +0000
From:
To:
James - as per our previous conversation, in the middle of our busiest period of the year at the moment,
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so please just send this stuff into us,
together with details of how to get
hold of you and when youre going to
be out there from, for when youre in
LA.
Well have a look at them + be in touch
when we have anything we think
might be suitable If youre sending
hard copies, address as follows:
Best of luck with it,
Phil
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in his life but dreamed of one day being a celebrity journalist. He picked up
the phone book and phoned every New York radio station telling them he
was going to be their Sydney Olympics correspondent. Most laughed at him,
others hung up on him. One radio station, PLJ, invited him into the studio
and interviewed him for the job live on air. Two months later he was back in
Sydney doing live crosses to the Scott and Todd in The Morning radio team on
PLJ. Nine years later, Brad Blanks is one of the shows leading personalities.
Visit bradblanks.com.
The point is this: you dont need experience as a writer or an interviewer
to land these jobs. You dont need a fancy CV or resume. All you need is
some hustle and the ability to present yourself in person and show people
you can do the job. I knew nothing about celebrity journalism but I picked
up the phone and rang the press departments of movie studios. Only one
of them took a meeting with me initially but in that meeting I learned in
which magazines they wanted their films and stars publicized. From there I
cold called the magazines and that led me to Loaded and that then later led
me to Jack Nicholson. My celebrity journalism career had started. Now your
career can start, too.
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star an actor or actress
of interest, the media
organization will tell
you if it would like you
to cover it or not.
Lets say that so far
everything has gone
to plan and the media
organization wants you
to cover the junket.
Now you go back to
the publicists (yes, we
call them back again)
and you tell them the
following:
My magazine would
definitely promote [insert film here] if I could interview [insert stars name
here]. Would you like coverage of your film in [insert media organization]? If
so, I am available to attend the [insert film name here] junket and generate
press for your film and any of its stars.
If the answer is no, dont worry. Keep asking all the publicists until the answer
is yes. There are usually two or three junkets every weekend in Los Angeles
or New York. If you do 25 percent of them throughout the course of the year,
you are doing great, believe me. If the answer is yes, guess what? In a few
weeks time, youll be sitting in a fancy hotel room with some of Hollywoods
biggest stars.
Now, if you currently dont live in Los Angeles or New York, or you currently
live outside of the US, dont worry. You can still do this. If youre outside
of the US, phone the press departments of the local offices. If you live in
Denmark, phone the Sony office in Denmark. If you live in Sweden, phone
the Warner Bros office in Sweden. If you live in Australia, phone the Sydney
offices of the movie studios. When you call, ask to be put through to the PR
and marketing team. These studios have huge budgets for press. If they think
you will generate enough press for their movies, theyll think nothing of flying
you business class across the world to the US and put you up in a fancy 5-star
hotel. I always run into journalists at junkets who live in Brazil and Mexico and
France and Italy who have been flown in for a three-day trip to the US. They
love it.
If you live in the US, its even easier for the studios to fly you to LA or NY. So
to summarize, its really a combination of courting a media organization and
then courting the publicists. It really isnt as scary as you may think it seems.
The hardest part is simply picking up the phone and making the call.
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mostly in LA or New York, a
week or so before the movie
opens.
The press is invited to a hotel
like The Four Seasons in
Beverly Hills where members
will sit for up to two hours
and interview the director,
the producer and the stars.
The TV press and print and
online press are divided into
two separate groups by the
movie studios which set up
each junket. TV reporters are
allowed up to six minutes to
interview each of the films
talent while print and radio
journalists get up to 20 minutes.
These interviews mostly take place in a roundtable format and sometimes
a 1-1. A roundtable interview is where anywhere between three and eight
journalists sit around a roundtable and interview a star together.
So a journalist will walk into a hotel room, sit down at the roundtable. The
movie studio publicists will bring in the talent one by one. Youll sit there with
your tape recorder and interview each star for 20 minutes. In other rooms on
the same floor, the same thing is going on with another set of journalists at a
round table and another star. At the end of 20 minutes the publicist comes in
and says, Time or Thats all we have time for. Thank you. Each of the stars
will get up and be shepherded into the next room with another roundtable.
And it just keeps going until youve interviewed everyone. It is just like a welloiled machine. Its clinical. 20 minutes. Bang! Its over. Next interview. 20
minutes. Bang! Its over. Next interview. You record each interview and later
transcribe it, and then write up your story. Weeks or months later, depending
on the films release or a magazines publication date, your story will appear
in print.
So while most newspapers and magazines claim they bring you an exclusive
interview with the star, the fact is most interviews you read in any magazine or
newspaper are from roundtable interviews at movie junkets. Its a free-for-all
for any of the 5 journalists sitting at the table. Any answers to your questions
that the stars give, any of the 4 or 5 journalists sitting around the table can
use in their interviews. But likewise, if one of the other journalists ask a great
question and gets a great answer, you can use that quote in your own article.
Now a lot of times the five journalists sitting around the roundtable wont be
from the same country. If Im covering for an English magazine, the publicists
will ensure I sit with journalists from non-competing countries like Australia,
France, Mexico and Brazil. They wont put two or three English journalists
together.
What that means is that I then have those quotes exclusively to the UK
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market; the Mexican journalist has those quotes exclusive to the Mexican
market and so on. So even though you have five different journalists there,
you can publish your quote and claim theyre exclusive in your particular
country. It works both ways.
Thats why its always important if you can to try and get a 1-1 interview. That
way you own the quotes and no one else in the world will have those quotes.
