By
George McQuade
West Coast Correspondent
"If you want to do a story about grapefruit, we don't
do it. If you want to do a story about Julie Roberts eating
grapefruit, I'll make a miniseries out of it," Steve
Sunshine, senior producer of "Extra," told an Entertainment
Publicists Professional Society and International Cinematographers
Guild workshop in Hollywood on May 18.
'Extra' producer
Steve Sunshine
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Sunshine talked about how the celebrity-driven program demands
exclusives and honesty from PR people. "We don't expect
to be blindsided and find out that somebody else has it or
has virtually the same thing, and that I forgot to ask you
a question or two that might have prevented the situation.
It's a two-way street," he said.
Along with his wife Madeline a children's author and
a writer for Sesame Street Sunshine wrote and produced
the ABC hit series "Webster" for Paramount Studios
and produced the "Julie Andrews Show." He has also
written feature films like "The Son of the Pink Panther"
with Italian star Roberto Benigni, which he wrote with Blake
Edwards. He prefers email: steve.sunshine [at] extratv.com.
"I want email pitches and please know the show,"
said Susan Gold, senior producer of the AMC original series
"Sunday Morning Shootout." "Also, know your
talent availability. Often times I will get pitched and the
publicist doesn't know our tape recording date and they'll
push and push, and then the talent won't even be around for
the next six months," said Gold.
Susan Gold, senior
producer for AMC's 'Sunday Morning Shootout'
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The Shootout is an industry talk show hosted by Variety
editor-in-chief, Peter Bart, and Mandalay Entertainment's,
Peter Guber. It features conversations with Hollywood's elite
including Denzel Washington, Hilary Swank, Jude Law, Kevin
Spacey, Annette Bening, Bruce Willis, Ashton Kutcher, Adrien
Brody and Morgan Freeman.
Gold is a veteran of top talent agency, ICM in New York.
She formed Celebrity Talent and convinced Andy Warhol to do
an ad for Pontiac, persuaded Donna Rice on the heels
of the Gary Hart fiasco to endorse No Excuses Jeans,
and coaxed Aretha Franklin to sing for Kinney Shoe Corp. She
prefers email: Sos12 [at] aol.com.
"Email is really the best way to pitch, followed by
another one a few days later," said Luke Sader, talent
producer for Tavis Smiley's program on PBS. "I'm happy
to talk to people, too, but it's always nice, I find, that
if I'm familiar with the pitch or the email pitch rings a
bell with me. I try to respond to as many pitches as I can."
Connections, relationships and friends are the key to making
it in Hollywood, according to Sader: "We know it becomes
a smaller and smaller town the older you get."
Luke Sader, talent
producer for Tavis Smiley's PBS show
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Sader started his career at CBS News in New York and then
moved west to join "Entertainment Tonight," where
he worked in many capacities including researcher, segment
producer, show writer, and field director. He then went to
CNN and became coordinating producer for "Showbiz Today."
Sader was a talent executive at "Politically Incorrect
with Bill Maher" and "The Wayne Brady Show,"
and has been with Smiley" since hiss premiere in January,
2004. Sader also likes email pitches: isader [at] kcet.org.
Pam Hyatt is talent executive for "Soap Talk" on
the SOAPNET cable network. The program is hosted by three-time
Emmy nominated, Lisa Rinna and Ty Treadway. It has more than
50 million loyal viewers who tune in to see their favorite
daytime stars including Susan Lucci and Deidre Hall.
Pam Hyatt, talent exec
for 'Soap Talk'
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"You can get hits before 50 million viewers," said
Hyatt, "Soap Talk tapes six shows in two days, and I
get pitched a lot, and often pass them on to our segment producers.
Many people think we book only soap stars and often forget
about the stars from such shows as 'Lost,' 'Greys Anatomy'
and others that have appeared on the show."
Hyatt, president of PG Artists, also handles celebrity bookings
for CMT (Country Music Television), Peter Tilden's "Hollyville"
on KZLA Radio and "The Dr. Phil Show."
She booked President and Mrs. Bush for a special "Parenting"
program with Dr. Phil as well as Bill Cosby, Samuel L. Jackson,
Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Kelsey Grammer, Marcia Cross
and SpongeBob. Hyatt prefers email pitches: MYBRS549 [at]
AOL.com.
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