But since he doesn't, the studio could be taking the rap instead.
Getting a thumbs up from moviegoers, Connecticut's attorney general has launched an investigation into how Sony Pictures could have concocted a fake film critic to plug its own movies.
After fielding complaints from the public over false blurbs in movie ads from Sony's fictional reviewer David Manning of Connecticut's Ridgefield Press, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says he's considering even issuing subpoenas to get to the bottom of what he believes is consumer deception.
"We give this practice two thumbs down," Blumenthal tells the Associated Press. "It could be deceptive and misleading advertising."
If Sony is found to have deceived moviegoers, the company could face stiff fines.
The probe follows Monday's revelation that Sony Pictures manufactured Manning and his glowing blurbs, which were featured prominently in print advertisements hyping several Sony movies.
Manning called Heath Ledger the "year's hottest star!" in an ad for A Knight's Tale and said of the just-released Rob Schneider comedy, The Animal: "The producing team of Big Daddy has delivered another winner!"
Curiously, Manning's quote for The Animal conveniently fit the image in the ad, which parodies Adam Sandler's Big Daddy poster by having Schneider and a monkey relieving themselves as they face a brick wall.
Other movies Sony, er, Manning, heaped mounds of praise on included last year's Hollow Man and Vertical Limit.
The case of the fake movie critic has been the talk of Tinseltown since Newsweek broke the story in this week's issue.
As reported by the magazine, Manning was dreamed up by an unidentified Sony marketing executive last July to put a positive spin on the hit-starved studio's films. The shocking part is that practically every movie these days, good or bad, garners poster-friendly blurb from some critic--even no-name hacks toiling for virtually unknown publications.
The news comes just days after Sony admitted it paid movie theaters to have The Animal preview run before hit movies, drawing flak from rival studios for violating a long-time industry rule of giving away trailers to exhibitors.
For its part, Sony immediately removed the manufactured blurbs from future print ads and launched its own investigation into the incident. Reps for the studio refused further comment pending the results of the internal investigation.