PREMIER PUBLIC RELATIONS ACQUIRES McDONALD & RUTTER
Top Entertainment Teams Create PR Powerhouse

(London. Wednesday March 29th, 2006)

Global entertainment publicity firm Premier Public Relations has acquired the highly successful London-based PR agency McDonald & Rutter, it was announced today.

The expanded international PR powerhouse will be jointly run by Premier’s Sara Keene with Charles McDonald and Jonathan Rutter, founding partners of McDonald & Rutter. Pamela Godwin Austen will continue to head the Los Angeles office of Premier. Following the merger, the new-look company, Premier PR incorporating McDonald & Rutter, will have a staff of over 50 in its London and LA offices.

John Reiss, Chairman of Premier PR and of its parent company Miracle Media Group (MMG) said: “I welcome Premier PR’s acquisition of McDonald & Rutter and am delighted that Charles, Jonathan and their superb team are joining us. The two businesses complement each other exceedingly well and will provide a highly professional service to their international client base.”

Commenting on the deal, David Willing, CEO of MMG said: “Premier PR has established an outstanding reputation on both sides of the Atlantic and across all the areas in which it operates. The addition of McDonald & Rutter's talented team and their high-profile client base in film, theatre and television elevates PPR overnight onto another level. The industry is increasingly global in its scope and the new PPR reflects the need for a specialised public relations service with an international scale and perspective."

Sara Keene, CEO of Premier PR since 2004, said: “I am very much looking forward to working alongside Charles and Jonathan to develop our worldwide offering. Our combined resources and experience in UK and international publicity will be unmatched elsewhere in the industry.”

In a joint statement, Charles McDonald and Jonathan Rutter said: “We are very excited about this development. The two companies are an excellent fit. We’ve always taken pride in our reputation for integrity and creativity at McDonald & Rutter and we look forward to developing these qualities further with Premier PR to create a vital new force in the entertainment industry.“

Miracle Media Group is the parent company of Premier PR, of Picture Production Company which provides audio-visual marketing materials for the international entertainment industry and of First Research International which provides market research services to film and television. All companies operate from London and Los Angeles

Premier PR, incorporating McDonald & Rutter, will operate from PPR’s existing offices in central Soho.

BACKGROUND

PREMIER PR

Premier PR was formed in 2000 when MMG acquired established film PR outfit Corbett and Keene. In five years the company has grown dramatically and now offers expertise in film, both in the UK and internationally, as well as in television (both corporate and consumer) home entertainment, event management, brands and celebrity representation.

PPR’s film team has handled titles from production all the way through to DVD release. Recent film campaigns in the UK have included Brokeback Mountain, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Munich, Jarhead and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit. Previous titles include A Beautiful Mind, American Beauty, Amores Perros, Braveheart, Calendar Girls, Catch Me If You Can, Chicken Run, East is East, The End of the Affair, The English Patient, Shrek 1 and 2 and Shark Tale.

The LA office has handled the international campaigns for SAW II, Underworld:Evolution, Grizzly Man, Hotel Rwanda and the upcoming Flyboys.

Premier PR also offers a skilled media management service and has handled media coverage recently at premieres of The White Countess, Casanova, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and events including the ELLE Style Awards and the Empire Film Awards.

Premier PR’s recent TV successes include production and transmission publicity for hit dramas Life on Mars, Hustle, No Angels and Spooks, as well as corporate PR campaigns for Tiger Aspect, FBC Media and Sony Pictures Television International. Personal clients include Jude Law, Ralph Fiennes, Kate Winslet, Sam Mendes, Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan.

For the last three years, Premier PR has run the press campaign for the London Film Festival and is also the London rep for the San Sebastian Film Festival. The company has a long history of representing films successfully at the Cannes, Berlin and Venice Film Festivals.

McDONALD & RUTTER

Founded in 1994, McDonald & Rutter quickly established itself as one of the most respected, best liked public relations outfits in Europe, handling campaigns for films in production through to worldwide release and developing on-going relationships with directors including David Lynch, Mike Leigh, Todd Haynes, Roger Michell, Lukas Moodysson, Anthony Minghella, Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier, Jim Jarmusch and Pedro Almodovar. McDonald & Rutter handles corporate publicity for UK companies including BBC Films and has cultivated a formidable reputation for its year-end award campaigns on behalf of American studios. During the past 10 years, its UK distribution campaigns have included a wide range of international hits such as The Constant Gardener, Good Night and Good Luck, Billy Elliot, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Vera Drake, Finding Neverland, Amelie, Lost in Translation, Gosford Park, Iris, Cold Mountain, Bend it like Beckham, Bad Education, Far From Heaven, The Pianist and The Hours.

On the television front, McDonald & Rutter has recently handled both production and transmission publicity for a number of high profile dramas and documentaries. These include Sex Traffic, Not Only But Always, Elizabeth I and The Road to Guantanamo for Channel 4, and The English Harem for Feelgood Fiction and ITV.

McDonald & Rutter also has a very successful theatre department founded in February 2004 and run by ex-Almeida and National Theatre staffer Janine Shalom. Recent theatre credits include Billy Elliot, Blackbird, Don Carlos, RADA and The Unicorn Theatre and the upcoming Movin' Out, Spamalot and Wicked as well as My Name is Rachel Corrie and The Play's The Thing.

Premier PR: 020 7292 8330
www.premierpr.com