Hettrick: Tiger’s Arcadia link

The continuing Tiger Woods story that escalates each day with still more revelations of his marital infidelities made an Arcadia connection Friday when longtime Arcadia resident James Bates was interviewed on “Dateline NBC” about the way Woods needs to handle his situation.

by Scott Hettrick

Bates is a crisis management specialist for the Century City public relations firm Sitrick Brincko (formerly Sitrick & Co. until it was merged a couple weeks ago), which also handles bankrupt corporations and the image of corporate executives.

For many years Bates was a business reporter, columnist and editor for the Los Angeles Times. That’s when I first met him since we were both covering the entertainment industry for different publications. It wasn’t until we bumped into each other one morning jockeying for the best camcorder position to videotape our children at a Christmas program at Camino Grove Elementary School back in the mid-1990s that I realized Jim also lived in Arcadia.

He still lives in Arcadia but a few years ago he left the Times and is now a member of the Sitrick firm. (Story continues below the following 25-second video excerpt from “Dateline NBC.”)

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Among his recent high-profile clients, he has been representing the Michael Jackson Estate to the extent that you will find his name in the closing credits of the recent hit movie “This is It,” receiving a “special thanks.”

Real Estate developer Rob Maguire

He also represented Hulk Hogan last year and one of his ongoing clients is billionaire and Forbes 400 real estate developer Rob Maguire, who built several of the most prominent skyscrapers in downtown L.A. and this year squared off with his aviation company against fellow L.A. billionaire David Murdock over Murdock’s private jet operations at Van Nuys Airport.