The small weekly Conneticut newspaper which allegedly employed Manning is real but that is as far as the reality went. Sony has promised to take "appropiate action" (in other words the fellow who thought this up will get a hefty promotion!)
 

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion
 

Found this nifty tidbit on the New Zealand Herald website. To get the story visit www.nzherald.co.nz and search for "David Manning" or "Sony".
 

Here's the specific link to the New Zealand Herald story of the real David Manning:
New Zealand Herald Article About Real David Manning

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

"There's a sucker born every minute".

Unfortunately, untruths perpetuate themselves and take on a life of their own. Even the famous quote attributed to PT Barnum may never have actually been said by him!:

Link to origin of PT Barnum quote

____________________________________________
"There's a sucker born every minute"
------------------------------------

Those of P. T. Barnum's acquaintances who mentioned the
subject were unanimous in insisting that he never said this. The
closest thing to it that can be found in Barnum's writings is:
"I said that the people like to be humbugged when, as in my case,
there is no humbuggery except that which consists in throwing up
sky-rockets and issuing flaming bills and advertisements to attract
public attention to shows which all acknowledge are always clean,
moral, instructive, elevating, and give back to their patrons in
every case several times their money's worth" (the Bridgeport
Standard, 2 Oct. 1885).

Captain Alexander Williams, a New York City police inspector
at the time, attributed "There's a sucker born every minute, but
none of them ever die" to Joseph Bessimer, a notorious confidence
trickster of the early 1880s known to the police as "Paper Collar
Joe". See _P. T. Barnum: the Legend and the Man_, by A. H. Saxon
(Columbia University Press, 1989).

"There is a Sucker Born Every Minute" is the title of one of
the songs in the 1980 Broadway musical _Barnum_ by Jim Dale.
____________________________________________

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Also, Sony is facing a nice big "false advertising" lawsuit because of the phony pullquotes. Heads should roll over this crap.

"If readers are wondering why weekly publications like the Voice sometimes end up reviewing a studio film a week or two late, it's because the studios are often less than thrilled that their movies get reviewed at all. Spearheading a media movement, Paramount officially decided this year that no publication will publish a review of their films even a minute before opening day--which leaves the out-on-Wednesday Voice uninvited to the prom. It remains something of a wonder that the studios allow even half of their product—-brainless action films, hollow star vehicles, goofball teen comedies, etc.—-to be reviewed at all, but Paramount, with a docket dominated this year by Tomb Raider, Domestic Disturbance, Down to Earth, Enemy at the Gates, Rat Race, and Vanilla Sky, has serious reason to keep its cards close. Any review beyond a David Manning-style blurb can only beat horses already butchered for dog food. The studio's major triumph over unlikeliness—-Pootie Tang—-suffered the scantest marketing and least trumpeted press screening of the year."—-Michael Atkinson

Such a policy should affect not only a metro weekly (such as the Village Voice) but also the likes of Newsweek and Time. On the other hand the latest Paramount release, Orange County, had pre-release ads filled with pull quotes from "critics" nobody has ever heard of.

For the record, Michael Atkinson is the No. 3 movie critic at the Village Voice (behind J. Hoberman and Amy Taubin).

It has been 1290 days since the last post.