PAs in the news

News reaches PA Life Towers that yet more managerial assistants have been behaving very badly indeed. Gareth Varey, aide to London popstrel Tulisa, has been arrested on suspicion of dealing cocaine and possession of cannabis. This development is bad timing for the former N-Dubz singer, coming as it does just a few months after she herself was accused of setting up a deal to sell cocaine to someone who later turned out to be an undercover reporter.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, actress Claudine Barretto’s ex-PA, 20-year-old Dessa Patilan, has been released from jail after serving 10 months behind bars as punishment for stealing a Rolex watch and other jewellery worth nearly £115,000.

In the US, we find a trio of managerial assistants who, it is alleged, set out to fleece their employers. Forty-five-year-old Bonnie Johnson has been sentenced to three years in prison, after being convicted on one count of fraud for stealing around $600,000 from North Country Smokehouse in Claremont, New Hampshire.

Her former boss says it has since transpired that for years she had been writing herself company cheques, as well as using the company credit card, and later tried to fix the books in order to cover her tracks. Apparently, Bonnie spent the money on luxury cars, jewellery and exotic holidays.

Next up is Julie Anne West, who worked at a Central Pennsylvania catering company, and has been charged with embezzling at least $120,000 over a six-year period.

Then there is the case of the South Carolina dentist who fell foul to fraud when Linda Branton Gregg pleaded guilty to having syphoned off funds in excess of $80,000. Apparently the owner was particularly aggrieved by the crime as Linda was a trusted employee, having worked at the dental practice as office manager for the past 25 years.

We end on a positive note with the memoirs of a lady who for many years was the PA to 1960s singer Connie Francis (no pun intended). Maria Filippello, now aged 84, first met Connie’s mother in Miami and it was she who thought that Maria would make the perfect PA for the songstress.

When Connie travelled she sent Maria telegrams from all over the world that she still keeps today. Her duties included handling phone calls, arranging interviews and appointments and running Connie’s fan club.

She was the person responsible for booking Connie’s performances on the Ed Sullivan and Jack Benny shows and she also planned her tours in Las Vegas. During the six weeks Connie and Maria spent in Vegas she met a host of celebrities, including the legendary Judy Garland and TV personality Dick Clark.

Read the full story at tinyurl.com/qgxl7f7.