smith co-founded pickwick public relations in 1969, which became pmk following a series of mergers. run with partners leslee dart and pat kingsley into the 1990s, it became one of the most powerful pr firms in the entertainment industry. in a 2010 interview following her retirement, she said: "i'm so glad i'm not doing publicity now. between celebrity magazines and websites, there's so much out there to be filled up, so much information that has to be put out there simply because those publications exist... people are desperate to fill the space they've got; they'll print anything, go with anything, pursue rumours, and even create them. it's not what i call publicity."