James Grant (publicist)

James Grant is an American publicist, and former journalist, photographer and West Coast Bureau Chief of Life Magazine. He is now President of JGPR - James Grant Public Relations based in New York.

Journalism
Born in Portland, Oregon, Grant began his career at Time/Life in 1983 as a Special Correspondent for People Magazine reporting numerous cover stories including two best-selling Sexiest Man Alive covers.

In 1986, he left People joining The Fox Network as a segment producer for The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers.

In 1987, he was named West Coast Bureau Chief of Life Magazine based in Los Angeles re-establishing all editorial operations for the magazine in Hollywood. While at Life, Grant landed several major exclusives for the magazine including the first interview with Donna Rice following the breaking news of her alleged involvement with then Presidential front-runner Senator Gary Hart, and exclusive interviews with Diane Sawyer, Sylvester Stallone and former Governor Jerry Brown discussing his work with Mother Teresa in Calcutta.

The following year, Grant negotiated and conducted the first ever interview with Lisa Marie Presley. It went on to become one of the bestselling issues in the history of Life. He also landed the first interview with Mike Tyson and wife Robin Givens for a top selling Life cover done just days after they eloped.

Grant coordinated  Life' s 1987 year in pictures issue featuring Charlie Sheen, Patrick Swayze, and Jimmy Smits among the newcomers, and celebrating Bette Midler, Cher and Paul Newman. In 1989, Grant helped coordinate Life's Special Hollywood 1939-1989 Issue overseeing interviews and photo sessions with Bette Davis (in her last photo session), Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Jimmy Stewart, Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close and other actors.

In 1990, Grant moved over to Entertainment Weekly, another Time Warner publication, under contract writing cover stories and helping to establish the magazine in Hollywood.

In 1993, Grant interviewed River Phoenix for the cover of Detour. The interview turned out to be the actor's last cover story before his overdose a few weeks later.

That same year, Grant became a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times doing over a dozen profiles on filmmakers including Will Smith, Forest Whitaker, John Waters, Elizabeth Taylor and Kirk Douglas.

In 1995, Grant moved to New York where he wrote cover stories for Cosmopolitan including Cindy Crawford's first interview following her divorce from Richard Gere.

He also wrote cover stories for Us Magazine, Out, McCalls and features for In Style, Harpers Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, Seventeen, and Newsday.

As an entertainment commentator, Grant has been interviewed by The New York Times and has appeared on Larry King Live, Entertainment Tonight, CNN's Showbiz Today, The McLaughlin Group, E! Network, and A.M. Los Angeles, among others.

Also an established photographer, Grant has photographed celebrities including Sir Ian McKellen, Tim Daly, Bridgette Wilson, Matthew Broderick, Brendan Fraser, Emily Watson, Pedro Almodóvar, and Antonio Sabato Jr. His photography has been published in People, Entertainment Weekly, Movieline, and TV Guide.

Public Relations
Grant began his publicity career at the firm Davidson & Choy publicizing the play Private Lives with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as well as the musicals Dreamgirls and Little Shop of Horrors.

Grant also served as West Coast Publicity Director of Orion Pictures, where he strategized publicity campaigns for several films including the successful Academy Award for Best Actress campaign for Jessica Lange for Blue Sky, the directorial debut of Jodie Foster in Little Man Tate, for Brad Pitt on The Favor and was part of the studio's publicity team which oversaw the successful Oscar campaign for Silence of The Lambs, and as a Media Consultant to heiress Aileen Getty in helping to bring awareness to Women With AIDS.

In January 2009, Variety reported that Grant had been hired by MRG - The Michael Russell Group as Vice President and would oversee all aspects of the company's public relations operations for the newly established New York office.

On January 18, 2011, PR Week reported that Grant was leaving MRG to launch his own PR company—JGPR, James Grant Public Relations based in New York. It was reported that Grant took with him all his clients along with his entire PR team to the new company. Those clients included two of New York's most prestigious non-profit organizations—The Loreen Arbus Foundation and United Cerebral Palsy of New York City.

In addition to those accounts, JGPR subsequently signed The Women's Media Center Women's Media Awards,The Elly Awards, The Courage in Journalism Awards, global architecture & design firm HOK NY, Women Who Care, the YWCA USA, the Mental Health Association of New York City, best-selling author Mary Buffett, actress Robin Givens, The Ackerman Institute for the Family, the award-winning documentary "A Whole Lott More," photographer Javier Gomez, the TV series "In Between Men,"The White House Project and other accounts.

In August 2014, Grant was the subject of a story for Forbes entitled "5 Ways To Generate Powerhouse PR Results For Your Brand".