Conflict of interest row over top PR’s links to Entertainment Now

One of the leading comedy publicists at the Edinburgh Fringe secretly owns an editorial website which publishes glowing reviews of her clients, Chortle can reveal.

Entertainment Now was set up by Helen O’Brien, head of media at Impressive PR, one of the most influential agencies at the festival, four years ago.

Readers would not be aware of the links as the website carries no details of its owner. And it raises conflict-of-interest issues if Impressive can claim to have helped secure coverage for its clients in an outlet one of its senior employees controls. 

Both O’Brien and Impressive PR owner Mel Brown insisted the site was editorially independent. O’Brien – who has worked at Impressive for nine years, the last four of them as Brown’s No.2 – said: ‘In terms of editorial content, the team at Entertainment Now runs completely independently and I have no influence over content or reviews.’

Impressive PR has operated at the Fringe since 1999 and last year charged clients between £2,000 and £3,800 plus VAT and expenses for publicity services.  However, former clients, agents, Fringe venues and the festival's media office have said they were completely unaware of links between the company and Entertainment Now. 

O’Brien said some Impressive clients knew of her connections with the website but added: ‘For many practical reasons it is not something we shout about to everyone.’

One comedian, who wishes to remain anonymous, paid more than £2,800 to Impressive for festival publicity, which included lobbying journalists for reviews. They received a four-star review from Entertainment Now.

They said: ‘I feel misled. I paid good money for press coverage. Finding out the review might not be legitimate feels deceitful. And it made me question my talent.’

Separately, they were also concerned about two other glowing reviews Impressive sent as evidence of the coverage they were helping secure. The write-ups from the websites Gig Gossip and Pow! Showbiz had all the hallmarks of being generated by artificial intelligence. ‘It makes you question your ability and that’s what upset me the most,’ the comic said.

Another former client told us: ‘[Brown] once texted me links to two blogs – Gig Gossip and Pow! Showbiz saying "YOUR FRINGE SHOW GOT TWO FIVE-STAR REVIEWS!" These reviews had clearly been composed by ChatGPT.

‘I’m fairly certain she has influence over Entertainment Now. Because a man purporting to work for Entertainment Now once interviewed me, and he introduced himself by saying "I just do what Mel tells me".’

Entertainment Now was set up by O'Brien in 2021 with the aid of Evalyn Watson, a Canadian intern who was on a placement with Impressive at the time.

In a post online, Watson told of how, while working for the PR agency, she was ‘tasked with starting a secondary entertainment website for them entitled Entertainment Now, which I created content for over the course of my internship’.

And in a testimony posted to the website of her alma mater soon after her placement, she said: ‘My final result from the goals of my internship [with Impressive] was the creation of the Entertainment Now website.  

‘I started with just a blank WordPress and a logo but within a few months of hard work…   and a lot of collaboration with the Impressive team, I was able to get the website up and running.

‘Since then I started writing for the site and also running the social medias and building those. It was a hard task but Impressive awarded me the privilege of hiring me on after my internship to be the editor and manager of the online magazine.’

Both Brown and O’Brien claim the site is independent  in the same way that The List, which shares an owner with Assembly venues, is.

O’Brien, who set up Entertainment Now during the pandemic, said: ‘We are all concerned about the lack of coverage of the arts and the idea was to create a project which helped address this.

‘Entertainment Now is my side hustle and I’m proud of it. It is does not interfere with the excellent care and attention I have always given towards clients of Impressive PR.’

Brown said she was ‘not involved’ in Entertainment Now at all, adding: ‘Helen has reassured me that she has no editorial involvement and that the editor she appointed retains complete independence over content decisions, including reviews and star ratings.

She claimed Impressive had been ‘unfairly misrepresented’ during the course of our investigation and suggested it was motivated by ‘certain individuals that are jealous of the success I have made of my company’.

Entertainment Now is edited by respected arts journalist Claire Smith and features year-round arts reviews written by reputable, professional critics, covering a wide range of acts.

Yet of the 36 acts Impressive represents at the Fringe this year – including Miriam Margolyes, Hal Cruttenden, Tiff Stevenson and Ria Lina – 34 had been reviewed by Entertainment Now as of yesterday. The exceptions are a comic who had not yet begun his run, and one other stand-up show. None was given less than three stars, and the average was 3.76.

At last year’s Fringe, Impressive represented 40 acts and Entertainment Now reviewed 39 of them. And of the 16 winners of its 2024 WoW Awards, ‘given to shows recommended as outstanding by Entertainment Now's brilliant team of reviewers’, four came from Impressive's roster – Finlay Christie, Doctor Kaboom, John Meagher and Will Owen.

Smith said: ‘We have a team of reviewers, including some very well-respected journalists and a small squad of junior reviewers who receive mentoring and guidance.

‘Reviews and star ratings are entirely based on reviewers’ opinions and there is no interference from outside. I am very proud of the work we have done and I know it is appreciated by performers, and venues.’

Of the two Entertainment Now reviewers spoken to by this investigation, one said that they were aware of the links to Impressive’s head of media, the other said that they were not.

Gina Lyons, a Bafta-winning comedy producer for television and Fringe acts such as stand-up Kate Barron and sketch group Late Night Gimp Fight, who have both previously been represented by Impressive, expressed dismay at the situation.

She said: ‘This will be heartbreaking for performers to read. As well as putting their souls into their Edinburgh, comedians spend huge fees on the likes of publicists. And they expect transparency for that. As a community, the Fringe cannot allow it to continue.

‘I particularly worry about working-class performers, coming from a place of financial hardship. Fringe PR isn't cheap and to think that they are being misled is terrible.’

