Delighted to see George's long-time publicist
Connie Filepello has received a legacy in Michael's will.
I'm dying to know how much but it's too rude to ask.
Connie is such a delight and recently lost 2 of her top clients: George and
Karl Lagerfield.
I've tried to tell today's clueless PRs how it works but they just don't get it.
Connie is the child of Italian immigrants to Australia and was brought up in the tough working class western suburbs of Sydney but hit the big time in the UK with years of hard work.
Unlike most PRs, bar a handful of clever ones, she doesn't drop journalists and contacts when they lose a job knowing sensibly that they'll probably eventually get another job and be in favour again.
Another who was just the same is the legendary late
Percy Savage, another Aussie who was brought up on a farm in QLD and traveled to France in 1947 and basically invented the
Red Carpet.
No designer had ever invited celebrities to their shows until Percy hit on the idea and rolled out the Red Carpet and the rest is history. He became the most powerful fashion publicist in Europe but remembered every single hack or journalist and treated them equally including ones who were "between jobs" (me a lot of the time
).
I still prefer
Eau Savauge which was named after him by
Yves St Laurent on a whim when he was trying to think of a name for his new men's fragrance and Percy walked into his office.