''Starsuckers'' is a 2009 British documentary film aiming to expose the "shams and deceit involved in creating a pernicious

celebrity culture Celebrity culture is a high-volume exposure to celebrities' personal lives on a global scale. It is inherently tied to consumer interests where celebrities transform their fame to become product brands. Whereas a culture can usually be physically ...

". Directed by Chris Atkins, director of the 2007 documentary '' Taking Liberties'', it shows the production team planting a variety of celebrity-related stories in the

UK media There are several different types of mass media in the United Kingdom: television, radio, newspapers, magazines and websites. The United Kingdom is known for its large music industry, along with its new and upcoming artists. The country also has ...

, such as a claim that the singer

Avril Lavigne Avril Ramona Lavigne ( ; ; born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She is a key musician in popularizing pop-punk music, as she paved the way for female-driven, punk-influenced pop music in the early 2000s. List of awa ...

had been seen asleep in a

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

. A variety of

tabloid newspaper A tabloid is a newspaper format characterized by its compact size, smaller than a broadsheet. The term originates from the 19th century, when the London-based pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, Burroughs Wellcome & Co. used the term to de ...

s accepted the stories without corroboration or evidence. The film launched as part of the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

's 53rd Film Festival. Thirty minutes of footage from the film were shown to the

Leveson Inquiry The Leveson Inquiry was a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the British press following the News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed in July 2011. A serie ...

as part of the evidence presented by the film's director, Chris Atkins.

Legal threats from Max Clifford

On 23 October 2009, six days before the ''Starsuckers'' premiere, the makers reported that they had received an e-mail from the law firm

Carter-Ruck Carter-Ruck is a British law firm founded by Peter Carter-Ruck. The firm specialises in libel, privacy, international law and commercial disputes. The leading legal directories (Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners) rank Carter-Ruck in the top ...

, acting on behalf of controversial

publicist A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for work or a project such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists wh ...

Max Clifford Maxwell Frank Clifford (6 April 1943 – 10 December 2017) was an English publicist and convicted sex offender who was particularly associated with promoting " kiss and tell" stories in tabloid newspapers. In December 2012, as part of Operat ...

and threatening them with an

injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...

Criminal convictions

In December 2015, three

City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

traders, James Hyde, Hamish Maclellan, and Phillip Jenkins, along with their accountant Terence Potter, were convicted of conspiring to cheat

HM Revenue & Customs His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (commonly HM Revenue and Customs, or HMRC, and formerly Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) is a Departments of the United Kingdom Government, department of the UK government responsible for the tax collectio ...

by falsifying documents to show that they had each actively worked 10 or more hours a week on the production of Starsuckers and were eligible for tax rebates. Three other defendants were acquitted at the same trial. In June 2016, two further producers of Starsuckers, Christopher Walsh Atkins and Christina Slater, were convicted of the same charge of conspiring to cheat HM Revenue & Customs, and were jailed for 5 and 4 years respectively. Terence Potter was again convicted.

References

External links

* http://www.starsuckersmovie.com *
''Screen Daily''

UK screen
2009 films British documentary films British independent films Celebrity Documentary films about the media 2009 documentary films 2009 independent films 2000s English-language films 2000s British films English-language documentary films English-language independent films {{UK-documentary-film-stub

Legal threats from Max Clifford

Criminal convictions

See also

References

External links