Knowing Alycia Lane Can Be Dangerous to Your Job
Monday June 2, 2008
Do any of the rest of you know Alycia Lane? I met her a couple of times at press previews for new exhibits in the area, but I'm certainly glad that I can say I was not one of her friends or co-workers.
I found last year's story about Alycia's emails to the married guy in California kind of odd. I found the original story about the incident in New York City somewhat suspicious in that I found it hard to believe that Alycia would hit a police officer intentionally.
The story, however, just keeps getting stranger. It seems now that anyone who knows Alycia or worked closely with her has a pretty good chance of losing his job.
Just a week or so ago we learned that Alycia's boyfriend, Chris Booker, was booted as morning host at Q102. DJ changes in radio are not unusual, but it's rare that the guy who's number one in his timeslot is shown the door. As reported in the [link url=http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20080524_Chris_Booker_out_as_Q102_a_m__man.html]Philadelphia Inquirer on May 24, 2008[/link], "In the April Arbitron ratings released Wednesday (May 21), Booker had the largest cumulative audience among both women ages 18 to 34 and men and women ages 18 to 34." In the same article Booker is quoted as saying, "I've been fired before for low ratings, but never for being No. 1."
I've never been too good at predictions, but I'd put decent money down that there's another lawsuit being prepared to join Alycia's own wrongful termination suit against CBS3.
Speaking of CBS3, we now see that the whole Alycia Lane saga has jumped the shark.
Give the Philadelphia Inquirer credit; they knew that the Alycia Lane story was far from over. In an exclusive, [link url=http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20080602_FBI_focus__Did_Mendte_blab_about_Lane_e-mail_.html]the Inquirer broke the story over the weekend[/link] that the FBI is investigating whether Alycia's CBS3 co-anchor Larry Mendte opened Alycia Lane's private Yahoo e-mail account and possibly leaked information he read about Alycia's private life and her suit against CBS3.
Could it be that Mendte has never totally gotten away from that celebrity gossip that he broadcast during his stint as host of [i]Access Hollywood[/i] in the 1990's? It's certainly hard to believe that the multi-Emmy Award winning anchor who was inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2006 would be leaking tawdry details of his former co-anchor's life to the media, but the Inquirer report is very convincing. There seems to be no doubt that Mendte accessed Alycia's email.
So, what's next. If I were Mendte's wife I'd be looking over my shoulder. Mendte is married to Fox29 anchor Dawn Stensland and Dawn's co-anchor Dave Huddleston recently learned that his contract would not be renewed. His last day on the air after six years will be June 13. Inquirer columnist Michael Klein reported yesterday that Fox29's "new news director Kingsley Smith and newish general manager Mike Renda are said to be planning other moves."
As I said, I'm certainly glad that I'm not one of Alycia's friends or former co-workers.
I found last year's story about Alycia's emails to the married guy in California kind of odd. I found the original story about the incident in New York City somewhat suspicious in that I found it hard to believe that Alycia would hit a police officer intentionally.
The story, however, just keeps getting stranger. It seems now that anyone who knows Alycia or worked closely with her has a pretty good chance of losing his job.
Just a week or so ago we learned that Alycia's boyfriend, Chris Booker, was booted as morning host at Q102. DJ changes in radio are not unusual, but it's rare that the guy who's number one in his timeslot is shown the door. As reported in the [link url=http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20080524_Chris_Booker_out_as_Q102_a_m__man.html]Philadelphia Inquirer on May 24, 2008[/link], "In the April Arbitron ratings released Wednesday (May 21), Booker had the largest cumulative audience among both women ages 18 to 34 and men and women ages 18 to 34." In the same article Booker is quoted as saying, "I've been fired before for low ratings, but never for being No. 1."
I've never been too good at predictions, but I'd put decent money down that there's another lawsuit being prepared to join Alycia's own wrongful termination suit against CBS3.
Speaking of CBS3, we now see that the whole Alycia Lane saga has jumped the shark.
Give the Philadelphia Inquirer credit; they knew that the Alycia Lane story was far from over. In an exclusive, [link url=http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20080602_FBI_focus__Did_Mendte_blab_about_Lane_e-mail_.html]the Inquirer broke the story over the weekend[/link] that the FBI is investigating whether Alycia's CBS3 co-anchor Larry Mendte opened Alycia Lane's private Yahoo e-mail account and possibly leaked information he read about Alycia's private life and her suit against CBS3.
Could it be that Mendte has never totally gotten away from that celebrity gossip that he broadcast during his stint as host of [i]Access Hollywood[/i] in the 1990's? It's certainly hard to believe that the multi-Emmy Award winning anchor who was inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2006 would be leaking tawdry details of his former co-anchor's life to the media, but the Inquirer report is very convincing. There seems to be no doubt that Mendte accessed Alycia's email.
So, what's next. If I were Mendte's wife I'd be looking over my shoulder. Mendte is married to Fox29 anchor Dawn Stensland and Dawn's co-anchor Dave Huddleston recently learned that his contract would not be renewed. His last day on the air after six years will be June 13. Inquirer columnist Michael Klein reported yesterday that Fox29's "new news director Kingsley Smith and newish general manager Mike Renda are said to be planning other moves."
As I said, I'm certainly glad that I'm not one of Alycia's friends or former co-workers.
Comments
did they ever say why Booker was being fired
what is the “official” excuse?