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NBC TV's "Apprentice" contestant fired from job for Jewish comments

Thread ID: 15222 | Posts: 8 | Started: 2004-10-05

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Jack Cassidy [OP]

2004-10-05 03:38 | User Profile

[url="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=797&ncid=799&e=8&u=/eo/20041002/en_tv_eo/15058"]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=797&ncid=799&e=8&u=/eo/20041002/en_tv_eo/15058[/url]

[size=3]"Apprentice" Player Axed Again?[/size]

[size=3]Fri Oct 1, 9:05 PM ET*By Joal Ryan* [/size] [size=3][/size] [font=arial][size=3]Apparently, Donald Trump isn't the only one who doesn't want the latest *Apprentice* reject.[/size] [/font] [font=arial][/font] [font=arial][size=3] The New York City real-estate firm that employed reality-show firee Jennifer Crisafulli is distancing itself from the trumped contestant after she was heard remarking about "two old Jewish fat ladies" on Wednesday's episode. [/size] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]"We do not intend to have an individual in our organization who subscribes to this point of view," Steven James, an executive at Prudential Douglas Elliman said in Friday's *Albany (New York) Times Union*. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]Added James: "They are not wanted. They are not needed." [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]The *Times Union* noted that James stopped short of saying the 32-year-old had been fired, à la Trump. The paper further noted James couldn't say the word fired, à la Trump, for legal reasons. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]Speaking to her hometown newspaper, Crisafulli sounded as if she'd gotten James' gist--if not the hook. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]"I'm so upset," Crisafulli told the *Times Union*. "I mean, my career is gone." [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]By late Thursday, Crisafulli, specializing in commercial real estate for Prudential Douglas Elliman, had been relieved of all but one of her listings, the *New York Post* reported. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]A message seeking comment from Prudential Douglas Elliman was not returned Friday. NBC, network home to *The Apprentice 2*, said it had no comment, noting, "This is something that happened to her in her personal life and career." [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]Crisafulli's troubles began Wednesday night--in front of 14.7 million TV viewers. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]In the third installment of *The Apprentice 2*, Crisafulli was shown the boardroom door by Trump after her team, Apex, botched a restaurant opening. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]In his usual personable style, Trump told Crisafulli she was hated by everyone on her crew. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]"Jennifer, this is really easy," Trump said, per the NBC Website. "You're fired." [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]But other words would come to haunt Crisafulli more. In the episode, Crisafulli complained that Apex's restaurant reviews were sabotaged by a pair of customers: "It was those two old Jewish fat ladies...jaded old bags." [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][size=3][font=Arial]*Apprentice* player Stacy Rotne, an attorney, took note, if not offense. "I'm Jewish and I'd like to understand Jen C's motives behind saying this," Rotne said on the show, per NBC. [/font][/size] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]According to Crisafulli, she didn't mean anything by the remark--especially nothing hurtful. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]"I'm a New Yorker," Crisafulli is quoted as telling the *Post*. "I call an Italian an Italian...a Jew a Jew. The real bigot is the one who has to whisper behind someone's back. [/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3] [/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=3]Above all, Crisafulli said in the *Times Union*, "I hope people don't think about me in the wrong way." [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3]It does not appear her dream came true. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3]"It was bad, bad, bad, bad judgment," James said of Crisafulli's remarks to the *Times Union*. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3]An email sent to Prudential Douglas Elliman employees on Thursday said the company did not "share," nor "condone" Crisafulli views and behavior, reports said. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3]Crisafulli said she clarified her *Apprentice* cracks on camera, mentioning her own family's Jewish heritage, but acknowledged those soundbites didn't make the prime-time cut. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3]"It's all about the editing," Crisafulli told the *Times Union*. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3]In *The Apprentice*'s first season, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, who is black, accused rival Ereka Vetrini, who is not, of disparaging her with a racial epithet. The alleged remark, which Vetrini denied making, never made it to air, even in bleeped form--producers said they never found evidence of it in their footage. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3]Axed from *The Apprentice 2*, Crisafulli sounds as if she's ready for *Boston Legal*. [/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3]"Lawyers across America...I need help," she said in the *Times Union*. "Pro bono." [/size][/font] [/font]

Jack Cassidy

2004-10-05 03:50 | User Profile

Coincidentally, I happened to have turned on the TV the night this episode was playing (Saturday? Sunday?) right before she made the comment. After she made the "...Jewish women" comment my curiosity was piqued and I watched the rest of the show. The irony is that no true anti-semite would be caught making such a statement, unless they did so with full awareness of the consequences.

Kevin_O'Keeffe

2004-10-05 04:15 | User Profile

In some states, such as Nevada and other ones with "at-will" employment statutes, one can be fired for any reason (except for race, gender or sexual orientation, of course). I'm virtually certain New York is not such a state. Are the courts seriously expected to uphold a woman's firing not for making anti-Semitic remarks, but rather for making some remarks which were interpreted as anti-Semitic, yet which any intelligent person can clearly see were not? What she said, identifying two women who irritated her by their Jewishness, is the equivalent of saying "I really don't like that one Jewish law professor from Harvard, what's-his-name, you know, Dershowitz." It simply does not constitute grounds for employment termination (especially in light of the fact that her remarks were not made in the context of her workplace environment, or in any context otherwise related to her condition of employment). Had her remarks actually been anti-Semitic, her employer would still be in violation of the law. The fact that they were not, however, just enables her lawyer to sidestep that whole controversy.

londo

2004-10-06 07:47 | User Profile

"two old Jewish fat ladies"...

Were there two?

Were they old?

Were they Jewish?

Were they fat?

Were they ladies?

Hmmmm... only thing I can see wrong is perhaps her inability to determine what constitutes a "lady"

Maybe she should have said, "two old Jewish fat broads."

I have trouble seeing the antisemitism in that.

Happy Hacker

2004-10-06 13:04 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Kevin_O'Keeffe]In some states, such as Nevada and other ones with "at-will" employment statutes, one can be fired for any reason (except for race, gender or sexual orientation, of course). [/QUOTE]

Except for being non-white, non-male, and non-straight. Of course.

Kevin_O'Keeffe

2004-10-06 14:02 | User Profile

[quote=Kevin_O'Keeffe][color=red]In some states, such as Nevada and other ones with "at-will" employment statutes, one can be fired for any reason (except for race, gender or sexual orientation, of course).[/color]

[QUOTE=Happy Hacker]Except for being non-white, non-male, and non-straight. Of course.[/QUOTE]

It took me a second to see what you were getting at, but yes, your correction is duly noted and very appropriate.

Robbie

2004-10-06 21:57 | User Profile

In my mind, saying "two old, fat Jew broads" would have been most appropriate.

I wonder how her vent got past the NBC censors, hmmm....

londo

2004-10-06 22:22 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Robbie]In my mind, saying "two old, fat Jew broads" would have been most appropriate.

I wonder how her vent got past the NBC censors, hmmm....[/QUOTE]

You know... a good "antisemite" is getting awfully hard to find! Pretty soon it'll be, " He looked at me funny because I'm a Jew!"