“Yes, yes, Harvey, I know,” said Juda Engelmayer as he opened the door of his office, wireless headphones in, phone in hand, rolling his eyes theatrically. “Yes, Harvey, I’ll try.” From the 72nd floor of the Empire State Building, Engelmayer has created a niche: the publicist who takes on clients so nuclear that no one else will touch them. The “Harvey” on the phone was the disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein, who calls him most days from prison. Taking the job was a “calculated” decision, said Engelmayer. “I thought it was a good way that I could propel myself and make myself a better-known PR person.”
It worked. In the years since, 56-year-old Engelmayer has headed crisis communications for Sean “Diddy” Combs (50 months in prison for two prostitution-related charges); the “fake heiress” Anna Sorokin (aka Anna Delvey, four years for eight theft-related charges, then 18 months fighting deportation) and the leader of the “orgasm cult”, Nicole Daedone (nine years for forced labor conspiracy).
