We loved Nora Ephron, Ernest Borgnine and Charles Durning as much as the next guy, but we’re still a little sad to learn that the friends and colleagues of the film industry’s late, great publicists have to struggle to get their names mentioned during Oscar night’s obituary segment. People like Lois Smith worked behind the scenes to shape the careers of some of the biggest names in the business! It’s not like they were boom operators or best boys, right? (We kid, we kid.)

Today’s Academy Awards nominations mark Hollywood’s second-biggest PR day (this year’s theme seems to be “Thank you, Steven Spielberg, for keeping things classy”). But the movie industry may be re-thinking some of its promotional strategies in coming years–especially those involving Facebook.

In short, some studio executives and their press teams have begun to wonder whether “likes” amount to box office returns. It would seem that the two parties’ revenue streams have crossed–and anyone who’s seen Ghostbusters knows what that means.

It’s all about Facebook’s new algorithm. While the site once served as a free marketing platform for studios, promo posts now bring limited returns unless they’re “sponsored stories”–which means more money, of course. You want “reach” and “engagement”? Get ready to pay up. Some studios are “finding new ways to…interact” with audiences by “bringing in their own writers” to “help create more engaging campaigns”. Sounds like more work for PR teams, doesn’t it?

Should media folks in La-La Land cut their Facebook budgets and stop counting on the social network to drive ticket sales? It makes sense to us, because we’ve never “liked” a movie that we haven’t seen. But we wonder how studios can replace this free platform.

Oh, and while we’re at it, here are a few other things Hollywood could do with a little less of:

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This may come as a shock, but the most powerful PR folks in Tinseltown don’t work for the Church of Scientology.

Today Business Insider provides us with a fascinating list of the biggest names that you’ll never see on the big screen—and it turns out that Entourage was fairly accurate! (We mean this in terms of publicists being 24-7 workaholics who are always on call, not in terms of actors being talentless douchebags who make lots of money while doing very little work and facing no consequences for their consistently bad behavior.)

The people on this list earn their often-considerable salaries by working their asses off and thinking of their clients’ interests above all else; in other words, by being consummate PR professionals who understand very well that image is everything. They may be seen as low-key deal-makers, but here’s a telling quip: “When we asked each of the 20 publicists on our list for further information, almost every single one replied: ‘Who else is on the list?’” Always on the job, indeed.

The most interesting thing about the picks, which were based on client star power, work portfolios and insiders’ nominations, may be the variety of clients handled by various publicists–success clearly demands a keen understanding of pop culture in its various guises, from high to lowbrow and all things in between.

Some takeaways:

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Lately canines have been getting the attention and red carpet treatment they deserve. No longer stay-at-home dogs, they now accompany their owners to venues such as banks (right), hotels, ballparks, and even the alter. They have certainly earned their reward, since they play a role in many aspects of humans’ lives, including serving in the military, as seeing-eye dogs, companions and as conversation starters for singles.

Dog owners represent a sizable and devoted audience, and their spending has been relatively recession-proof. Thirty-nine percent of U.S. households own at least one dog, and if people with an affinity for dogs are included, that number is far higher.

Madison Avenue and Hollywood have long featured dogs based on their enormous popularity, and now other industries have followed suit. Here are ten examples of dogs’ increased exposure, ranging from media, entertainment and travel to sports and politics.

• Madison Avenue often chooses dogs for its high profile ads, such as the Volkswagen spot called “The Bark Side” starring a canine chorus that aired during this year’s Super Bowl.
• Hollywood celebrated Uggie, the Jack Russell terrier who nearly stole the show at the Oscars this year based on his performance in The Artist.
• Silicon Valley companies are known for allowing dogs on their campuses. DogPatch Labs is a startup incubator, and new site MatchPuppy.com find play dates for dogs and their owners.
• In social media some dogs have a voice with their own Twitter accounts. Among YouTube’s most popular videos are those with canines (including nearly 17 million views for VW’s ad)
• Jonah Peretti, founder of BuzzFeed, readily acknowledges that dog related content (especially beagles) generated much of his site’s traffic. (Huffington Post is better known for cat videos)

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