Brown said it was unfair Chortle was focussing on this story when there are other potential conflicts of interest across the Fringe, including publicists who also work as reviewers (though not of their own acts) and Assembly’s links with The List. The magazine was saved from closure by venue owner William Burdett-Coutts following Covid, a fact that has always been public.

The publisher’s chief executive Sheri Friers told Chortle that Burdett-Coutts has ‘no editorial control’ of the paper, and that he had never even met editor Brian Donaldson. ‘They are so unbelievably separate,’ she said. ‘William knows The List is entirely based upon editorial integrity. He wouldn’t dare interfere, and I wouldn’t let him.’

Entertainment Now attracted controversy in the months leading up to last year's Fringe by advertising for unpaid reviewers, who were expected to work a ten-hour shift, seven days a week.

This echoed Impressive's own adverts for publicity interns for the Fringe, offering a ‘token’ one-off payment of between £200 and £250, with prospective candidates expected to provide their own laptop and accommodation during the notoriously expensive festival.

Most promoters plaster their acts’ posters at the Fringe with the four and five-star ratings, often with gushing quotes. A number of posters for Impressive acts this year carry such praise from Entertainment Now

Speaking to The Observer in 2019, Brown said: ‘It is hard for us to get the word out about shows during the festival without the help of the star ratings given out. These sell the shows to the crowds when there are so many to choose from when we put them on the posters and leaflets.’

With mainstream coverage of the Fringe falling drastically in recent years, many publicists and promoters are turning to more obscure website for those vital stars.

Gig Gossip and Pow! Showbiz have not reviewed shows this year, but were generous about Impressive acts last year. Gig Gossip reviewed 39 of Impressive's 40 shows, awarding them an average of 4.08 stars. Pow! Showbiz reviewed 38, with an average of 4 stars. 

Chortle put three Gig Gossip and three Pow! Showbiz reviews into GPT Zero, an online tool that checks for AI-generated content. Five were judged to be AI with ‘100 per cent’ certainty, the other 64 per cent. Even though many pieces are written in the first person, none of the reviews on the sites contain a journalist's byline.

It is not known who owns these websites, and Chortle received no response to emails asking for clarification, not for their response to their apparent use of AI. Brown and O’Brien say they have no connection with either website.

Neither the Fringe media office nor major festival venues The Pleasance, Underbelly, Monkey Barrel, Just The Tonic, The Stand and Summerhall have ever issued a press ticket to Gig Gossip or Pow! Showbiz.  

Assembly ‘allocated a very small number of tickets to Pow! Showbiz in 2022 and 2023’. But ‘these did not result in reviews that we can see … we have also seen reviews from Pow! Showbiz and Gig Gossip come up for shows that we never allocated tickets to.’

Gilded Balloon has never issued press tickets to Gig Gossip and only a single Pow! Showbiz ticket. This was for Impressive client and I, Daniel Blake star Dave Johns's 2022 stand-up show – ten days after the five-star review had already appeared and nine days before his run of Fringe dates actually began.

The Fringe Media Office told Chortle: ‘We would advise artists to be wary of reviews which amount to advertorial and ask that where that is the case it is flagged as such so that artists and audiences can make informed choices.

‘If artists become aware of questionable practices during the Fringe, we would encourage them to reach out for support from our Artist Services team. We will revoke accreditation at any time should a publication be in breach of our unacceptable behaviour policy.’

Additional reporting: Steve Bennett

Statement from Helen O’Brien

I can confirm I set up Entertainment Now, designed the website and also design the magazine.

We are all concerned about the lack of coverage of the arts and the idea was to create a project which helped address this.

In terms of editorial content, the team at Entertainment Now runs completely independently and I have no influence over content or reviews.  

Some Impressive clients, particularly those who are good friends and who we have worked with for years, are aware of the connection I have to Entertainment Now – but for many practical reasons it is not something we shout about to everyone.

Entertainment Now is my side hustle and I’m proud of it.   It is does not interfere with the excellent care and attention I have always given towards clients of Impressive PR, where I am Head of Media.

Statement from Mel Brown, Owner of Impressive PR 

I fully support Helen and am proud of her accomplishments with Entertainment Now. My concern, however, lies in the fact that my company has been unfairly misrepresented by a journalist with whom I believed I had a long-standing and professional relationship. Rather than raising questions with me directly at the time, when I could have provided clarity, this individual chose another path, which I find deeply disappointing.

Helen has reassured me that she has no editorial involvement and that the editor she appointed retains complete independence over content decisions, including reviews and star ratings.

I have worked very hard over the past 28 years since I started Impressive and strongly believe that there are certain individuals that are jealous of the success I have made of my company.  I believe in working hard and delivering a high standard of service to all of our clients in and outside of the fringe, so it’s devastating to have this question mark over my company when my team and I do such a great job.

Statement from Claire Smith, Editor, Entertainment Now

Entertainment Now was launched four years ago, just as the world was recovering from covid.

It initially began as an entertainment and lifestyle site, then launched a Fringe Edition in 2022, when I was brought in as Edinburgh Editor. 

The idea was to increase the number of reviews for acts coming to the Edinburgh Fringe, across all sections of the programme and across all venues.

We have a team of reviewers, including some very well-respected journalists and a small squad of junior reviewers who receive mentoring and guidance.

Reviews and star ratings are entirely based on reviewers’ opinions and there is no interference from outside.

Over the last four years we have published thousands of festival reviews and given ten young writers an opportunity to cover the Edinburgh Fringe.

For the last three years we have also published a print magazine, which is designed by Helen O Brien, who also created the Entertainment Now website.

I am very proud of the work we have done at the Edinburgh Fringe and I know it is appreciated by performers, and venues, as well as giving our thousands of readers a useful guide to the biggest arts festival in the world.

Published: 19 Aug 2025