Sony Execs Suspended for Falsifying Film Critic Blurbs

June 8 -- LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Sony Pictures Entertainment has disciplined two advertising executives for their roles in creating a fictional film critic whose ecstatic appraisals were used to promote films released by the studio, Daily Variety reported today.

According to company insiders, Josh Goldstine, senior vice president of creative advertising, and Matthew Cramer, director of creative advertising, were rebuked and suspended without pay for 30 days.

Meanwhile, Sony has been hit with a class-action lawsuit brought by two moviegoers who claimed they were duped into seeing Heath Ledger's A Knight's Tale because they were inspired by the glowing review blurbs attributed to the bogus critic, David Manning, Variety reported.

Manning, who had been billed as a reviewer for the Ridgefield Press in Connecticut, was exposed as a fabrication by Newsweek last weekend.

Damages were not specified, but the suit seeks repayment for the millions of U.S. moviegoers who bought tickets to four Columbia films on the basis of phony blurbs used to promote them.

According to Variety, Goldstine was promoted to his position only last November and oversaw all marketing efforts except publicity for Columbia. Cramer created the quotes attributed to Manning, which were used in numerous ads for Hollow Man, Vertical Limit, and Rob Schneider's The Animal.

Cramer is understood to have come up with the name as a sly wink to his old college chum, David Bradley Manning, who, like Cramer, graduated from the University of Southern California in 1992, Variety said.

In a statement by the studio, worldwide marketing head Jeff Blake said that new "checks and balances" had been created to "ensure the accuracy of quotes contained in future advertising campaigns" and "to prevent this from happening again."

Martin Hersam, a managing partner at the Ridgefield Press, told Variety that unlike the irate moviegoers, his company has no plans to pursue legal action against Sony for the fabrications.