After reading the revelation we posted earlier today about corruption in the gay media, a few of you may still be shaking your heads thinking David Chinn and yours truly here at Queerty are making a big deal out of an isolated situation. In the interest of clarity, here's an example of your typical P.R. pitch to the gay press these days:

From: XXX@paramount.com Ortiz, Daniel - Paramount
To: holla@queerty.com
Subject: Dreamgirls - Live the Dream

Hi-

I wanted to personally let you know we are launching a new contest this week at www.dreamgirls-dvd.com called "Dreamgirls - Live the Dream Sweepstakes" to promote Dreamgirls, on DVD May 1st. The sweepstakes involves users submitting videos of themselves singing their favorite Dreamgirls songs for a chance to win a $5,000 "Dream Prize Package" and the winners will be viewed by Dreamgirls director Bill Condon and producer Laurence Mark.

I was hoping we could get an item on Queerty because we would love you to help us get the word out! And in exchange for your help, I will send you the special edition DVD as well as the exclusive playbill from the LA/NY screenings-a collector's item.

Thanks for your help!

Daniel Ortiz
PHE / PARAMOUNT.COM
Interactive Marketing, Home Entertainment

Did he just pitch a story and offer a DVD to Queerty "In exchange for our help"?! That doesn't sound too ethical. Of course, Paramount's P.R. machine is just doing its job, and even if we don't run a story on Dreamgirls they love the blog and would be happy to send us the schwag anyway...right?

See what happens after the jump...

Here's our reply to Daniel Ortiz:

From: Gregory T. Angelo To: XXX@paramount.com Ortiz, Daniel - Paramount Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:46:53 -0400 Subject: Re: Dreamgirls - Live the Dream Hi Daniel!

Would you send us the DVD and playbill even if we didn't run something?

Thanks for the kudos -- and for reading Queerty!

Best,

=GTA

A simple request, right? Then we got this reply:

From: XXX@paramount.com Ortiz, Daniel - Paramount To: [redacted] Gregory T. Angelo Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 14:41:19 -0400 Subject: RE: Dreamgirls - Live the Dream

I was hoping for a mention on Queerty because I love your blog and we know that Queerty would be one of the best places to reach out to a gay audience. The DVD and playbill are for incentive :-) but I'm sure we can work something out.

Daniel Ortiz
PHE / PARAMOUNT.COM
Interactive Marketing, Home Entertainment

We wondered if Daniel makes it a habit to put smiley faces in his pitches to mainstream media. And what's all that "I'm sure we can work it out" stuff? Is Daniel hitting on us? More importantly, we wondered what kinds of "incentive" deals Daniel brokers with straight mags in exchange for covering his clients. Our guess is none.

Whatever—all we really care about is the fact that this post plugged Dreamgirls, the DVD and Paramount's contest—everything Daniel asked for in his original "incentive" deal. We can't wait to get our reward!