Monkey Business Meets Media

Not sure what this proves, but back in the days of Desk Assistant Jen, when I landed the first interview with Elise Gazwitz sparking a firestorm of media attention escalating the story to GMA, never once did Armani bite me. (Granted I did my interviews over the phone, but not relevant here.)   

The Reliable Source
By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Tuesday, November 4, 2008; C03

Text hereWho Could've Predicted This Monkey Business?
In an explosion of campaign tension, a prominent pundit violently attacked a local reporter, sending her to the hospital two days before Election Day.
The pundit: celebrated capuchin monkey Armani, who bit a WTOP reporter at the news conference where the primate revealed his presidential pick.
Armani is best known for owner Elyse Gazewitz's long -- and successful -- legal battle to return him to her Rockville home after animal control officers, citing wild-animal regulations, seized him. Since then, he has developed a sideline in punditry, albeit with a mixed record. (He predicted Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee as the nominees and the Patriots to win the Super Bowl. But he successfully matched a couple for The Post's Date Lab.)
On Sunday, WTOP's Amy Held and a Fox 5 TV crew went to Gazewitz's home to see whom Armani likes in today's election. WTOP News VP Jim Farley told us that as Held reached for her mike, the monkey leapt over and bit her on the pinky, drawing blood.
Back at the office, Held's bosses insisted that she get treated. At Georgetown Hospital, doctors gave her a tetanus shot and put her on antibiotics for a week. Held, who returned to work yesterday, declined to comment. "This is the wackiest workman's comp case I've ever had to fill out forms for," Farley said.
Gazewitz offered a different account, saying Armani, perched on her shoulder, "got threatened" when Held approached with a microphone. "It was just a little nip," she said. "He's never done that before. He just didn't like her for whatever reason."
After carefully studying photos of the candidates, Armani made his pick: Barack Obama. "He's definitely a Democrat," Gazewitz said.