Wassup with Eminem's book? Following yesterday's announcement from Orion, reported on this blog, a fabulous site called thecelebritytruth.com has been in touch with the rapper's US publicist.
These American PR types are famously control-loving, and the man in question, one Dennis Dennehy, is clearly not best pleased that the announcement has been put out on this side of the deep green sea. This, LiS might point out to Orion, is what comes of courting celebrity memoirs ...
Mr Dennehy says:
There is no firm release date scheduled, although it is anticipated to arrive in the latter part of this year. The news about the project today came from the UK publisher, who is not involved in the day-to-day editing or creation of the book. It's unfortunate that someone who does not have intimate knowledge of the book felt compelled to jump the gun on announcing it by delivering partial and inaccurate information.
'Partial and inaccurate' - ouch! 'Not involved' - double ouch! 'Jump the gun' - ouch again! This is the sort of thing we expect to see thrown at the National Enquirer (or LiS), not a fellow publicist.
But then Dennehy does admit there's a book being written and confirms that it's due out later this year. So what's partial, what's inaccurate? Orion is, they assure us again today, publishing it. So who's not involved?
We're left with the old jumping-the-gun problem. What seems to have happened is that the tightly-controlled Eminem PR machine wasn't ready to announce the book. They may have wanted to tie it in with something else; or perhaps to save it up to counter a bad moment of press in the future. Or they may just have wanted to do it in their own good time.
On the other hand, Orion is fighting back. They are doing the book and the information they put out is fair, they insist.
If the first announcement is this exciting, can you imagine what the book will be like? Maybe.
