Where Does Dart Public Relations Operate?
This question is far more complicated than it appears on the surface. Because the name "Dart Public Relations" points to two completely different companies on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
The American Side: Leslee Dart and Her Hollywood Empire
In American entertainment circles, when people mention "Dart," everyone thinks of the same person—Leslee Dart.
She entered the industry in the late 1970s and was hired by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to do Oscar publicity. Interestingly enough, Warren Cowan, co-founder of Rogers & Cowan, recruited her because he mistakenly thought she had extensive connections. Through this twist of fate, she was pulled into this world.
The Rise of PMK
Dart, together with Pat Kingsley and Lois Smith, founded the PMK public relations company.
How powerful was PMK? Vanity Fair magazine later did a Hollywood feature that directly stated that since the heyday of MGM, no one had matched those three letters. Their clients were all top-tier movie stars, at the level of Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.
But good times don't last forever. The company was later acquired, and the focus began shifting toward corporate clients. Dart wasn't happy about this. She later said quite plainly in an interview: her passion has always been with filmmakers and artists.
Then things went wrong.
Pat Kingsley fired Dart. The two had an age gap of over twenty years, and rumors of power struggles had been flying around for a long time.
Some media outlet later wrote a very incisive line: "For any PR professional, the ultimate test is how to do PR for your own firing."
How did Dart handle it? The weekend she was fired, she established her own new company in a Manhattan hotel room. Just her and one assistant, two people. But she brought along a group of loyal clients—Tom Hanks, Jessica Lange, and others followed her without a second thought.
The company was later renamed 42West, named after the address of their New York office. This company has done PR for quite a few Oscar-winning films, like "Crash" and "No Country for Old Men."
Currently, the company headquarters is in Manhattan, New York, with an office in Los Angeles as well. After being acquired in 2017, its scale expanded considerably.
Controversy and Ethical Questions
Speaking of which, we must mention the controversies. Dart represented Woody Allen for a long time, and later Allen faced sexual assault allegations, which made things very awkward. She also represented Harvey Weinstein. HBO made a documentary specifically discussing her role in these events.
This touches on an age-old industry question: the PR professional's duty is to protect clients, but when the client themselves has serious moral issues, where is the line?
Then There's the British Side
Shifting our gaze across the Atlantic, we find a completely different Dart PR.
This is an English company, with offices located in Newquay, Cornwall. What kind of place is Newquay? A seaside town in southwest England, famous for its surfing culture. From this choice of location alone, you can see this company has taken a completely different path.
They mainly do content creation and digital marketing, and their clients are basically all travel and lifestyle brands. The scale isn't large, not even in the same league as 42West. But they have clear positioning: they don't compete with big agencies in London for business, they just serve local small and medium enterprises. Cornwall itself is a popular UK vacation destination, so putting down roots locally is actually an advantage.
📍 Location
Newquay, Cornwall, England
🎯 Focus Areas
Content creation, digital marketing, travel and lifestyle brands
Are the Two Companies Related?
No. Pure coincidence. "Dart" is just a common English surname.
So when you ask where Dart Public Relations operates, it depends on which one you're talking about. In the Hollywood context, Dart refers to 42West, which started in New York. The UK's Dart PR is a completely different company, doing tourism PR in Cornwall.