More, very entertaining, public relations fallout surrounding "The Undefeated."

I don't know why people dislike this movie? I give the film, which is all about me and how awesome I am, two thumbs up!

This guy is quickly becoming my all time favorite movie critic, despite the fact that usually he is a conservative hack.

PR Execs Keith Appell and Peter Robbio -- the Tweedledum and Tweedledumber hired to "promote" the Sarah Palin fan film "The Undefeated" (Palin had nothing to do with the production, by the way, and isn't even interviewed in it) -- have been firing away at me in sputtering comments below. "You're done!" says Robbio, absurdly, spittle no doubt flying from the corners of his mouth as he tells his assistant to get him more coffee and plots his next, even more unprofessional, response. This guy needs to hire a damage-control firm to instruct him in the art of sealing one's piehole.

Nay, contra Robbio, I'm just getting started. (And no, I don't feel bad about adding the exclamation point as this is what publicists do in movie ads all the time. Have you ever seen an exclamation point in a serious movie review? Neither have I. Then why are the print ads always saying, "Hilarious! A masterpiece!")

Appell says I wasn't uninvited to today's screening of the film, the only one that has been announced for Manhattan critics. This is because, he says, I wasn't invited in the first place. I suppose this is true. Score one for Appell. Well done. Checkmate! It hadn't occurred to me that I wasn't invited, though, because it hadn't occurred to me that any PR exec promoting a film could be so stupid as to think he gets to choose which reviewer from this paper will review his film. (Appell and Robbio are having rage issues because I pointed out the very obvious flaws in "The Uninvited" in this piece .)
My senior colleague Lou Lumenick was yesterday invited to a screening of "The Uninvited." He passed along the invitation to me. We do this all the time. As all seasoned movie publicists know, when you invite one critic from a newspaper or magazine you have to invite them all. Appell is therefore saying that Lou was invited to this screening of "The Uninvited" -- but I wasn't. Like every other news outlet, we decide who reviews a movie internally. Publicists don't get to pick critic (a) because they don't like critic (b). Everyone in the business knows this, but Appell and Robbio, whose firm CRC Public Relations I'd never previously heard of and never expect or desire to hear from again, don't typically handle New York City critics' screenings. There are 15 or 20 PR firms we deal with all the time, and they all know what they're doing. CRC Public Relations is utterly bereft of a clue, up a deep brown creek without even a tennis racket with which to paddle. What's hilarious about all this is that Lou, who probably had a George McGovern bumper sticker on his lunchbox in college, is far less likely than I, a sensible conservative, am to see the wisdom in a Palin-praising documentary. The makers of the film, if they were wise, would find a clued-in and professional PR firm like Falco Ink or 42 West to deal with critics, but I suppose it's too late for that.

You know it just keeps getting better and better.