Max Clifford: Difference between revisions

You must add a |reason= parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|February 2007|reason=<Fill reason here>}}, or remove the Cleanup template.
Maxwell Frank Clifford ^[1] (born April 6 1943 in Kingston upon Thames), is an English publicist. Although his client range is varied, he is a controversial figure for often representing unpopular clients (such as those accused or convicted of crimes) and acting as an agent to people selling "kiss-and-tell" stories to tabloid newspapers.

A traditional Labour supporter, Clifford openly vowed to bring down the government of John Major because he personally felt, due to family reasons (his one child was born with rheumatoid arthritis), that the National Health Service was mismanaged. While he is primarily known for helping to bring damaging allegations to light, he insists that today most of his work is concerned with concealment of stories.

Biography

Born into a poor family in South London, Clifford was the youngest of four children (one eldest sister, two brothers), by nearly 10 years to his next sibling. The family survived their fathers regular bouts of unemployment, gambling and alcoholism through handouts from their Grandmother, and latterly from his sisters employment as PA to the London Vice President of Morgan Guarantee Trust Bank^[1]

Journalist

Leaving school at 15 with no qualifications, and after being sacked in four months from his first job at Ely's department store in Wimbledon, his brother Bernard used his print union connections to gain Clifford a job as editorial assistant on the Eagle comic. When the comic moved premises, Clifford took redundancy and bought his first house, and gained work with the South London Press company to train as a journalist ^[1].

EMI

After working in newspapers for a few years, writing an occasional record/music column and running a disco, Clifford replied to an advertisement and joined as the second member of the EMI press office, under Chief Press Officer Syd Gillingham. As the youngest and only trained journalist in a team of four, Clifford was given the job of promoting an unknown and unwanted group called The Beatles early in their career, including their first tour of the United States.

Chris Hutchins PR agency

After Gillingham left EMI, he asked Clifford to join him at Chris Hutchins PR agency. Among the artists they represeneted were Paul and Barry Ryan, who introduced Clifford to their step-father, impressario Harold Davidson who handled the UK affairs of Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland.

Max Clifford Associates

In 1970 aged 27 after Syd Gillingham retired, Clifford left Chris Hutchins and started his own agency Max Clifford Associates. Based in the offices of Joe Cocker's manager, he started by representing Sinatra, Cocker, Paul and Barry Ryan, Don Partridge and Marvin Gaye. He later also represented Muhammad Ali and Marlon Brando.

Freddie Starr

On 13 March 1986 The Sun carried as its main headline: FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER - one of the most famous British tabloid newspaper headlines of all time. According to the story created by Clifford, Starr had been staying at the home of Vince McCaffrey and his 23-year old girlfriend Lea La Salle in Birchwood, Cheshire when the incident took place. Starr was alleged to have returned home from a performance at a Manchester nightclub in the small hours of the morning and demanded that La Salle make him a sandwich. When she refused, he went into the kitchen and put her pet hamster, Supersonic, between two slices of bread and proceeded to eat it. Starr now admits in interviews that this story was untrue, but brought him much-needed publicity. It also brought Clifford to the British public's attention.

Clients

Clifford has since represented David Copperfield, O.J. Simpson, Mohamed Al-Fayed, brain-damaged boxer Michael Watson, former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson, the Norfolk farmer Tony Martin who was imprisoned for fatally shooting a burglar, and Celebrity Big Brother 2007 winner Shilpa Shetty. Ironically a few years ago Clifford also represented Shilpa's fellow Celebrity Big Brother contestant Jade Goody who sparked controversy after it was claimed she was racially bullying the Bollywood star.

Reporter Louis Theroux followed Clifford in the BBC2 2002 programme When Louis Met... Max Clifford. Clifford is regarded as being one of the shrewdest practitioners of his trade, and in July 2005 he told reporters that he would not represent Michael Jackson after he was found innocent of child abuse charges, saying: It would be the hardest job in PR after [representing] Saddam Hussein.^[2]

Clifford also represents Gillian McKeith saying of faux-doctorate: "personally, I wish it had never been mentioned. She never needed it, and it's done nothing but cause her embarrassment."^[3]

Gay clients

Clifford has been reported to give assistance to those who wish to or have to hide their sexuality from the public. In the past, Clifford has been approached by two FA Premier League clubs to "manage" the media sexuality of some of their players^[4]. Clifford comments on this unusual achievement:

