Matthew Hiltzik: Where to Even Start?

This profile of PR man Matthew Hiltzik today—and Hiltzik's relationship with his client Glenn Beck—is a fascinating thing. Hiltzik leapfrogged from Miramax to the New York office of Freud Communications to a time when he went missing in Florida for a while to his own firm. Along the way, he worked with Hillary Clinton and Katie Couric. Well. Hiltzik has, let us call it, a style that is remarkable. His technique consists of actually not being able to stop talking. He will call you on the phone and eventually you just have to hang up on him. He says now that he represents Couric and Annie Leibovitz and Alec Baldwin, but I don't think that's entirely accurate; actually, other people at Freud handled Baldwin during the time he needed "crisis management," and I believe they still do. (Baldwin is in fact still listed as being handled by Freud on Who Represents.) For another thing, Freud Communication's disentanglement with Hiltzik was intense. The home office in London actually could not get him to leave the office. As far as Katie Couric goes? Hiltzik's interventions with the press drove Couric's CBS people to distraction and even rage. Don Imus, who he also calls a client, was in crisis management at Freud as well. [Update: Apparently Baldwin and Don Imus actually did follow Hiltzik, after Freud! And Imus is, like Beck was, a client of Hiltzik's father.] Anyway, fascinating guy!