Got an e-mail from NBC regarding a conference call with Victoria Beckham …
The e-mail said this:
Attached is an agreement which you must send back by E mail, with your name and the name of your publication.
Please send it back to me, or you will not be allowed to do the call with Victoria Beckham.
And this was the attachment:
I, ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ _____________¬¬¬_________¬¬¬______with ¬¬¬¬¬¬____________________________
(journalist) (outlet)
hereby certify that my interview with Victoria Beckham on _______________ will be
(date)
Published/broadcast for the sole purpose of publicizing “Victoria Beckham: Coming to America”
for said outlet just prior to but no later than Monday July 16, 2007. Resale of the contents
of my interview with Mrs. Beckham is prohibited without approval from Mrs. Beckham
and/or her representatives
Although I, like you, have read stories about celebrities trying to strong-arm news organizations, especially the movie press, I can't remember receiving a document like this regarding someone doing a TV show.
To be fair, I have seen and heard publicists ask that certain questions not be asked (usually involving people's personal lives), although it was up to individual reporters whether to honor the request. And I've encountered publicists cutting off questions they deemed inappropriate.
But this broader sort of declaration about where an interview may be used, in writing no less, is ridiculous. Beckham's people thinks that even when she is speaking for public consumption, she owns her words.
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