STAR IN HOT WATER? THEY CALL CRISIS MANAGERS LIKE ME...

They called the segment “unscripted”. But having spent decades at the heart of the crisis comms profession, there’s no doubt that the messaging and delivery in Alec Baldwin’s ABC interview would have been honed, crafted and stress-tested by a team of professionals. Baldwin was unaware that the gun he was holding during a scene on the set of Rust had live ammunition in it and says he did not pull the trigger, but that a fault of some sort caused it to go off. Still, the emotional and legal stakes at play are exceptionally high. At the most expensive end, stars can pay up to £500,000 per week for such expertise. But for those in the hot seat, you cannot put a price on the value of a calm, steady hand. Baldwin’s case is a minefield. It is a global story, and everyone will be making up their mind based on limited facts. His advisers’ main concern would have been making him look as human as possible, walking the tightrope between emotional impact and the official line approved by lawyers. For stars in hot water, there is a need to control your ego and what you say – less really is more.

That said, audiences smell a fake, and authenticity is key.

Sincerity cannot be scripted; as soon as you look as if you’re reading from one, you’ve lost a large portion of the audience. There is also how the person looks, their body

language, their outfit and how they communicate, with Prince Andrew’s 2019 interview with the BBC’S Emily Maitlis going down in history as one of the great disasters. As an actor, Baldwin is at least more comfortable on camera, but things don’t end there: social media experts will have been enlisted to scour the likes of Facebook and Twitter for reactions to the interview.

We tend to remember the disasters, but not the successes. Unlike other types of PR, crisis work is most successful when it’s invisible.