Theyll never appear anywhere else except in the publication you choose to
have it published in. After youve become friendly with the publicists, you
will hopefully be able to on occasion get 1-1 interviews. But initially, 1-1
interviews are dependent on how well you know the publicist or how much
publicity they think your outlet will generate for their film. For example, if its
a junket for a serious, Oscar-worthy film, and you write for a film magazine,
you will be more likely to get a 1-1 interview. The publicist knows youre
going to talk only about the film and youre going to promote that film in a
film magazine. If its a movie like The Hangover, for example, which is kind
of slapstick comedy, I landed a 1-1 interview with Bradley Cooper for mens
magazine, Loaded in the UK. Warner Bros. knew that if I got a 20-minute 1-1
interview with Cooper, I would generate a great story which would in turn
promote The Hangover to the magazines readers.
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wants. So you work as a team rather than work against one another.
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his wife and how they are
raising their children. So
when I interviewed him
for Funny People I asked
him, What aspects of
being a father in real
life helped you play this
character of a father with
small children? Because
I disguised this as a filmrelated question, Bana
then went on for the next
five minutes to talk about
his children. It was five
of the best minutes of
quotes from Bana about
his personal life that you
could ever read. I didnt
ask him directly about his
children. I disguised my question as film-related and got quotes about his
children anyway. That interview ended up being published in one of Australias
leading womens magazines. Because Bana talked extensively about his family
and kids for the first time, the magazine promoted my interview heavily.
About four years ago I was on the Washington, DC set of the movie, The
Sentinel, starring Keifer Sutherland, Michael Douglas and Eva Longoria. At
the time Eva Longoria had only started dating the basketball player Tony
Parker. She would later go on to marry him but at the time she hadnt
really spoken much about him. Even though I was on set to interview her
about The Sentinel, she was already a big star from the TV series, Desperate
Housewives. I knew beforehand I really needed to get her to talk about Tony
Parker because no one had really heard her say anything about him before. I
knew when I sat down with her I wasnt going to come out and say right away,
Tell me about your romance with Tony Parker. Instead, I said, In Desperate
Housewives, your character plays a little bit of vixen who uses her sexy looks
to try and seduce men. Have you ever used any of those tips yourself to grab
a man? I asked it with a smirk on my face, too, just to lighten the mood. I
never once mentioned Tony Parker. But guess what? Eva Longoria spent the
next 5 minutes talking about how she seduced Tony Parker. She talked about
meeting him in the locker room of the San Antonio Spurs basketball team
with her father present, what she said to him, what he said to her, their first
date to how they were now in love. She gave me this great insight into their
love life and I didnt even ask her about it. I drew on one of her characters
and disguised the question as being somehow film or TV show-related. Half
an hour later I interviewed Michael Douglas in his trailer. I wanted to ask
him about the fact that Catherine Zeta Jones, his wife, is probably about 20
years younger than him. Michael Douglas is getting on a bit now but still has
a striking wife. I didnt say, How the hell did an old fart like you bag a classy
lady like Catherine Zeta Jones who is 20 years younger than you? Instead,
I said: In the movie The Sentinel, your character is considerably older than
your lover played by Kim Bassinger. Youre also considerably older than your
beautiful wife, Michael. Did that help you play this role, did age ever come
into it? Michael Douglas then gave me great quotes about how he met
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Catherine Zeta Jones, how they dealt with the age issue.
So you always link your questions to the film. More often than not youre
going to get really good personal juicy quotes, which is what every reader
wants. No one cares what it was like making the film with the director or what
they ate on set each day. No one really cares. What they want to know is the
juicy private details. If you follow these small tips, youll get the juicy details
youre looking for.
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do this in a roundtable because there are all the other journalists fighting for
questions. But in a 1-1, you can say to the star, Look, Im writing for a mens
magazine like Loaded or FHM, Maxim and they love scantily clad women, fast
cars and love their stars to drink lots of booze and be a little rough around the
edges. When I ask you questions, would you please give me rough around the
edges answers? Can you tell me crazy stories? Feel free to swear. I dont need
bland answers. And more often theyre not, theyre fine with it. They then go
on to give me exactly the quotes I need.
I interviewed Jamie Foxx for the film, Ray, where he played Ray Charles. The
magazine I was doing it for just wanted to know about his dance moves and
how he seduces women. Because I had a 1-1 interview with Foxx, I told him
exactly what I needed from our interview. I explained that I worked for a
mens magazine and wanted to know really cool stuff like his dance moves
and how he seduces women. He started laughing and said, OK, cool. Lets
do it. So I asked him those questions and he gave me those answers. At one
point Foxx started waffling on about the film and I had to stop him. Thats
great, Jamie, but Ive already got enough stuff about the film. Can we go back
to the other stuff? He said, Yeah, OK. No problem. Now for a womens
magazine, its the same. If youre writing for a womans magazine and talking
to a female star you tell them, Look, I need quotes from you about your
favorite moisturizer, what diets youre into, how you exercise.
The questions Im going to ask a woman are going to be different from the
questions Ill ask a man. I interviewed Jessica Simpson on the set of The
Dukes of Hazard in Baton Rouge in Louisiana. I said to her, I need answers
about your body issues and your skin because the readers of my magazine
are really interested in how beautiful you are and how you come to be that
way. Because I explained that to her, she was happy to give me those kinds
of quotes.
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So youll get invited to press conferences by publicists who want you to
promote their films. If you want to attend for the experience, go ahead.
But you wont be able to commercialize that interview at all because within
three hours the quotes will be all over the world and not sellable. I hate press
conferences and I would encourage you to avoid them like the plague.
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you need exclusive quotes. So you have to get there and realize what journalists are
around you, you have to separate yourself from the competing ones and move together
with non-competing ones.
James Swanwick
becomeacelebrityjournalist.com
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