Bumble explains it all

Bumble Ward is getting out of the Hollywood publicity wars to write novels because, basically, life is too short to hold the hands of celebrity clients. Kim Masters writes in a quick profile in the Times' Calendar section:

Publicist Bumble Ward says there was no blowup with a client — no degrading demand or invective-filled altercation — that catalyzed her decision to do what so many in Hollywood say they wish they could do: quit the business.

Instead, there was a quarrel with her husband over the holidays. "He said, 'I don't want to fight with you. This is not a dress rehearsal,' " says Ward, one of Hollywood's more popular personal publicists. Something about those words resonated with her and she decided it was time to act on a long-held desire to pursue different work. "Even if I [stink], I just want to try it before my mind is entirely addled," she says....

To those who had read a 2002 profile of Ward in the New Yorker, Ward's decision did not come as a total surprise. Ward famously told the magazine of her dismay at watching powerful publicist Pat Kingsley standing at attention (in that dreaded spot) on the red carpet. "Some of my moments of clarity have come from seeing Pat Kingsley — this very strong, proud, older woman — waiting and waiting and then opening the limo door," Ward said then. "The idea of being caught in the swirly vortex of publicity until I'm Pat's age is so horrific."

At that point, the then-39-year-old says, she was already working on a novel, adding that she did not want to be doing publicity at 40. She is now 41.

So she's out, after the Oscars later this month.

Previously: Hollywood flack gives it up