Kingsley the queen of motive star P.R.

In the days of studio giants like Samuel Goldwyn and William B. Mayer, the role of the Hollywood publicist was to get the client in as many press outlets as possible.

Now, the opposite is true.

In today's Hollywood, top publicists seem to spend most of their time squelching unflattering stories about their clients, or demanding control over how a TV show or magazine treats the star.

It's quite a departure from the days when press agents were careful not to cross the likes of Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper, lest the columnists stop mentioning their clients' names.

The publicist at the forefront of this power transition is Pat Kingsley, president of PMK Public Relations in Los Angeles - widely considered the industry's most influential publicity firm.

PMK's client roster boasts some of the biggest names in Hollywood, with Kingsley herself representing the majority of the firm's A-list stars.

Her clients include Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Al Pacino, Jodie Foster, Richard Gere, Goldie Hawn, Holly Hunter, Candice Bergen and Rosanne. Her two partners in New York, Lois Smith and Leslee Dart, together represent Michelle Pfeiffer, Tom Hanks and Robert Redford.

Then there's Dodi Fayed, the multimillionaire who died in the crash that also killed Princess Diana, Kingsley has been fielding press calls about Fayed, the producer of half a dozen films including "Chariots of Fire." PMK represented Fayed's movie interests in the United States.

Kingsley's ability to be at once utterly responsive to the needs of her clients and ruthlessly tough with the media is seen by those who have worked with her as the reason she has managed to reach the pinnacle of her field.

She projects a "sense of feeling that the client is more important than anything else," said Dale C. Olson, president of Hollywood P.R. firm Dale C. Olson & Associates, who has known the 65-year-old Kingsley since the early '60s when she was a secretary at giant P.R. agency Rogers & Cowan.

"It was obvious that she had learned a great deal from Henry Rogers and Warren Cowan," Olson said. "She had the ability to form relationships with some of the biggest players in this business that there were at that time."

She was also able to keep them after co-founding and running her own firm, Pickwick, in 1971 along with current partner Lois Smith.

For stars who crave and eventually reap the rewards of celebrity, but despise the press and all its demands, Kingsley is the ideal guardian, say many Hollywood observers.

"She's very definitely a protector," said Olson, whose clients include Shirley Maclaine and James Earl Jones.

For the media, that kind of protection means less access to major movie stars and more demands on how celebrities are treated in print. Kingsley and other Hollywood publicists have become adept at demanding magazine covers for their clients, or picking which writers will handle a given profile, or withholding A-list stars from publications unless they write about a publicist's B-list clients.

For many entertainment publications that count on the Tom Cruises and Demi Moores to sell subscriptions, it becomes very clear who holds the power at the bargaining table.

"Her clients have something that magazine editors want," said Marilyn Bethany, editor in chief of Buzz magazine. "If nine magazines want Demi Moore on the cover, why shouldn't Demi Moore say yes to the ones that will give her the photographer she wants? Believe me, the nine magazines want her."

Cable Neuhaus, L.A. bureau chief at Entertainment Weekly, agreed that Kingsley holds a lot of cards when it comes to negotiations over editorial content.

"(Kingsley) seems very clear about what she wants and what she doesn't want," he said. "She's the Mercedes Benz of publicists ... we are eager to have (PMK's) cooperation and I think they are happy to have our attention. There are times when there are stresses and that's just part of doing business in this day and age."

But even granting Kingsley full cooperation doesn't guarantee the press a one-on-one with her impressive collection of stars. In fact, say many observers, she is known in Hollywood for making her stars too inaccessible.

"Pat's someone who believes in making the personality less available, and making them more in demand," said Olson.

That's cause for contention among many of the big studios, which pay a Demi Moore $12 million to make a movie and then expect their star to help promote the film. Studio executives have been known to complain when Kingsley's clients make fewer appearances than they would like.

Henri Bollinger, former president of the Publicists Guild of America, recalled a time during his tenure when a studio executive called him to complain about Kingsley's demand that certain tabloid writers be excluded from interviewing her client - even though that client, a major film star, was supposed to be promoting the studio's film.

"The studio publicity department got mad and there was suddenly an army of people up in arms about what she's asked for ... the only thing I suggested to the studio was that they had every right to go back to PMK and suggest to them that (Kingsley's) client speak to the (press)," said Bollinger.

Still, he said, the right to pass on certain media requests by insistent studio heads is "what every publicist would love to demand if they could."

Kingsley didn't bend then, and she seldom has since. In Hollywood, publicists are often reluctant to OK stories on their clients, because if the star decides he or she doesn't like the article, the publicist is the first to take the blame (and is likely to lose the client). Thus, Kingsley has a reputation for saying no much more often than she says yes.

"The famous quote that's attributed to Pat is, 'No one ever got fired for saying no,'" said a reporter at a Hollywood trade paper.

Said Bollinger, who through the years has gotten his share of "no's" from Kingsley:

"It's not easy to get the 'yes,' but once you do, you can count on her. When she finally says yes, she means yes."

In the past, some studio publicists have attempted to bypass Kingsley altogether and deal directly with the star in order to promote their film. Such efforts are often in vain, because of Kingsley's seemingly mesmerizing hold over her clients, says Olson, who has kept a close watch on Kingsley over the past 30 years.

"She's attracted major stars from the very beginning," he said. "Her power is her ability to convince people that they cannot make a move without consulting her and her saying to them, 'No, you should not make that picture. No, you shouldn't do that magazine cover. No, you should not appear at that function ... let me guide your career.'"

Olson recently attended the premiere of "G.I. Jane" with one of his clients, and got to see Kingsley at work first-hand when she was dealing with her client Demi Moore.

"She was there being very attentive to (Moore), telling her which television camera to talk to, which not to," recounted Olson. "She's very interesting. She does it very calmly and discreetly. She's really good because she has trained her clients very well. They know that when Pat raises an eyebrow, it means 'yes' or 'no.' They've allowed her that."

Despite the work she does for her clients, Kingsley herself prefers to stay behind the scenes. (She refused to be interviewed for this story.) She did grant a recent interview to the New Yorker magazine, which noted that Kingsley is something of a loner who rarely socializes with her rich and famous clients and is very interested in liberal political causes. The North Carolina native lives alone in Pacific Palisades.

"She's a concerned member of the entertainment community, but she tries to remain in the background," said Bollinger.

"She doesn't flaunt her power," agreed Olson. "She's a very private person."