Jack Ketsoyan is one Hollywood’s veteran publicists. I first connected with Jack on Instagram as a fan and we have been communicating ever since. We met at his first book launching in Barnes and Noble in Santa Monica. Jack is down to earth, personable and the anti-diva of publicists. In fact, he was the first one to greet me. I meet a lot of entertainment publicists but truly, Jack is one of the nicest publicists I have met.
Entertainment Tonight and other media were present. Jack was introduced by his friend and client Erika Jayne (Real Housewives of Beverly Hills). After a brief interview with ET, Erika enthusiastically introduced Kevin Dickson (co-author) and Jack Ketsoyan. Erika mentioned, “I’m here to introduce Kevin and Jack. Jack and I like what you heard…we’ve been together for so many years. I consider him my family, so I’m super proud tonight.”
The book is about Hollywood behind the scenes. It is not just a place for glitz and glamour, but the reality of being in it and making it.
Lindsey Kelk, a bestselling British chick lit author and journalist hosted the event with some questions to the authors. Kelk was the first person who read Blind Item and described the book as, “a rip-roaring summer fun ride ….it is scandalous, it is fun, it is exciting, it is sexy.”
About the authors
Kevin Dickson was a journalist/tabloid editor who worked for In Touch and Life and Style magazine. While Ketsoyan started very early in his career at the age of 16 for a small PR firm. The rest is history. The two authors met through Paris Hilton and they become quick friends. Ketsoyan said of Dickson, “He was someone I could trust. He was someone I could tell things that I knew would never get published. He is not gonna go behind my back and do something that he is not supposed to do.”
Lindsey asked the authors, were there any scandals that were too juicy to go in the book?
Jack: We were planning maybe down the road that we would put in [scandals] but we didn’t wanna go to crazy, outrageous ’cause we wanted people to believe in it.
Kevin: We were talking about the worst day that you had at work. I remember this one day where I edited this photo shoot at a home of a celebrity. So much horrible stuff happen that when I got to my car, I was like ‘I can’t do this job anymore!’ We talked about that type of character cause this is how we approach this book. This is the type of character we need. If we put it, you wouldn’t believe it… you wouldn’t believe a word of it. You would think we were lying and so that person got nixed.
Stage relationships
In the last part of the discussion, Kelk asked about stage relationships in Hollywood.”Is it a real thing? Do people have stage relationships?” Jack replied, “Yes they do and it’s mostly young starlets who have been auditioning for so long and they just do not get a break. Finally, an agent approaches them and says, ‘there is a heartthrob that would take you to that next level. If you want to have a contract for three years, you would get this role that you want, you would get the movies that you want, and you will have a pretty decent life.” Jack added, “that’s what happens, usually three years. The third year you kinda see what happens.”
Towards the end of the book signing, Jamie an attendee from Los Angeles said, “It was so wonderful. Just being able to meet everyone and being able to get a little back story about what the book is about is really incredible.It was so fun.”
Blind Item is now number nine on Amazon for single women category and People magazine named Blind Item as one of the best summer books.
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