Atkins' Widow Upset
MIKE'S 'FAT' JAB INSULTS ATKINS' WIDOW

By DAVID SEIFMAN and ADAM MILLER
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January 22, 2004 -- The distraught widow of Dr. Robert Atkins is "extremely upset and hurt" after Mayor Bloomberg was caught on camera saying the diet guru was "fat" and questioning how he died, her spokesman said yesterday.
In candid, off-the-cuff remarks to a group of firefighters, Bloomberg hinted that Atkins may have died from weight-related health problems, despite reports that he succumbed from injuries suffered in a fall on an icy Manhattan street last April.

The remarks were captured by a cameraman for NY1 and heard by a Post reporter in the room with the mayor and firemen at a station house for a press conference.

"Veronica Atkins is extremely upset and hurt," Richard Rothstein, the famed diet doctor's spokesman, said yesterday.

"She is confused. She doesn't understand why the mayor would do this. She does not understand this at all. She's really hurt by this."

When the subject of Atkins and his slip-and-fall death came up while Bloomberg was eating at a Brooklyn firehouse Tuesday, Hizzoner weighed in with a blistering attack.

"Atkins is dead. I don't believe that bulls- - - that [Atkins] dropped dead slipping on the sidewalk. Yeah, right!" said Bloomberg, chewing the fat with firefighters.

And he didn't mince words when describing his meeting Atkins at a fund-raiser at the diet king's Southampton home two years ago.

"The guy was fat . . . and the food was inedible," Bloomberg quipped.

"I took one appetizer and I had to spit it into my napkin. It was just terrible."

Bloomberg yesterday ducked a reporter's question about his Atkins remarks.

"I would never criticize somebody about their waistline. Let me just say, 'You are what you eat,' " Bloomberg told WCBS Radio.

The mayor's press office had no comment on Veronica Atkins' remarks.

Rothstein said Veronica is at a loss for words after Bloomberg's attack, more so because the mayor penned her a touching condolence letter after her husband's death.

"She's looking at this letter and she's pretty upset and she's hurt," he said.

In the letter dated last May 5, Bloomberg said Atkins "touched the lives of so many and his legacy of service is an inspiration to us all."

Bloomberg aides have said the mayor's remarks to the firefighters were off the record. Media representatives responded that they were never told beforehand the session was off the record.

Rothstein said Bloomberg's beef has left a bitter taste.

"We don't know what more to say," he said.

"It's a painful situation. It's hurtful. We don't understand why our mayor did this."

More than 30 million Americans have tried the Atkins Diet - a hotly debated weight-loss plan favoring steaks and sausages over pasta, bread and fruit salad.

Critics have claimed the high amounts of fat in many recommended foods can lead to high cholesterol and heart attacks.

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/16414.htm

Well, I am not a New-Yorker, but live close to New York, and watch New York news, and the Mayor just proved what I've thought of him all along. He really is a dip-stick...not genuine at all. Oh, well, his ignorance has said it all.

I'm with you, Katy1956....bring back Rudy!!!!


L

What a F*&k head! I am personally hurt by his remarks! I feel so bad for Mrs. Atkins.

Looks like the mayor is not only incredibly mean but also very unprofessional. How horrible for Mrs Atkins.

Well .. i guess if you are what you eat the mayor is a limp noodle.

related article:

Atkins wife has beef with Mike

By DAVID SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/loc...4p-138079c.html

A day after Mayor Bloomberg called Dr. Robert Atkins "fat" and suggested his slip-and-fall death was "bull----," the widow of the famed diet guru was hoping for an apology.
Fat chance.

Instead, Bloomberg made light of his heavyweight putdown, which was picked up Tuesday by a TV microphone.

"Well, I would never criticize somebody else about their waistline," Bloomberg tried to joke yesterday. "Let me just say, you are what you eat."

That was a few pounds short of what widow Veronica Atkins and others close to the diet guru wanted to hear.

"Atkins is dead. I don't believe that bull---- that he dropped dead slipping on a sidewalk. Yeah, right," Bloomberg said while eating pasta Tuesday with firefighters in Brooklyn.

"The guy was fat - big guy - but heavy," added Bloomberg, noting that appetizers he once sampled at Atkins' house were "inedible."

The comments shocked many close to the Atkins Diet creator, including his widow.

"She is certainly hoping for an apology," said Richard Rothstein, a spokesman for Atkins Nutritionals Inc.

Bloomberg could have consulted his own Health Department for the cause of Atkins' demise.

A copy of the diet wizard's death certificate - posted on thesmokinggun.com Web site - listed the cause of death as "blunt impact injury of head."

After reading this article here on the Atkins site, I wouldn't be surprised if Bloomburg really did make those remarks, although I'm wondering if it's true since I haven't been able to find that article reference anywhere else.

The best his office can come up with is to say his remarks were off the record? What difference does that make? The point is he said it.

in his defense, he was probably just trying to relate to the firemen and you know, be jocular and down to earth and whatever,

and his comments are not that different from what I hear from many of my knucklehead friends, usually after more than one adult beverage...

but he IS the mayor....

MMM true, however he did meet him IRL well enough to be invited to his home, and even sent condolences to his widow. IMO saying these things about someone who you knew, and then died, for no reason at all is just not classy. It's one thing for average joe civillian to call michael jackson a pedo, it's another thing for a mayor to make fun of the death of an old man who he had known. Not cool in my book at all.

Just so you know, the New York Daily News is a tabloid. Not real journalism. Has this story been in other more newsworthy publications?

*hands the mayor a glass of water to help wash down that foot*

http://thesmokinggun.com/archive/bloombergatkins1.html

I always like the lameness of the excuse, off the record. So, he's an on-the-record good guy, but an off-the-record a-hole? I think the off the record remarks tell a lot more about him than what he's planned for the public to hear.

I agree. The true measure of a person's character is what they say and do when they think that nobody else is watching or listening.