What's bizarre is that Matt Labov's decision to start his own flackery follows B|W|R last month promoting him to co-president with Leslie Sloane Zelnik. This is a major, major loss. Labov joined B|W|R in 1994 and built a comedy roster of Jack Black, Steve Carell, Sacha Baron Cohen, Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow, Jay Roach, and Jason Schwartzman. He also consulted on the release campaigns of Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Borat, and Bruno. "That's a HUGE problem for them. He holds ALL of the male comedic talent," a source emailed me. UPDATE: Finally, here's the news release. It's amazing to me that this huge PR operation couldn't get its statement out to me. Then again, no one at that shop ever bothers to answer the phone either. How pathetic is that?:

Los Angeles, CA (February 23, 2010) – After 16 years of shaping the agency’s comedy roster, Matt Labov is departing B|W|R Public Relations to establish his own, yet-unnamed independent company focused on comedy and broader consulting beyond traditional public relations services.

Labov, recently named co-president of B|W|R, will be launching his new venture and will bring with him such longtime clients as Jack Black, Steve Carell, Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, Jay Roach, Seth Rogen and Jason Segel.  As a P.R. and marketing strategist, Labov has also consulted on the release campaigns for such films as Borat, Bruno, Superbad, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, I Love You, Man and the HBO comedy series “Eastbound & Down.”

“The desire to embark on this new

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DDA public relations has upped Dana Archer to SVP and head of its Los Angeles office. She'll also join the 6-person DDA executive board. Archer in her new role promoted Christelle Dupont to senior publicist, Clifford Ng to international publicist, and Manuela Ruggeri in the newly created role of new business coordinator. The flackery is under the new ownership of CEO Lawrence Atkinson and COO John Stannard. Archer left Weber Shandwick and joined DDA PR last March as VP of Corporate Entertainment. Current DDA corporate clients include Imagenation Abu Dhabi, Reliance BIG Entertainment, Dubai International Film Festival, Mpower Pictures, Lleju Productions, Samuel Hadida’s Davis Films. and BrightWide, among others.

Jennifer Allen and Melissa Kates, two of the prominent publicists who left PMK/HBH during its merge with BNC, have named their new PR launch Viewpoint, Inc. The pair opened offices earlier this month in LA and New York for clients including Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Shia LaBeouf, Chris Pine, Katherine Heigl, Kevin James and Christian Bale. Allen had been a managing partner and Kates was senior vice president and head of the PMK/HBH talent department. They told Mike Fleming that they"ll carry on with the old PMK business philosophies learned during a combined 33 years at the PR powerhouse.

EXCLUSIVE: It's effective immediately. Leslie Sloane Zelnik joined B|W|R Public Relations 1995 and for the last decade has run talent and entertainment in New York. Her clients (some in tandem with Nanci Ryder) include Kate Beckinsale, Patrick Dempsey, Megan Fox, Michael J Fox, Chris Rock, Zoey Saldana, Diane Kruger, Blake Lively, Jennifer Lopez, and Rene Zellweger. Matt Labov joined B|W|R in 1994 and built a comedy roster of Jack Black, Steve Carell, Sacha Baron Cohen, Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow, Jay Roach, and Jason Schwartzman and consulted on the release campaigns of Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Borat, and Bruno.

No surprise, but Simon Halls is joining his former HBH partners Stephen Huvane and Robin Baum at their new Slate PR. Halls resigned as co-CEO at PMK/HBH effective on December 31st right after the flackery merged with BNC. (Cindi Berger, PMK's other co-CEO, is remaining to work with Michael Nyman and the rest of the two companies.) "Stephen, Robin, and I have been a team for 15 years, and I wouldn't want to move forward without them,": Halls told me just now. "On top of that, we have worked with Andy Gelb for 9 years and can't say enough about him. And everyone knows that Ina Treciokas, our other new partner, is best in class in entertainment PR."

Halls is bringing all his clients, which include Sam Mendes, Ang Lee, Ridley and Tony Scott, Michael Patrick King, the USA Network, Tom Ford, Akiva Goldsman, Jude Law, Annette Bening, Ryan Murphy, Working Title, Tribeca and Gore Verbinski. Slate PR now also reps Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Anne Hathaway,Demi Moore, Julianne Moore, Uma Thurman, Kirsten Dunst, Liv Tyler, Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Daniel Craig, Ryan Gosling, Naomi Watts, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jimmy Fallon, Harrison Ford, Woody Harrelson, Benicio DelToro, Hugh Laurie and Katie Holmes, plus the SAG awards, the American Music Awards, Critics Choice Awards, and the Vanity Fair Oscar Party. "The company is well positioned to become an instant industry leader," Halls said. "The company has offices in both LA and NYC and is already running with all engines blazing." Spoken like a true PRman.

UPDATES TOLDJA! PMK·BNC Finally Confirm Merger

Still more PMK/HBH flacks are abandoning ship in advance of the January 1st merger of the newly named PMK·BNC joint company. Others have struck out on their own or joined the newly formed Slate PR. Which begs the question: What exactly is BNC left buying when all the shaking up finally stops?

LOS ANGELES, CA, DECEMBER 21, 2009 – ID has tapped longtime PMK/HBH brand publicity executive Victoria Harvie as Vice President of Brand Strategies, CEO Kelly Bush and COO Mara Buxbaum announced today. Harvie will co-head ID’s Brand Strategies Department in Los Angeles with Vice President Heather Greenfield who has successfully managed ID’s brand business over the past four years. Also joining from PMK/HBH is Dan Strickford, signing on as an Account Director.

Longtime ID talent publicist Tamar Cohen is expanding her role from personal publicity to serve as a Senior Account Executive in the NYC office where she will continue to represent a select number of personal clients while integrating into ID’s brand representation. Chet Mehta will continue in his integral role as Senior Account Executive in both the film and brand departments.

“We’re thrilled to have Victoria and Dan join ID,” said Bush. “Together they are a dynamic force and will continue to thrive with our full support. Under Heather’s leadership, we’ve grown our brand department and expanded our services in new and exciting ways. ID

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The flackery long associated with Lee Solters is changing its name "in deference to the late PR guru's wishes". As of January 1st, Solters & Digney will now be known as Digney & Co Public Relations as Jerry Digney adds Merv Griffin's inhouse publicist Marcia Newberger, and travel publicist Arlene Winnick.

UPDATE: Mike Sitrick just confirmed to me that he has sold his "Crisis PR" company. Well, this is a surprise! According to the PRNewswire, Resources Global Professionals, a consultancy spinoff from Deloitte & Touche and a multinational operating subsidiary of Resources Connection Inc (RECN), will hold a conference call tomorrow "to discuss the creation of a new Corporate Advisory and Restructuring business through the acquisition of Sitrick And Company and Brincko Associates". Sitrick and Company is the Century City-based flackery started by Sitrick that's mostly corporate but also handles a lot of showbiz messes, from actor arrests to cinematic hot button issues.