Meet the Hot Banker Allegedly Fired For Being Too Hot
"Everything about Debrahlee Lorenzana is hot. Even her name sizzles," writes the Voice in a profile of the hot banker fired for being "too distracting for her male colleagues to bear." Her lawyer even has photographic evidence of said hotness.
Lorenzana is about to enter arbitration with Citibank, which she accuses of wrongful termination. Writes The Village Voice,
Her bosses told her they couldn't concentrate on their work because her appearance was too distracting. They ordered her to stop wearing turtlenecks. She was also forbidden to wear pencil skirts, three-inch heels, or fitted business suits. Lorenzana, a 33-year-old single mom, pointed out female colleagues whose clothing was far more revealing than hers: "They said their body shapes were different from mine, and I drew too much attention," she says.
As Lorenzana's lawsuit puts it, her bosses told her that "as a result of the shape of her figure, such clothes were purportedly 'too distracting' for her male colleagues and supervisors to bear."
For legal purposes, her "sex positive" women's rights lawyer Jack Tuckner had to get Lorenzana to pose in sexy-but-work-appropriate outfits, doing sexy-but-work-appropriate things like reading the newspaper and bending over to look at a piece of paper. (Is it wrong to find men who self-define as "sex positive" gross? It's like the guy who offers, "I won't respect you any less for putting out right away." Um, thanks?)
For journalistic purposes, the Voice had to include a gallery of photos of Lorenzana airbrushed to an inch of her life, in skimpy outfits and with her chest heaving.
Click photo to enlarge
The Voice also had to include lots of sexy sentences, best read through fogged-up eyeglasses:
At five-foot-six and 125 pounds, with soft eyes and flawless bronze skin, she is J.Lo curves meets Jessica Simpson rack meets Audrey Hepburn elegance—a head-turning beauty.
The dress was form-fitting and tight in the bust: She says one size up would have been too big for her.
"Men are kind of drawn to her," says Tanisha Ritter, a friend and former colleague who also works as a banker and praises Lorenzana's work habits. "I've seen men turn into complete idiots around her."
She has five closets full of Burberry, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Roberto Cavalli.
As we speak, Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch are in a pitched battle over who gets to employ this woman next. [VillageVoice]
Update: By email, Citibank issued the following statement, via Citi Public Affairs coordinator Natalie Riper:
Ms. Lorenzana has chosen to make numerous unfounded accusations and inaccurate statements against Citibank and several of our employees. While we will not discuss the details of her case, we can say that her termination was solely performance-based and not at all related to her appearance or attire. We are confident that when all of the facts and documentation are presented, the claim will be dismissed.