Here are some photos of Taylor Swift in LA last Thursday. She was going to her dance class – when she’s in LA, she goes to a lot of dance classes. I don’t know why I know that, except that I tend to remember that it’s never “Swifty is going into a gym to work out.” Swifty does not “work out” like a peasant. She dances, for fun and because she’s a girly-girl. She would never “lift weights.” She would never do a spin class! She only dances.
Anyway, unbeknownst to many of us, Taylor Swift has been a long-term relationship this whole time. It’s been undercover and quiet. And Swifty just had a bad breakup with this long-time companion. That breakup? It was with her publicist. Tay-Tay has had the same publicist for seven years – you could argue that her publicist helped make Taylor into the creepy cat lady we see before us. And now it’s over. WE ARE NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER.
Taylor Swift and her publicist of nearly seven years are parting ways, Billboard has learned. Paula Erickson, whose Nashville-based Erickson Public Relations has handled the singer’s press since 2007, informed the Swift management team that she is resigning come mid-March. According to a source, Swift has her sights set on bringing all PR efforts in-house to the management company.
Erickson started handling Swift, 24, as the country star’s debut album in 2006 was about to cross the million-sales mark and continued on through 2012’s Red, which sold 1.2 million in its first week (according to Nielsen SoundScan). A new Swift album is expected in late 2014.
Although seven years can seem like a lifetime in the music business, a handful of veteran reps count long relationships with their clients. Among them: Liz Rosenberg, with Madonna since the early 1980s; Marilyn Laverty, Bruce Springsteen’s rep for just as long; and Larry Solters, The Eagles’ publicist for several years during the ’70s and from 1994 until today.
Offers one high-ranking PR executive: “Taylor will have her pick of top-shelf publicists, but the challenge is finding that person you know and trust. Bringing PR in-house assures that person is directly involved in advising on what needs to be done and what doesn’t.”
The split marks the second recent high-profile publicist-artist breakup. On Feb. 27, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Drake and ID Public Relations had parted ways following Drake being bumped from the cover of Rolling Stone.
It would be funny if Taylor wrote an entire album about THIS breakup, but that probably won’t happen. I wonder if this wasn’t a simple case of Taylor outgrowing the management team she’s had since she was a teenager. Or maybe this is about Taylor wanting to shake up her image a little bit since most people associate her with words like: creepy, immature, stalker, antiquing, cat lady, and “Taylor Swift, the girlfriend of high school junior Conor Kennedy.” Still, you can’t deny that her publicist did good work – Swifty is well-known for being professional and kind, her brand is solid and Swifty is one of the most powerful women in the music industry. I hope there are some breakup songs about this.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
