THE HARDER THEY FALL

Call it "Dancing with the Disgraced Stars," the frenzied jitterbug actors, politicians, athletes and others in the public eye perform whenever their public image takes a hit.

Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton did it. Britney Spears should rehearse it (although she did take a step toward normalcy recently with a critically well-received guest starring role on CBS' "How I Met Your Mother"). Michael Vick did it to little avail, and Roger Clemens really should be putting on his dancing shoes right now.

Add to this dance card of the publicly disgraced former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, whose public image as a law-and-order moral crusader crumbled a few weeks ago after a dalliance with a call girl.

Rehabbing a tarnished image never is easy. But it turns out that Americans are a forgiving people, and even the most trashed public image can be gussied up if the fallen figure convincingly embarks upon a few straightforward, but potentially tricky, steps.

It seems that scarcely a week goes by without a high-profile person stumbling over a public image hurdle of his or her own making. But, to be fair, the 21st century combo of technology and a voracious appetite for gossip makes it easy for even the most image-conscious celeb to slip up occasionally.

George McCabe, public relations director at B&P Advertising, Media and Public Relations, notes that camera-equipped cell phones and handheld digital video cameras make it easy for gawkers to record a celebrity's public missteps. Then, on the other side of this equation, YouTube, TMZ and other social networking and gossip Web sites, as well as a 24/7 celebrity news cycle, make it easy to instantly spread damaging video worldwide where, on the Internet, it will live forever.

When a public mistake threatens to damage a notable's image, the chances of a successful rehab hinge on several things, many of them based more in emotion than in logic.

Of course, there's the severity of the precipitating event, notes Bill Benoit, a professor in the University of Missouri, Columbia's communication department who studies image repair messages in political, corporate and other contexts.

As an extreme example, Benoit says, "there's little or nothing" late convicted murderer/cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer could have done to rehabilitate his image.

Or, take former NFL quarterback Vick, who has admitted to being involved in a dog-fighting operation and to helping kill several dogs that couldn't compete. "I don't know if Michael Vick could rehabilitate his reputation," Benoit says. "It would be tough."

Also figuring into the odds for an image rehab is the presence or absence of hypocrisy. "It seems that the public will forgive you for just about anything but hypocrisy," says Kathy Espin, an assistant professor of public relations at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

In fact, Benoit says Spitzer's image problems may stem less from hiring a prostitute than the jarring inconsistency with his past as a moral crusading, anti-prostitution lawman.

"The average American can disagree with one another on how serious prostitution is, but everyone agrees hypocrisy is a bad thing," Benoit says. "I don't know anyone who's in favor of that."

A notable person's chances of recapturing the public's approval also depends upon the position he or she holds. For example, the public understandably considers breaches of trust by a public official more serious than the Hollywood starlet-of-the-day's drunken escapades.

Spitzer, Espin notes, had a position of "public trust. They have a higher standard they have to live up to than, of course, a Britney Spears."

In addition, a public figure who previously amassed a measure of goodwill from the public before the fall may find it easier to rebuild his or her image than somebody the public wasn't fond of to begin with. If, Espin says, "someone has built a good reputation with the public in the first place, then you've kind of inoculated yourself against damage, except when it comes to out-and-out hypocrisy."

For example, Spears' career free fall may have been worsened in the public's eye by a series of parenting controversies that led to her losing custody of her children. "If Britney Spears had this image of a loving, giving mother and human being, then, seeing that fall, it would have been easier for people to forgive this kind of downward trajectory," Espin says.

Finally, there's "the charisma factor," Espin adds. "If people like you, they want to believe. That's the likability factor, and it's hard to put a finger on that."

Luckily for silly celebrities, Americans have a decided collective weakness for a good, sincere redemption story.

In our culture, "there's this sort of built-in thing that we want to forgive people who appear truly repentant," Benoit says, although "they can't say, 'Oh, I'm sorry, nudge, nudge, wink, wink,' and expect people to buy the apology."

Nor can it be one of those vague "mistakes were made" nonapologies. "Most people want to hear you admit, 'I'm sorry, I did something bad,' " Benoit says.

The public apology has to be sincere, truthful and transparent, says Mike Paul, president of a New York City-based public relations and reputation management firm who also edits a blog called "The Reputation Doctor."

The simple, sincere, unvarnished, honest truth is powerful. Whenever we hear a public figure sincerely admit to a mistake, Paul says, "our hearts melt because we are human, too, and we know how difficult it is to move beyond fear and lean on truth, to do the right thing."

The admission/apology has to be done quickly, too. Then, once the misstep has been admitted and apologized for, "I think you need to go and do good things, and you need to do them for sincere reasons," McCabe says. "And I think it's OK to tell people you're doing good things. I don't think it's bad for them to publicize or promote good things they're doing to address whatever crisis occurred that got you there in the first place."

"You might have cynics who say, 'Of course, so-and-so is going to do PSAs for drug treatment, because they had a drug problem.' That's OK as long as it's real," McCabe says.

"But you really have to live it. If you've made a commitment to move on or make whatever change the public wants you to make, it's OK to talk about that. But just know you may not get a second chance."

Eventually, with any luck, the public will replace its old, negative memory of a notable's mistake with a newer, more favorable image of what appears to be a new, different person.

Michele Tell-Woodrow, chief executive officer of Preferred Public Relations & Marketing, counts Angelina Jolie as one celeb who has succeeded in remaking her public image.

Not that long ago, Jolie was the strangely goth, tattooed actress who wore then-husband Billy Bob Thornton's blood in a vial around her neck and seemed uncomfortably close to her brother. Even worse, Tell-Woodrow says, Jolie was "the celebrity who stole Brad (Pitt) away from the American Sweetheart (Jennifer Aniston)."

But, during the past few years, Tell-Woodrow says, Jolie has "really repositioned herself as an international philanthropist and child advocate."

Such repositioning is "not necessarily spin," she adds. "Perhaps people didn't know how philanthropic she was. That's not necessarily spin because she may have been doing it her whole lifetime."

The idea is to "accentuate the positive," Tell-Woodrow says.

A celebrity's or a politician's fall in the public eye represents a sort of betrayal, Tell-Woodrow says.

And, as with any relationship, coming to terms with a betrayal "happens over time, because you have to buy back the public's trust. It's a betrayal, and it needs time to heal."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0280.