Philadelphia Magazine: 100 Years

In “How Many Ed Rendells Are There?” (April 1994), Lisa DePaulo masterfully dissected the glowing national reputation of our then-mayor—and found herself splashed across the Philly papers for reporting Fast Eddie’s salacious comments to her. “My favorite was the Daily News cover LADY IN RED, because the day the story broke, I was wearing a red suit and sitting at my desk behind a vase of red roses—sent by Zack Stalberg, the editor of the Daily News,” DePaulo recalls. “I gotta hand it to Zack. That was brilliant PR.” Rendell held a press conference to address the brouhaha. But while he fessed up to a “salty, earthy” sense of humor, he added that DePaulo “gave as good as she got.” Still, he added, “I feel a little stupid.”