Bumble Ward’s stint at Twentieth Century Fox as executive vice president of film publicity has turned out to be short-lived. But rather than crying over it, she tells Indiewire’s Anne Thompson that she is eager for the next phase of her career to take hold:

“I’ve never been so giddy about the opportunities out there,” she says. “There’s a sweet spot with movies, directors and social media.”

Ward joined Fox in August of 2011 and had a contract that ran through February of 2013. But her time with the News Corp. family ended officially yesterday.

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Now that 20th Century Fox has confirmed last week’s Mike Fleming Deadline.com scoop about Bumble Ward coming out of retirement to head up the studio’s national film publicity department, it’s worth revisiting an interview she gave to Kim Masters in 2005.

Although Ward’s LA Times phoner echoed sentiments captured in a fall 2002 New Yorker mini-profile by Tad Friend, she still managed to rankle the godfather of LA show business PR, the late Warren Cowan. Per Cowan’s response in the same newspaper five days later:

Ward’s saying that she can count on “one hand” the number of great people in PR came as a shock to me. I know hundreds of outstanding people in the PR field… I am sorry that Ward was not blessed with the feeling of pure joy that I have for an occupation that has brought me a lifetime of enjoyment.

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There’s a very funny blog post today by former big-time Hollywood publicist Bumble Ward (pictured).

The Laurel Canyon resident is fed up with the fact that her first name is a minefield when it comes to dealing with smiley-faced baristas and sickly sweet pastry shop employees. She writes that Bumble has been mangled so often at Starbucks as “Barbara” that her husband now calls her the latter in public, to his great amusement. Meanwhile, earlier today, at the behest of daughter Honor, Ward fibbed when asked by a Sweet Butter Kitchen server for the information, responding with the much simpler moniker of “Emma:”

For most people, “What is your first name?” is a very easy question. For me, it involves elaborate lies, some soul searching, and a huge dose of tamping down the effrontery. Is it my age? Is it that I’m English, that I feel it’s forward to ask someone you’ve never met before their first name?…

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