Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Klein: Zahn Divorce Non-issue to Contract Renewal Later This Year
According to an article in the New York Daily News, Paula Zahn's contract will be up in December at CNN. Zahn has been going through a messy divorce as of late, and CNN President Jon Klein told NYDN the situation will be a non-issue in considering her renewal:He used to be a family friend who joined them on ski trips.
But now business mogul Paul Fribourg is the other man in the Paula Zahn-Richard Cohen breakup - and something for the warring spouses to argue about.
"[Cohen] and Paula disagree over how long her thing with Paul has been going on," a friend of the couple said.
As the marriage of the CNN anchorwoman and the wealthy developer publicly implodes, Fribourg is said to be on vacation with his Moroccan-born wife, Josabeth, with whom he has four kids and an upper East Side brownstone.
Fribourg, 53, is a philanthropist and chairman of ContiGroup Companies, a sixth-generation family business that is one of the largest privately held corporations in the U.S.
His romance with Zahn, 51, could be bad news for the newscaster, whose contract to host "Paula Zahn Now" expires in December. Even before this, it wasn't clear whether they would renew it," said the friend of the couple. "Will they use this as an excuse to get rid of her?"
But CNN President Jon Klein said the divorce is a nonissue.
"That stuff is her personal life, and we don't really comment on it or let that factor into our professional decisions," he said.
# posted by ATN @ 11:55 AM 
