Memoir: 'Every morning to earn my bread I go to the market where lies are bought," wrote Bertold Brecht of his sojourn in Hollywood. "With renewed hope, I join the ranks of the sellers."
Brecht's bitter reflection would be Max Clifford's proud boast. Britain's famous scandal-broker was responsible for the unforgettable 1986 tabloid headline, "Freddie Starr ate my hamster". Freddie Starr never ate anyone's hamster. His accuser knew he hadn't. So did Clifford, who sold the story, and the editor of the Sun at the time, Kelvin McKenzie, who bought it. The Sun printed extra copies, all those involved pocketed a few quid, and the comedian's flagging career received a temporary boost. That none of it was true was all part of a tabloid game in which journalism is an arm of the entertainment industry.
Clifford has been called the greatest image-maker and breaker of the 21st century, employed as much for what he can keep out of the papers as what he gets in. Take the Rebecca Loos-David Beckham affair. Loos contacted Clifford and a £300,000 deal was set up with the News of the World. Beckham was seen as a devoted family man, idolised by millions of fans, so the allegation that he had been playing away from home caused a furore. But, as Clifford cheerfully admits, if he'd been hired by Beckham instead of Loos, he would have easily squashed the story by telling Beckham to say he lent his mobile phone to a friend, then bribing the friend to "confess" that he had sent the incriminating sexy texts for a laugh. Again, it wouldn't have been true - but, hey, Becks would have stayed out of trouble. And Max Clifford would have cheated his way to another victory.
Loos earned around £700,000, all told, and her notoriety led to TV spots such as reality shows Celebrity Love Island and, of course, The Farm, in which she was filmed masturbating a pig. Thus, with the blissful lack of self-awareness characteristic of so many of today's instant celebrities, did she embrace the big-time.
Max Clifford was born in Surrey in 1943, and grew up in a household where money was tight and values old-fashioned. He left school at 15 and, after a spell in local journalism, became a music publicist at the height of Beatlemania. He set up in PR on his own in 1971, looking after visiting stars such as Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson, sometimes supplying sexual partners for them. According to Clifford, Brando "liked lots of small dark girls, particularly Polynesian, Thai and Hawaiian, either together or one after the other." Clifford also threw lavish, sexually-charged parties for celebrities, attended by ambitious women: ". . . they saw the parties as a way of getting an Equity card. In those days the actors' union was a closed shop and getting a card was like finding gold dust. Fortunately, I knew one or two agents who would issue false contracts in return for sexual favours."
He's perfectly matter-of-fact about these escapades, as he is about his role in breaking the scandal involving Tory politician David Mellor and Antonia de Sancha, Will Carling's trysts with Diana, Princess of Wales, and the downfall of Jeffrey Archer and pop paedophiles Gary Glitter and Jonathan King. He sets up the scoop and agrees the fee, then "suggests" that the newspaper also mentions some of the commercial products of his everyday clients in, say, the beauty pages. "I don't think it was morally wrong that he often controlled my agenda," says Piers Morgan, former editor of the Daily Mirror. "He understood, as I did, that the whole thing was a game."
Max Clifford: Read All About It doesn't appear to be "by" anyone. The names of Clifford and Daily Mail journalist Angela Levin are on the cover, and the text alternates fawning prose by her and vainglorious quotes from the great man. So Clifford is in control as usual, while not actually writing an autobiography. Most of the stories are pretty familiar by now, and little new seems to have been added. You've got to hand it to the spinmeister and his associate for this transparent bid to rake in a bit more dosh dishing yesterday's dirt.
Max Clifford: Read All About It, By Max Clifford and Angela Levin, Virgin Books, 248pp. £18.99
Stephen Dixon has worked as a journalist for the Daily Mirror, the Star and the News of the World