THE anti-fur folk at PETA may have a new target: Sen. Hillary Clinton.
On Dec. 24, the Times' Boldfaced Names column reported that Manhattan furrier Peter Duffy "told us he had just finished a mink coat for Hillary Rodham Clinton."
Naturally, the folks at PETA were none too pleased and called Sen. Clinton's office to get an official statement. "They told us the article was completely false," said PETA spokesperson Michael McGraw. "I can't imagine Hillary wearing a fur considering Chelsea's such an animal lover. Fur-wearing first ladies are a thing of the past."
Oh?
Last week, our spy overheard a frantic conversation between Marge Duffy, the furrier's wife, and another company employee during a visit to the store.
"Clinton's office had just called and wanted to know who spilled the beans about her new fur coat to the press," related our source. "The Senate staff was going nuts. Duffy made a coat for her but someone else paid for it. The Senate staffer wants to put a squash on it. Ms. Clinton's coat from the store is a sheared mink, but she is telling PETA and the press it is velvet."
Duffy stressed the need for secrecy, according to our spy who quoted her as saying, "When she runs for president, the PETA people will be all over her!"
When PAGE SIX asked Marge about the Times, she said, "That was just somebody fooling around. We did not make a fur coat for Hillary. She's never been in the store."
Next we called our source at the Times, who called Marge himself. He got back to us with the word that Marge told him he "got the story right." Hmmm.
We called Marge again. "Mrs. Clinton has never been in the showroom," she insisted. "I have never billed her. We sold a coat to her assistant, and what she did with it I don't know." So the Times was wrong? "I just told them to go ahead and run it. It was fine. This is a non-story."
Not true, apparently. After chasing the story all day, PAGE SIX got the official word from Clinton's camp: "The senator has owned a mink coat for 25 years, and because it was worn, she traded it in."
So she's neither been to the store nor received a bill, but she did trade in her old mink for a new one. Why all the back and forth and changing stories? Only her furrier knows for sure.