Print
I was Larry Flynt’s book publicist and personal publicist for 15 years — from 1996, three months before the movie “The People vs. Larry Flynt” was released, until 2011. I watched him be mesmerized by Terry Gross during their “Fresh Air” interview and get slaughtered by Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. He did all the shows — Bill Maher to Larry King, CNN again and again, and I’d play poker with him to pass the time in every green room in town.
Working for Mr. Flynt, as I always called him, taught me more about the personalities, secrets, limitations and roadblocks of the media than all my other clients combined. Meeting with him a few times a week at his office on Wilshire Boulevard or at the Four Seasons was an endless adrenaline rush. What might he say, to whom might he say it, what would I need to do about the fallout?