Elli Frank, the owner of event staffing firm Eye5, is upset with The New York Observer—again. In October 2004, the paper ran a profile of Frank, who specializes in hiring attractive model-actress types for events, that referred to her as a "Manhattan madam," according to The New York Post. She was offended enough to sue then.
Now Frank is mad that the paper's advertising manager, Robyn Weiss, emailed her about providing staffers for a series of upcoming screenings. "They did a total smear job, and now it's like they're saying, 'Well, we accused you of prostitution, but let's hire your girls anyway,'" Frank says in today's Page Six.
According to the Page Six item, The Observer stated that her company "rents college women as company geishas" and called Frank "a bright-eyed Florida transplant" who "went from nanny to Manhattan madam." (None of that language appears in the version of the story archived on The Observer's Web site today.) Gawker's take (of course they have one!) is here.How do clients feel about Frank's latest bit of publicity? We called and emailed her for a comment this afternoon, but she hasn't responded.
Update: Frank emailed, "The feedback from clients has only been positive and supportive. It's great to see that this has struck a chord with people after everything we went through three years ago. It truly took me a while to bounce back from what the NY Observer had written, and it was an encouraging, optimistic boost to have the article printed in the New York Post today." She also sent a scan of the original Observer story; the language quoted by The Post was in the headlines that ran in print.
And how was the lawsuit resolved? "I cannot disclose the terms of the settlement, but I can tell you that the Observer was in no way obligated to alter the online version from what they ran in the hard copy. I can only assume they did so on their own accord so as to avoid a continuous problem."
Now Frank is mad that the paper's advertising manager, Robyn Weiss, emailed her about providing staffers for a series of upcoming screenings. "They did a total smear job, and now it's like they're saying, 'Well, we accused you of prostitution, but let's hire your girls anyway,'" Frank says in today's Page Six.
According to the Page Six item, The Observer stated that her company "rents college women as company geishas" and called Frank "a bright-eyed Florida transplant" who "went from nanny to Manhattan madam." (None of that language appears in the version of the story archived on The Observer's Web site today.) Gawker's take (of course they have one!) is here.How do clients feel about Frank's latest bit of publicity? We called and emailed her for a comment this afternoon, but she hasn't responded.
Update: Frank emailed, "The feedback from clients has only been positive and supportive. It's great to see that this has struck a chord with people after everything we went through three years ago. It truly took me a while to bounce back from what the NY Observer had written, and it was an encouraging, optimistic boost to have the article printed in the New York Post today." She also sent a scan of the original Observer story; the language quoted by The Post was in the headlines that ran in print.
And how was the lawsuit resolved? "I cannot disclose the terms of the settlement, but I can tell you that the Observer was in no way obligated to alter the online version from what they ran in the hard copy. I can only assume they did so on their own accord so as to avoid a continuous problem."
