Leave it to Forrest Gump to remind us that modern public relations rests on candor. 

The reality check function of PR has been a truism of management theory from the beginning of the 20th Century.  Now actor Tom Hanks is publicly praising his PR agent . . . for simply telling him the truth about himself.

It is tempting to ask if the entertainment industry is so full of toadies that a candid PR person is news to Hollywoodland.  Given the recent behavior of corporate America, however, perhaps it needs to be restated that a critical function of PR is to manage the truth.  After all, when the car company executives late last year, in the immortal words of The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, flew to Washington in their corporate jets with tin cups in hand, what were they being told by their PR advisors?  Have a nice flight, sir?