You Couldn’t Throw A Little Embezzled Largess The Way Of One Of The City’s Smaller Theatres, Could You? And You Know Why? Because The Broadway Hegemony Has Turned All You All Into Theatre Zombies!
More proof that an unhealthy obsession with Broadway shlock is actually a sickness:
Posted: March 24th, 2006 | Filed under: Arts & Entertainment, Crap Your Pants Say Yeah!A starstruck accountant embezzled nearly a half-million dollars from a Midtown clothing company — then blew the money on Broadway charities, theater tickets and flowers for her favorite female stars.
Jennifer Smith, 35, lavished $3,000 worth of flowers on such celebs as “Wicked” star Kristin Chenoweth, Oscar-nominated actor Catherine Keener, who played Anna in off-Broadway’s “Burn This,” and Anne Nathan of the Broadway hits “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Chicago.”
Also presented with purportedly purloined petals were Jennifer Laura Thompson, who played Frieda Bauer in “Pardon My English,” and Cherry Jones, who wowed the critics as Sister Aloysius in “Doubt” at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
Her favorite star was Chenoweth, who played Glinda the Good Witch in “Wicked” at the Gershwin Theatre. Chenoweth got flowers four times from the accused embezzler, who sent them to the star’s home address, prosecutors said.
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The theater-minded charities Broadway Cares and Carnegie Hall Society also benefited from her looted largesse, prosecutors said.
Smith, who has two prior Manhattan embezzlement convictions totaling $58,000, was apparently dissatisfied with the $65,000 she earned as the personal assistant to James Ammeen, owner of Neema Clothing, a manufacturer and importer.
Ammeen had discovered the two years’ worth of alleged thefts only after he fired Smith last June. She was canned after she kept calling in sick, even claiming falsely that she had cancer, only to be spotted at — where else? — a Broadway theater by the boss’ wife.