Post by doublecheesebubgers on Jun 18, 2024 4:40:12 GMT -5
I've recently gone down the Max Clifford rabbit hole. For those unaware, Max Clifford was one of the biggest publicists in the world. The likes of Simon Cowell, OJ Simpson, and various alleged closeted footballers all came to him to both enhance and protect their reputations at all costs. Where did The Sun's "Freddie Star Ate My Hamster" arose from? Apparently, Clifford came up with that story, which boosted Starr's career. Why are there no openly gay footballers as of 2024? Well, Clifford supposedly helped football clubs promote a "straight image" of allegedly gay players. He claimed English football is incredibly homophobic, which is why he obtained so many clients by the late 2000s. Go check out his Wikipedia page (link); it provides just the tip of the iceberg of publicity stunts and other efforts Clifford conducted for his clients' benefit.
Clifford was a surprisingly powerful individual. Piers Morgan once claimed "Max knows more secrets of the rich and famous than anyone in the world". That is incredibly scary and fascinating at the same time. Nowadays, most people probably know him because of Operation Yewtree, which saw him imprisoned for sex attacks on girls and women. He passed away at the age of 74 after supposedly collapsing in his cell.
Whereas most people probably focus on Jimmy Savile, Gary Glitter and Rolf Harris, the life and crimes of Clifford seem to go under the radar. Yet, I'd argue that Clifford was actually the most untouchable of them all, simply because of how much dirt he had on other despicable men and women. During an interview on This Morning in October 2012 (link), Clifford claimed he knew Savile and Glitter were abusing children, with him also alleging plenty of other stars from television and music were regularly at it during the 1960s and 1970s.
He mentioned this about young musicians back then: "In the '60s and '70s you had all the young pop stars, and you had young girls throwing themselves at them going in the dressing rooms at the concerts halls, everywhere they went. What happened, happened - and they were young guys themselves - asked for birth certificates and I'm not condoning it but that's what happened." See, it turns out Thomas Moffitt's library card demand wasn't so out of the ordinary after all! On a more serious note, it seems Clifford's claim had a ton of merit... Top of the Pops, hosted by Savile and featuring many influential musicians, was rife with sexual predators ranging from the presenters to the roadies (link).
Reading up on Clifford and his influence in protecting other predators yields disturbing and eye-popping revelations. In 2008, the makers of the documentary Starsuckers got to interview Clifford. One of the men also concealed a hidden camera and recorded Clifford talking about the lengths he would go to stop reputation-destroying stories from leaking. In the film, the interview is unsurprisingly censored. But in 2018, a user by the name of popb1tch (link) leaked the uncut tape!! Now, we know just who Clifford was talking about... some VERY interesting stuff about the Clintons, Dustin Hoffman and especially Mohamed Al-Fayed was discussed.
Another video that makes the rounds is an interview Clifford had with (reportedly) Dominic Carmen. In it, he talks about representing the Harkesses, three women (mother and two daughters) who accused the Conservative defence minister Alan Clark of sleeping with them. Here's the kicker... Clark admitted that he DID sleep with all of them. But he claimed that when he did so, they were all above age. He repeatedly denied claims he slept with the sisters when they were 13 and 15 respectively (link). In the end, Clark's reputation was tarnished but he, for the most part at least, avoided being declared as a predator. After all, the Harkesses apparently got £250,000 from interviews thanks to Clifford's influence (link).
Interestingly, years following Clark's death in 1999, Clifford mentioned how Clark and the Harkesses all enjoyed the ordeal and financially benefitted from it. However, Clifford revealed Clark actually did abuse the girls when they were only 14. He claims the only reason this revelation never leaked to the press is because "by the time the pair of them came over here, most of the time they were totally pissed, and mother and daughter were fighting each other to get on this television show. Turned into a farce and a pantomime." This video resurfaced in November 2012 I believe. In the linked YouTube video, a user by "dominiccarmen" insisted that the interview was conducted openly with Clifford's permission for some TV documentary. I don't know if said documentary was ever publicly released.
To cap off this post, here's a creepy moment where Clifford approached a Sky News reporter during his trial. Probably some silly attempt at a power play or something. Regardless, Clifford played a key role in the UK and other western media's fucked-up coverage of celebrities and politicians.
Clifford was a surprisingly powerful individual. Piers Morgan once claimed "Max knows more secrets of the rich and famous than anyone in the world". That is incredibly scary and fascinating at the same time. Nowadays, most people probably know him because of Operation Yewtree, which saw him imprisoned for sex attacks on girls and women. He passed away at the age of 74 after supposedly collapsing in his cell.
Whereas most people probably focus on Jimmy Savile, Gary Glitter and Rolf Harris, the life and crimes of Clifford seem to go under the radar. Yet, I'd argue that Clifford was actually the most untouchable of them all, simply because of how much dirt he had on other despicable men and women. During an interview on This Morning in October 2012 (link), Clifford claimed he knew Savile and Glitter were abusing children, with him also alleging plenty of other stars from television and music were regularly at it during the 1960s and 1970s.
He mentioned this about young musicians back then: "In the '60s and '70s you had all the young pop stars, and you had young girls throwing themselves at them going in the dressing rooms at the concerts halls, everywhere they went. What happened, happened - and they were young guys themselves - asked for birth certificates and I'm not condoning it but that's what happened." See, it turns out Thomas Moffitt's library card demand wasn't so out of the ordinary after all! On a more serious note, it seems Clifford's claim had a ton of merit... Top of the Pops, hosted by Savile and featuring many influential musicians, was rife with sexual predators ranging from the presenters to the roadies (link).
Reading up on Clifford and his influence in protecting other predators yields disturbing and eye-popping revelations. In 2008, the makers of the documentary Starsuckers got to interview Clifford. One of the men also concealed a hidden camera and recorded Clifford talking about the lengths he would go to stop reputation-destroying stories from leaking. In the film, the interview is unsurprisingly censored. But in 2018, a user by the name of popb1tch (link) leaked the uncut tape!! Now, we know just who Clifford was talking about... some VERY interesting stuff about the Clintons, Dustin Hoffman and especially Mohamed Al-Fayed was discussed.
Another video that makes the rounds is an interview Clifford had with (reportedly) Dominic Carmen. In it, he talks about representing the Harkesses, three women (mother and two daughters) who accused the Conservative defence minister Alan Clark of sleeping with them. Here's the kicker... Clark admitted that he DID sleep with all of them. But he claimed that when he did so, they were all above age. He repeatedly denied claims he slept with the sisters when they were 13 and 15 respectively (link). In the end, Clark's reputation was tarnished but he, for the most part at least, avoided being declared as a predator. After all, the Harkesses apparently got £250,000 from interviews thanks to Clifford's influence (link).
Interestingly, years following Clark's death in 1999, Clifford mentioned how Clark and the Harkesses all enjoyed the ordeal and financially benefitted from it. However, Clifford revealed Clark actually did abuse the girls when they were only 14. He claims the only reason this revelation never leaked to the press is because "by the time the pair of them came over here, most of the time they were totally pissed, and mother and daughter were fighting each other to get on this television show. Turned into a farce and a pantomime." This video resurfaced in November 2012 I believe. In the linked YouTube video, a user by "dominiccarmen" insisted that the interview was conducted openly with Clifford's permission for some TV documentary. I don't know if said documentary was ever publicly released.
To cap off this post, here's a creepy moment where Clifford approached a Sky News reporter during his trial. Probably some silly attempt at a power play or something. Regardless, Clifford played a key role in the UK and other western media's fucked-up coverage of celebrities and politicians.