Rudy’s Love Tiff Gets Big Apple Yawn

Almost exactly one year ago, New Yorkers couldn’t stop talking about Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s imploding marriage and his very public strolls around town with Judith Nathan, the new woman in his life.

But as word spread Tuesday that Giuliani’s wife is trying to legally bar Nathan from visiting him at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, the buzz was considerably more muted. Although New Yorkers love a good soap opera, many have grown jaded by this war of the roses.

“This story will always be good theater, but it’s not as earth-shattering as before,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Poll and a veteran political observer. “On the other hand, if the two of them get into a fistfight on East 90th Street, we’ll all be glued to our sets.”

At the heart of the latest skirmish is a dispute over whether Gracie Mansion, an elegant 18th-century house overlooking the East River and owned by the city, is a public or private residence. Donna Hanover, fighting to keep Nathan out of the home where she and the mayor raise their two children--and live separate lives--insists the house is private. But Giuliani argues that it is a public landmark and that he should be able to invite whomever he wants to visit.

Acting Supreme Court Justice Judith Gische, who is hearing the couple’s divorce case, will rule by next Wednesday. It’s another odd twist in the personal life of a mayor who--like former President Clinton--shows no signs of yielding the media spotlight as his term winds down. But after 12 months of marital sniping, the sight of Nathan snuggling up to Giuliani in darkened restaurants while Hanover pursues an acting career and shepherds her children around town has become very familiar.

“All of this stuff is old news by now,” said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “We’ve had years of the Clinton scandals, so the state of Rudy’s marriage hits the top note of the ‘Who cares?’ scale.”

To be sure, newspapers and TV have jumped on the latest development but without the fervor of last year’s media stampede. And the key reason may be that, unlike the dueling news conferences announcing their separation, Giuliani’s and Hanover’s lips are now zipped.

“The reality is, there’s been a gag order issued by the court . . . and therefore I cannot comment,” Giuliani told reporters Tuesday at a City Hall news conference. “You can ask me about this two or three more times, I’ll continue to say the exact same thing, and then we’ll have to move on.”

Actually, a court spokesman said that no official gag order has been signed but that the two parties have agreed to stay quiet.

Although mayoral sources suggest that Nathan, a sales manager for the Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co., has been an infrequent visitor to the mansion, friends indicate that Hanover has been greatly concerned by her appearances there. The venerable house, built in 1799, was taken over by the city in 1896. It became the mayor’s residence in 1942, and its upkeep is handled by a not-for-profit corporation set up by the city.

The first couple announced they were separating last May amid revelations that Giuliani was seeing Nathan. Hanover learned that he was seeking a divorce only by watching his comments at an impromptu, televised news conference; she fired back with her own hastily arranged media event in front of Gracie Mansion. Trembling with emotion, she said their marriage had been wrecked years before by his affair with a press secretary, which Giuliani denied.

Hanover has beefed up her legal team, hiring Victor Kovner, a well-known 1st Amendment attorney and a former counsel for former New York Mayor David N. Dinkins; he joins Helene Brezinsky, a formidable divorce attorney. Meanwhile, Giuliani is being represented by Raoul Felder, one of the city’s best-known divorce specialists.

“Donna Hanover may not know how to pick a husband, but she sure knows how to pick a divorce attorney,” said Mitchell Moss, director of the Taub Center for Urban Research at New York University. “This guy [Kovner] is everything that Rudy is not: He’s a liberal, he’s tied in to major Democrats in the city, and he could give the Giuliani team a run for their money.”

Few believe, however, that the divorce case, which may spill over into next year, will affect the mayor’s political future. Giuliani, who must leave his office in January because of term limits, is rumored to be considering a 2002 campaign for New York governor. (He bowed out of a U.S. Senate race last year to fight prostate cancer.)

“This [marital clash] will not impact his future at all,” Sheinkopf predicted. “New Yorkers want to know if you’ll deliver in office, if the garbage will get collected. The rest of this is private, as it should be.”