The Buzz Generators

By Steve Burgess

IF A CELEBRITY GOT A THREE-PICTURE DEAL in the forest and there was nobody there to report on it, did it really happen? Stars need buzz. They hire PR people to get them onto TV and into the papers. TV shows and newspapers need celebs and interesting people to attract eyeballs. Meanwhile gossip columnists work the margins where public hunger for the inside scoop exceeds the PR machine’s willingness to comply. Here are three (okay, four) local masters of the art of buzz:


Rory Richards
PR firm Richards & Chan Inc.

There’s trouble in Glamville. A red carpet has been laid on Robson for Brightlight Pictures annual pre-film festival party. The limos are ready to roll up and drop their star cargo at CinCin. Media are lined up with cameras at the ready. But someone isn’t happy. Organizer Rory Richards stands listening to an irate storeowner whose entrance has been impeded. “You can’t do this!” he fumes. Richards has heard that line before. This whole red carpet party thing was originally nixed by the film festival, which frowned on the glamorous approach. Richards and her client saw it as an important opportunity to shine some light on the Vancouver industry and boost a lot of local profiles. So they did it independently.

The 29-year-old Richards grew up in the West End. She and partner Leanne Chan founded Richards & Chan in 2004. Events like the Brightlight bash, the annual Rouge benefit, and the entertainment industry mixers known as the Red Light Lounge have led her to be dubbed “Vancouver’s party princess” by the Globe and Mail. Richards handles the political side, too—leading fundraising for former Mayor Larry Campbell—in addition to real estate and some rather big media clients about to be launched.

Her sense of commitment is not limited to her clients. Last summer at the height of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict Richards went to Israel. “We toured bomb sites,” she recalls, “visited families living in bomb shelters, met with mayors of the cities that were being attacked. And got caught in a couple of air raids.”

Michael Eckford and Fiona Forbes
Hosts of Urban Rush

Looking to get some promotional TV face time for your hot new band/movie/show? Your options have dwindled. These days it’s either Mike and Fiona, or nobody know ya. Vicki Gabereau has retired, Robert Mason Lee is long gone, CBC’s @the end ended. City TV still has Breakfast Television, and for more weighty fare there’s Shaw stable-mate Fanny Kiefer with Studio 4. But Roberts Creek-born Mike Eckford and Vancouver-born Fiona Forbes are the reigning couple of Vancouver chat.

Not that they’re gloating. Like Rory Richards, Forbes and Eckford would like to see a local star system that would benefit everyone. “Our show depends on bringing other local people in, so we want to see more shows,” Forbes says. “We want to see the local TV business thriving.”
PR people are a big part of the process, too. “They’re the conduit,” Forbes says. About 50 percent of Urban Rush guests are booked through PR people. “We count on local PR people to know the show and understand which guests would be good for us.”

Elaine Lui
Laineygossip.com

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. Those who want fame get more than they bargained for. Once unleashed, public interest cannot be contained. Enter Laineygossip.com.

“I was between jobs,” Elaine Lui recalls. “I started emailing girlfriends with snarky editorials on the day’s entertainment headlines. They forwarded it, and those people forwarded it, and pretty soon I had so many people on the distribution list it was crashing my mail server. So I started the site.”

Laineygossip.com currently attracts about 750,000 unique visitors a month. The Toronto-born Lui is now a correspondent for CTV’s eTalk Daily, as well as a regular guest on the local CTV News and radio station 94.5 The Beat. Lui, 33, also holds down a position as development officer at Covenant House, providing shelter and services for homeless people. But since there’s a very limited market for gossip about the homeless, Lui turns her attention to the likes of Katie Holmes (she broke the news of her pregnancy) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Lui announced her second baby bump).

Are stars really displeased about gossip? They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but when the inside dirt hits the fan, celebs tend to forget that maxim. Lynn McNamara’s unfailingly polite Backlot column in the Sun is what the stars want; the sassy Laineygossip.com is what they usually get. But Lui doesn’t just report: she muses, analyzes and dissects the weekly scoop with a refreshing, clear-eyed bitchiness. It’s her opinionated take as much as her scoops that draw eyeballs.

Those opinions have made Lui some high profile enemies along the way. She’s been publicly referred to as a “disgusting blogger” by people close to actor Renee Zellweger.
“I don’t hate Renee Zellweger,” Lui says. “I just report on things that she’s been ‘allegedly’ observed doing, from sources I trust.” The stars hate it. Lui’s readers count on it.

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