It’s General Motors on Line One, Mr. Redford

Think Hollywood is too corporate these days? It’s just getting started. Last week publicity powerhouse PMK (which handles names like Cruise, Pfeiffer, Hanks and Damon) finally consented to marry McCann-Erickson (clients include GM, MasterCard and Coca-Cola). The New York ad giant was not so much interested in PMK’s tidy profit margin -- “We’re just chump change to them,” says Leslee Dart, one of PMK’s three partners -- as in its vast warehouse of stars. “Celebrity icons are brands,” says John Dooner, McCann-Erickson’s CEO, “and there may be opportunities to work with like-minded brands in the corporate world.” Such work will probably be more subtle than, say, Sean Penn doing a Coke commercial. “We’re not in the advertising business; we’re in the publicity business,” notes PMK partner Pat Kingsley (the third PMK pooh-bah: Lois Smith). But by schmoozing with its new friends in the entertainment biz, says Dart, McCann-Erickson will be able to “tip off its clients to trends that are emerging” -- in effect, a savvy little spy network at the heart of our cultural Zeitgeist. Synergy, baby, synergy.