As if the fancy Essex House doesn't have enough PR problems with a staff member accused of drunkenly murdering a businesswoman, it turns out that a semi-celebrity was also in danger! It's not affecting business, though. Chill out.

Yesterday Essex House employee Derrick Praileau was charged with strangling and stabbing a woman in her Essex House condo. But whoa, the NYDN says somebody who appears on a TV show was only a single floor away!

Makenzie [Vega] - who plays Julianna Margulies' daughter in the drama [The Good Wife] about an unfaithful politicianthat debuts tonight - thinks she spoke with Derrick Praileau.

He came to her apartment to help her find her lost iPhone, and her apartment is just one floor above the scene of the crime! Had Derrick Praileau inexplicably snapped while looking for the iPhone, or chosen to break through the ceiling after his first crime in search of another, more famous, victim, this tragedy could have been even greater.

But hey, private equity guys are still schmoozing journalists at Essex House and Ahmadinejad's still planning to speak there, so the PR battle's been won.
[Pic: CarbonNYC's Flickr]