NEW YORK: Jennifer Crisafulli, the Manhattan real-estate agent who had the double indignity of being fired from reality show The Apprentice and from her real job at Prudential Douglas Elliman last week, has hired an entertainment publicist.
Amy Brownstein, of Brownstein and Associates, has signed on to help Crisafulli in a crisis-communications role. Brownstein said, via e-mail, that the strategy was to address the Apprentice and Prudential concerns, and help Crisafulli move past it and create new positive, opportunities.
Crisafulli was ousted from her job for making what many deem a disparaging comment and some have called outright anti-Semitism.
The comment, which has made its way through the mainstream media and blogs, was: "Those two old Jewish fat ladies. Really. They were like the pinnacle of the New York jaded old bags."
Crisafulli's comment resulted from her team, whose task was to set up a restaurant in a day, receiving a poor review. She blamed the poor score on those diners.
She has said in newspaper reports that NBC cut off subsequent dialogue where she mentioned her Jewish heritage and explained the comment.
"We do not intend to have an individual in our organization who subscribes to this point of view," Steven James, Elliman's SVP and executive director of sales, told the Albany Times Union.
As recent as this Tuesday, Elliman had an Apprentice page on its website that asked viewers to send Crisafulli their support. The link to that page now turns up an error message.
Crisafulli has expressed contrition in many media outlets.
"I feel terrible about this. I hope people don't think about me in the wrong way," she told the Albany Times Union.
Crisafulli told the New York Post, "Of course, I apologize to anyone who was offended."
Crisafulli's own website, however, does not address the controversy and her media links page does not have any links to stories mentioning her and the comment.
