'WHEN RUDY MET JUDI': AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER

By: Allan Wolper Why the Peeping Press Pursues Politicians' Personal Lives



What did the press know? When did they know it? And how much should they
have told their readers, worn out from a decade of sexsational,
impeachable journalism?



Rudy is New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani whose prostate cancer and
public, yearlong pursuit of Judi forced him to pull out of a U.S. Senate
race against first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose home life hasn't
been that terrific, either.



Judi is Judi Nathan, 45, described as a 'divorc?e' by the New York
Daily News and the New York Post, a 'single mom' by
Newsday, and the mayor's 'very good friend' by The New York
Times.



The published angst about whether or how to cover Rudy and Judi is an
example of how the media are done in by the machinations of the powerful
people they cover. Consider:



In 1993, Giuliani won his first term as mayor with his anchorwoman wife,
Donna, and their two young children by his side. The family pictures
were vote-getters. Observe the Giulianis. See how stable and loving they
are. After Giuliani won, he told reporters how much he leaned on Donna
for political advice.



But after his wife was a no-show for the mayor's re-election party in
1997, and she changed her name back to Donna Hanover, and he shed his
wedding ring, Giuliani warned the press off his private life.



Since City Hall reporters knew Giuliani made life miserable for those
who crossed him, it was no surprise that his romance remained a media
secret.



That's because everyone hates being branded part of the peeping press.
Blame Hillary's husband. When she became a Senate candidate, city rooms
shook with Monica nightmares. So they let sleeping spouses lie.



Rudy and Judi hid in full view. He was escorted by New York police
detectives to her condo in Southampton, an old-money, Long Island town.
They were together at the globally televised millennium party in Times
Square, the St. Patrick's Day Parade, and the New York City Marathon.
Rudy and Judi dared journalists to write something by appearing at the
Inner Circle dinner, the annual affair of New York's pundits. Giuliani
even titillated the assemblage with Monica jokes while the room recorded
Hillary's reaction.



But not a word was written.



Craig Horowitz, a New York magazine writer whose 1995 article
first suggested Giuliani was having an affair with Cristyne Lategano
(now Lategano-Nicholas), then his communications chief, was stunned.
'You would have thought someone would have published something,'
Horowitz said.



Finally, someone did.



On May 3, Mitchell Fink, a media-gossip columnist for the Daily
News noted that Giuliani and an unidentified woman were spotted on a
date at a Manhattan restaurant. The next day the Post published a
Rudy-Judi picture taken some weeks before, along with a story listing
earlier Rudy-Judi sightings.



Giuliani pleaded with reporters to allow 'his very good friend' some
privacy. But he didn't mean it. On Mother's Day weekend, he walked his
good friend home from a date and invited his staff and reporters to walk
with them.



Next Giuliani announced on TV - before telling his wife - that
he was getting a legal separation. Then she disclosed she had been
trying to patch up their marriage after his alleged affair with a former
unnamed aide, later identified as Lategano.



Why did it take so long for Rudy-Judi to get some decent news space? It
was a lot more public than the Bill-Monica thing.



Jennet Conant, who wrote a six-page Vanity Fair article in 1997
providing strong circumstantial evidence of the Lategano-Giuliani
relationship, said it's because City Hall reporters fret about losing
access. 'They see the mayor every day,' Conant said. 'They don't have
the freedom we have at magazines. We can write and leave.'



But David Seifman, City Hall bureau chief for the New York Post,
insists he knew nothing about Rudy-Judi. 'Believe me, I would have loved
to break that story,' Seifman said. 'There were plenty of rumors. But we
don't print rumors.'



Gabe Pressman, the WNBC-TV newsman who has covered New York politics
since Mickey Mantle played for the New York Yankees, has his own take on
the Rudy-Judi affair. 'It's sleazy journalism,' Pressman said. 'When you
worry about that stuff, you miss the big picture.'



And now comes U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio as Giuliani's replacement candidate
against Hillary Clinton. See him holding hands with wife, Patricia, his
children close by. 'They seem to care about each other,' said Lara Jakes
of the Albany Times Union. 'But reporters will be checking them
out now.'



They have to. Lazio, like Giuliani before him, placed his family on the
political stage. They are part of his platform. He is using them the way
President Clinton used Hillary and the way they both use Chelsea. Now
journalists should see whether Lazio is playing a role. It's how the
public uses journalists.