PAs in the news

It’s not always an easy life being a PA and dealing with a demanding boss can be a stressful experience, as Matt Harrell can testify. He’s the personal assistant to Hollywood party girl and reality show star Lindsay Lohan and has been having a tough time of it lately.

In the latest episode of docu-series Lindsay, viewers saw Matt getting stressed out because she wouldn’t spare him five minutes to discuss his workload. After a row that escalated into a tirade, with the Mean Girls actress accusing him of failing to make enough sets of keys to her apartment, Matt took issue with Lindsay over her behaviour and she then accused him of being “disrespectful”. Whether the scenario was played out for the cameras or is a typical exchange in La Lohan’s household is not known.

Just how much celebrities rely on their assistants was evidenced in the story of the recent tragic death of L’Wren Scott, partner of rock legend Mick Jagger. According to press reports, PA Brittany Penebre was the last person the fashion designer texted, asking her to “come by” her Manhattan apartment a short while before she took her own life and it was Brittany who discovered L’Wren’s body.

On a happier note, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is apparently dating his PA, twenty-something Aimee Preston, after the two were pictured together looking cosy in Hawaii in February this year. Leader of the self-proclaimed “Bad Boys from Boston” band, 65-year-old Steven is no stranger to the joys of dating younger women; three years ago he got engaged to American beauty pageant winner Erin Brady, who at the time was just four years older than his daughter, Liv.

Despite the diva-like behaviour of many a boss, there are still plenty of decent, well-meaning managers out there. To wit, one Philippa Morgan, an international family lawyer, who has had her head shaved to show her support for her personal assistant, reports the Bristol Post. At just 30 years of age, Leigh Ann Kitteringham was diagnosed with a rare germ cell cancer, meaning that doctors had to put her on an intensive course of chemotherapy, one side effect of which is losing your hair.

As Leigh Ann was understandably distraught at the prospect, boss Philippa, head of the family law team at the Bristol office of solicitors Lyons Davidson, decided to show solidarity with her assistant by agreeing to have all her hair shaved off. Their trip to a local hairdresser’s became a fundraising exercise and they have collected £6,000 for charity to date, which will be donated to Cancer Research.