08 Mar Michael Sitrick: PR Crisis Manager. Street Brawler. Rock God?
By JOHN HARLOW
As a high-profile master of global crisis management over four decades, Palisadian Michael Sitrick is used to blow back when defending the unpopular.
But the rowdy protesters under his office window a few weeks ago was a new experience.
Sitrick has, in his new book “The Fixer,” on the art of protecting high-profile reputations, recalled joking to one client facing corporate hostile fire: “What are they gonna do, assassinate us?”
This calmer of bad karma, the Hail Mary of battered causes, is currently representing Harvey Weinstein in the media—a stand unlikely to win him many cuddles. (Editor’s note: In early March 2018 Sitrick resigned from the Weinstein team.) So, had #MeToo found the one man who might stand between the fallen movie tycoon and a life in orange jumpsuits?
If so, he was prepared. The penthouse floor above San Vicente has those sleekly automated slide-down blinds familiar from supervillain lairs. And leather chairs perfect for waiting out a siege. And, maybe, secret escape tunnels behind the Dodger wall art.
Even more thankfully, Sitrick And Company was not this day the protest target de jour.
That was the Brentwood headquarters of Breitbart News, a floor down—a newcomer just beneath him, in so many ways.
