November 15 was seemingly just another night for renowned publicist Ronni Chasen, who had three clients at the Los Angeles premiere of Burlesque. Hours later, she would be brutally shot in a killing that continues to stun Hollywood.
But on this red carpet occasion, Chasen was thinking only about work and about arranging a picture with songwriter Diane Warren, who wrote “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” for the film, and Burlesque’s star Cher. Warren talks about this telling picture set-up and Chasen’s final evening in the current issue of The Hollywood Reporter.
“(Chasen) goes, ‘I don’t care what I have to do — I’m getting that picture,’ ” Warren explains. “That was Ronni — she had something she wanted to do… and she got that picture.”
Warren paints a picture of a publicist who was “fiercely protective” of her clients.
“She really cared, her clients were like family to her,” says Warren. “She’d tell you what to do and people listened to her.”
Burlesque lighting designer Peggy Eisenhauer, another client at the premiere, tells how Chasen instantly set up a picture with the film’s director Steven Antin.
“She snapped her fingers and said, ‘One with Steven and Peggy’ and a photographer appeared out of nowhere,” Eisenhauer recalls. “How’d she do that?”
Eisenhauer added, “She was just magic in action. She was really on the move. Full of life and bubbly.”
For more of this article, pick up an issue of the new Hollywood Reporter on newsstands. Subscribers can read the story here.
