"September 14th was a tough time to call any media, and two weeks after the September 11th disaster, everyone was on call and every department was working the war," USA Today's Scott Bowles told about three dozen PR pros at an entertainment media breakfast at the Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood, Calif. "And you look at our news section today, it is still only war stories," he added.

Bowles, a former Washington Post reporter, writes movie profiles and entertainment profiles for USA Today out of the Los Angeles bureau.

It's business as usual, says AP entertainment reporter David Germain.

"I'm on Harry Potter Watch until 3 a.m.," joked Germain, who covers entertainment news for AP in the Los Angeles bureau. Germain, who has a business background, has been a reporter with AP for 14 years. From New York to Alaska, he has covered a variety of beats, and began covering entertainment in 1999 with an emphasis on film and television.

"My job has largely gone back to business as usual," explained Germain. "I was at the Toronto Film Festival when the attacks hit, and was coming out of a really lovely, feel-good movie. When I heard the news, I kind of stepped back, canceled my movie interviews and ended up going to New York City to help on the coverage there.

"But, yes, enough time has passed. Many parts of operations at the AP have gotten back to a resemblance of business as usual."

Being extra sensitive in your pitches is no longer an issue, 
says USA Today's Bowles.

"I think enough time has passed now, and given the success of "Monsters Inc." and what will come this weekend with "Harry Potter," it seems as if much of the country is getting back to normal, and so are the sections of USA Today," said Bowles.

He said PR pros won't have as much trouble pitching the "Life" section of USA Today or "Sports," but if you are calling the "Business" or "News," "you would still be hard-pressed to pitch something that is not war related."

Trend pitches are best when pitching entertainment or feature stories.

If the PR professional represents an actor or product, try to see the trends in the industry that might fit your client.

"Something that we are always looking for," Bowles said.

"If you say my client is part of a hot trend in the industry, instead of just pitching a movie or actor, I'm interested." Bowles warned that most of the decisions come out of Washington, D.C., so there may be "a disconnect" on story placement.

E-mail is the best method to pitch Bowles. "I always welcome e-mail pitches, and we don't get as many e-mail pitches as you would think.

Don't overload my e-mail, says Germain.

"We rely on our newspaper member demands, and we're beefing up entertainment, because of the Internet," explained Germain. "So I'm the opposite on pitches.

Don't overload us, we're overloaded already. There are some newspapers which have no entertainment reporters, so they rely on us."

Each weekend AP provides one celebrity profile, a star question and answer interview, a trend story, a movie, and one or two music features. AP has one TV writer in New York, and one movie writer in Orange County. E-mail is best when trying to contact AP. Germain's e-mail is dgermain@AP.org. "I feel so overwhelmed with obvious things. I don't want to discourage you and I am very understanding, but if we say ‘No,' you're wasting our time to keep calling," he added.

Prepare your client for interviews, says Bowles.

"One more thing. On an off-the-record, please advice clients that we like to question them, and we like to go as far as we can (with top executives).

"Talk to your client on what is on or off the record and what he can say," said Bowles.

"Sometimes they say harmless things off record.

Understand when it is critical," explained Bowles, who covers primarily box office, celebrity profiles and features. His e-mail is sbowles@usatoday.com. Claudia Puig covers the entertainment industry, too in Los Angeles, focusing on West Coast entertainment and film. She can be reached at cpuig@aol.com.