Next Gen 2011: Hollywood's Fastest-Rising Stars
"Whether a movie is great or terrible, there's always one idea that can make it pop," says Waldman, 35, who has positioned films as diverse as Dreamgirls and Mission: Impossible 3. The youngest son of two New Jersey teachers grew up loving Broadway shows before graduating from James Madison University, moving to Hollywood and leveraging connected family friends into volunteer gigs at lower-profile events like the Hollywood Christmas Parade. His first paying job landed Waldman with PMK publicist Catherine Olim, whose clients included Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ed Harris. At Paramount for six years, the married father of a young boy (with another on the way) is leading the charge on creative campaigns for Like Crazy and The Adventures of Tintin. "There's no job description for publicity," he says. "I've done everything and anything from buying someone shoes to launching a giant premiere in Russia for Transformers."
