The press conference capped a month of surreal damage control, which saw her crying on her morning TV program and husband Frank Gifford running around a New York sweatshop with a stack of $100 bills. ““I have the money to pay them, I just need to know who the hell they are,’’ he said, while union activists outside chanted, ““Kath-ie, pay my sal-a-ry.’’ The mess comes at a particularly embarrassing time for Kathie Lee, who donates 10 percent of her Wal-Mart take to children’s charities. Next week, with Hillary Rodham Clinton presiding, she plans to dedicate Cassidy’s Place, a facility for 100 AIDS and crack babies. Now, says Frank, ““she’s had to listen to our 6-year-old son saying, “Mommy, why are you such a bad person?’ ’’ Accused of hypocrisy, Kathie Lee characteristically cast herself as a martyr. ““Only I could give $5 million away and build a house for little AIDS and crack kids and somebody’d criticize me for it,’’ she told ““PrimeTime Live.''
In truth, labor activists say, atrocious working conditions pervade the global clothing biz. Wendy DMaz, 15, told reporters last week that she sometimes worked until 6:30 a.m. in the Honduran plant that made slacks for Gifford’s label.For three years, Reich has been trying to call attention to the problems. Now, where he struggled, Kathie Lee seems to be succeeding. ““I’m in a unique, and in a strange way privileged, position to implement long-overdue reforms,’’ she said at the Fashion Cafe, a venture of Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Elle MacPherson and Christy Turlington. ““I’m committed to changing things.’’ And if she can’t, she promised, she’ll get out of the rag trade. Celebrities of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chain stores.
