Latest Columbia Pictures release gets thumbs up its own butt.

What can a film studio do to get around the fact that film critics hate their movies? Easy four step answer:

1. Get their advertising department to create a critic of their very own.

2. Have the fabricated critic gush and rave about the studio's films.

3. Use the gushes and raves in their press releases, print ads, posters and commercials in order to boost ticket sales.

4. Try not to get caught.

Well, when it came to Columbia Pictures (parent company Sony Pictures Entertainment), three out of four ain't bad. It's nasty.

Read about it here (Newsweek) or here (Reuters/iwon). Newsweek is credited with breaking the story.

Hmmm... I wonder if the person(s) responsible got fired or promoted?

David Manning of The Ridgefield Press is one of Columbia Pictures’ most reliable reviewers, praising Heath Ledger of “A Knight’s Tale” as “this year’s hottest new star!” and saluting “The Animal” as “another winner!” The studio plastered Manning’s raves over at least four different movie advertisements, including “Hollow Man” and “Vertical Limit.” But Manning’s own life story should be called “Charade,” because he doesn’t exist. Challenged last week by NEWSWEEK about the reviewer’s authenticity, Columbia parent Sony Pictures Entertainment admitted that Manning is a fake, a product of the studio’s advertising department.

The Ridgefield Press (which was unaware of the deception) is a small Connecticut weekly, but that’s where any verisimilitude ends. An unidentified Sony employee apparently concocted the Manning persona last July, using the name of a friend, and attributed fictional reviews to him. Supervisors using the quotes in movie ads didn’t question Manning’s legitimacy. “It was an incredibly foolish decision, and we’re horrified,” Sony spokeswoman Susan Tick said of the hoax. “We are looking into it and will take appropriate action.”