What is a press junket, exactly?
The words ‘press junket’ used to denote an actual junket (trip) where the press would go around the world, traveling with the stars of a movie as they promoted it (see the Valley of the Dolls DVD for some excellent archival footage of just that). Nowadays a junket generally involves a drive down the freeway (if you live in L.A.) or a ride on the subway (if you live in New York) to a hotel, where the stars and director grant interviews over the course of a couple of days. Generally, they are broken up into Print/Online (roundtable interviews – one interviewee, having to field questions from approximately 12 journalists for 15 to 20 minutes), TV (on-camera, one-on-one, interviews generally lasting 4 minutes each), and International (print/online, and TV for the Hollywood Foreign Press and international television shows). Once in awhile, press junkets take place in a city that’s relevant to the film. The best one I’ve been on so far was to New Orleans, for The Skeleton Key. Universal went