“So far, none of my clients has been outed – but it's been a 40-year battle, and in the past ten years, as the media have become more intrusive, it's become much harder work. But that's part of the fascination." ^[1]

The Major Government

In light of Clifford's view of the deteriorating state of the NHS, and the moral difference with members of the John Major Government, Clifford worked to expose stories to help the Labour government in to power. Clifford was instrumental in exposing David Mellor's affair with Antonia de Sancha, that derailed John Major's Back to Basics agenda. He also helped to expose Jeffrey Archer's perjury in the 1980s during his candidacy for the post of Mayor of London.

In 2005, Clifford paid damages to settle defamation proceedings brought by Neil and Christine Hamilton after he represented Nadine Milroy-Sloan, who was later found to have falsely accused the Hamiltons of sexual assault^[5].

The Blair Government

Although a supporter of the Labour party, Clifford's approach in dealing with the Blair government has been similar to that which he employed with the preceding Conservative administration. The first instance of this was the story of Welsh Assembly leader Ron Davies. Then Clifford was accused by David Blunkett at the beginning of November 2005 of having a role in his second resignation. This derived from claims made on behalf of a much younger woman, who had become involved with Blunkett, over Blunkett's business interests, which were published in The Times. Later that week Clifford was accused of arranging a distraction from the assault made by his friend Rebekah Wade on her husband, Eastenders actor Ross Kemp, via the "coincidence" of the other "Mitchell brother", Steve McFadden being in a similar incident with an ex-partner. Clifford denied all responsibility.

On 26 April 2006, Clifford represented John Prescott's diary secretary Tracey Temple, in selling her story for "an awful lot more" than £100,000 to the Mail on Sunday about their two year affair between 2002 and 2004^[6]

On 4 May 2006, Clifford announced his intention to expose politicians who fail to abide by the standards expected to them in public office. He named his team of undercover investigators as "a dedicated and loyal bunch".

Personal life

Clifford married Liz Porter at St Barnabas Church in Southfields, London on 3 June, 1967. Thier only child, a daughter Louise (born 1 June, 1971), has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis since childhood, and has been a motivation for Clifford.

In the late 1970's and early 1980's, Clifford ran and took part in discrete weekly adult sex parties for his friends and clients in South London. This brought him into contact with various madam's and prostitutes, a connection which still in his business today serves him well to satisfy the often bizarre needs of his clients, as well as an early warning system of interesting behaviour of various persons^[1].

A life long fan of Jaguar cars, since the death of his wife from cancer in 2003, he now drives a Bentley Arnage T^[7]

Motivation

Clifford says what motivates him is much more than just money - he says he cannot stand hypocrisy in public life, and reserves a particular disgust for lying politicians, and watched with growing anger what has happened to the health service over the past 20 years. For this reason, and because of his working class background, Clifford is a traditional Labour supporter who worked to bring down the government of John Major because he felt that the National Health Service was being mismanaged.

Clifford himself developed epilepsy at the age of 46.^[8] He does a considerable amount of fundraising and media work for a children's hospice, of which he is a patron.

Unpaid work and death threats

Clifford sometimes works for free, but makes sure everyone knows about it. A contestant on the BBC gameshow The Weakest Link who was a call girl turned to Clifford for help with tabloid harassment: he did not charge her because he claimed he felt sorry for her. He also worked without fee for Martyn and Kay Tott, who tried to get £3m from Camelot on the winning lottery ticket they bought and mislaid.

On the other hand, he has received death threats demanding that he sever links with the five men who were suspected of the killing of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. Clifford says he has never represented them, but had merely put them in touch with ITV interviewer Martin Bashir. He also received death threats when he represented O.J. Simpson during his trial.

Tips for fame

In a show for Fame TV in December 2006, Clifford gave his tips on gaining fame in the world today as:^[9]

1. Appear on a reality series
2. Enter a talent contest
3. Be abysmal on a talent show
4. Gain fame by association
5. Date a celebrity
6. Flaunt your body
7. Date a Royal Family member
8. Make a home sex video
9. Be a success on MySpace
10. Be in the right place at the right time

References

External links

• BBC News profile
• Bio at Speakers UK
• Weekly column at Press Gazette