The Judith Show
by Ryan Sager
Tue, 15 May 2007 at 11:54 AM
updated Tue, 15 May 2007 at 12:20 PM
Rumors had been swirling about a New York magazine hit piece on Judith Giuliani, and now it's here, penned by one Lloyd Grove.
There's nothing terribly shocking in here (no new revelations about puppy killing), but it does purport to answer one question the couple has been oddly tight-lipped about: They met in June of 1999 (when the former mayor was still married, of course) at Club Macanudo, a cigar bar on East 63rd Street.
The piece also highlights a dynamic between the couple that's become obvious in their public appearances...
That dynamic, in short, is that the mayor seems quite excessively deferential to his wife:
A few years ago, at a wedding attended by prominent lawyers and judges, Rudy and Judith were sitting at a table where the other guests were having a spirited legal and political discussion. "Rudy was deferring to her the entire evening," says a fellow guest. "They were talking about the war in Iraq, and she was opining. They were talking about the Second Circuit, and she had an opinion about that too. People didn't know what to say. And Rudy, if anything, was drawing her out. ‘What do you think about that, baby?' She likes to talk."
A former associate of Giuliani's from the days when he was a mob-busting federal prosecutor says, "Loyalty does mean everything to him. He absolutely adores her. He doesn't need the expensive Brioni suits she has him wear, or the fancy food she has him eat. He was a cheeseburger-and-martini guy. But Rudy defers to her."
There's also this anecdote about how difficult Mrs. Giuliani is to deal with:
The story of Manny Papir is a cautionary tale for anyone who doubts that Judith Giuliani is a force to be reckoned with. Papir, Rudy's longtime personal aide, learned the hard way during a trip to Europe when Rudy, taking a 9/11 victory lap in early 2002, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and then was honored with the German Media Prize in Baden-Baden. Among Rudy's inner circle, Judith was fast becoming known for her demanding requirements. Even loyalist Sunny Mindel was overheard joking that whenever they arranged a chartered jet for their principal and his companion, "we need two seats for Judith—one for her and one for her Gucci bag." ("I have no recollection of saying that," Mindel says.)
When Judith asked to stay two nights in Baden-Baden instead of the previously planned one—throwing the intricate schedule into disarray—Papir, who was advancing Rudy's triumphal tour, made the mistake of betraying his impatience. Running into other members of the entourage in the lobby, he muttered, "Let me guess—you're waiting for Princess, too." When the quip was reported back to Rudy and Judith, Papir—who declined to comment—was out of a $200,000-a-year job.
And, of course, the piece makes mention of the excessive public affection the couple is known to engage in — most prominently on "20/20" a little while back.
I think the campaign has caught up when it comes to the Judi problem. But they're really going to have to keep her off the stage for a long time to avoid a serious backlash. Can the mayor do it, when he defers to her so readily the rest of the time?
We'll see.
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