Charging journalists to interview Brad Pitt is absurd

By Iain Alexander / 2 comments

Brad Pitt interview
I just got word about Alliance Films charging reporters to interview Brad Pitt and other stars down in Cannes. Suffice to say i’m totally unimpressed.

According to several reports, Alliance Films issued the charges of up to 2500 euros to print journalists in Canada to access stars for interviews due to organizational costs. It is understandable that the distributor will incur costs, particularly when the company travels oversees to a festival like Cannes, however..(and here comes the rant) that draws a fine line which I deem ethically unnaceptable.

For one thing, right now I can tell you that paying 2500 euros for an interview has no value to the journalist or the magazine / paper in question. A simple phone call to a publicist who is being paid to promote a movie would be more than happy to get a star on the phone for 15 minutes if it means he/she gets their client 100,000 people to learn about their movie. It is in the interest of the film that stars are available to talk freely about their participation in films in order to generate buzz about it, and get more people interested to check it out. When you start charging people just to access stars, you are effectively creating your own blacklist and firewall. No journalist or paper (that I know of) would willingly pay to do this and its a slap in the face to the free press.

Lastly, it really upsets me that there are organizations that think they can charge people just to access other people. It’s like having a bouncer at a club asking you to pay a bribe before they will let you in. It’s disgusting. What do you think?

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What do you think?

  • http://twitter.com/iain_alexander Iain Alexander

    Really great comment and a very valuable argument about cost offset. I wanted to go further and look at this from a price value point of view. Why is there a stark difference in  the interview price? http://www.filmindustrynetwork.biz/?p=14791

  • Ralphio2

    I don’t think this is the case at all and a you’ll understand if you looked into how festival junkets are traditionally organized. All major festival junkets come with a price for distributors across the globe who own the film in their respective territories to include their press. It’s the sales agents or international pr agencies charging the access fee to off set costs of the talent attending – flights and accommodation for PRs, agents, pals, spouses, nannies, personal trainers, chefs etc, etc.

    In this particular case, Alliance weren’t interested in taking part in the Cannes junkets and paying for these costs since the same talent will be available for interview later in the year in the US. They informed Canadian journalists that if they did want to take part in the junkets, they would have to pay the agents and agencies organising themselves.

    As one Brit journo said – A storm in a teapot

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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