July 24, 2008 --
JENNIFER Oz LeRoy, the gorgeous owner of top-grossing Tavern on the Green, is being smeared as a status-hungry, boy-chasing, cash-burning airhead in a new roman a clef being shopped by her disgruntled former personal assistant.
A character in the untitled novel by Jennifer Falk based on her onetime boss is quoted, "Oh, American Express has to be paid monthly? But I haaaaave to have a new bag; it's only $1,200. Just get it for me and have the restaurant pay for the whole bill again this month."
The character is also obsessed with high society, having an "all-encompassing jealousy of the Alis, Brittanys, Whitneys, Ashleys, Hillarys, Elizas, Alexas, Victorias . . . even Danielles and Georginas drove her mad," and quotes the LeRoy-like character as shrieking, "Those [bleep]ing spoiled twits don't have anything over me!"
For dates, the character preferred "boys, she didn't go for men . . . It was almost always line cooks and sous chefs from the restaurant . . . They'd hang out at her apartment all day, living for free . . . and having gifts lavished upon them - leather jackets, guitars, whatever they wanted."
LeRoy, daughter of famed restaurateur Warner LeRoy, fired Falk after five years in 2004. In 2006, Falk whined to Page Six about LeRoy's dispute with her West Village neighbors over her Yorkshire terriers supposedly stinking up her apartment.
In a statement to Page Six, LeRoy told us: "I'm so glad I have had better success selling 'Tavern on the Green: 150 Recipes for Good Times,' [which will be] on shelves this holiday season, than Ms. Falk has had with her proposed novel about me and my family. As always, I wish Jennifer well."
