Is Wolfgang Pucking Over His Patrons?

Posted Feb 27th 2007 7:59PM by TMZ Staff

As you just saw on TMZ, an urgent warning has been issued by the Los Angeles County Department of Heath, after an employee of Wolfgang Puck's catering company was diagnosed with acute hepatitis A.

Turns out this employee worked 13 separate events from February 1 through February 20, putting hundreds and possibly thousands of people at risk.

TMZ contacted Puck's public relations firm, asking for a list of the 13 events. We were told the list would not be released. We pressed and noted that there may be people who had no idea that Puck was the caterer, and they could be in the dark and in peril. We got the same response -- the list will not be released.

Filed under: Wacky & Weird

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1. HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO BET THIS PERSON WITH HEP IS AN ILLEGAL ALIEN??? ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY SAYS IT!!!! IF IT IS TRUE...AND IT IS, PUCK SHOULD BE JAILED FOR EMPLOYING THESE DIRTY BORDER JUMPERS.
-STEVE
STEVEFRANK1869@Yahoo

Posted at 8:30PM on Feb 27th 2007 by STEVE

2. Is Puck reckless and irresponsible by not releasing the list?
Yes 83%
No 17%
Total Votes: 598
Note on Poll Results

TMZ is not the health department, so it is inflamatory question you are asking.

Posted at 8:36PM on Feb 27th 2007 by Red Ginger

3. Comment #2--you are not the health department, either, and your comment makes no sense. TMZ isn't saying they are the health department--they are trying to bring an extremely serious health issue to the public, because peoples lives can be deeply affected. How else will most people hear about this if not through the press? Especially since Wolfgang won't be responsible and release the list of events. I thank TMZ for calling this to our attention.

Posted at 9:03PM on Feb 27th 2007 by Tricia

4. Why did you even have to go there #1? Please do not start with
the racist s**t becuuse my fiance is spanish and and he use to
be a hard working sous chef. I know that you are a low life with
no class and integrity. If you are Irish, I can call you a Mick. If you
are Chinese, I could call you a Chink. Two wrongs do not make
a right and that is why I refuse to stoop to your level of
ingnorance. Employers who hire spanish people said that they
work much harder than americans. I am was insulted when I
heard that too because I am not spanish but it may be the truth.
As they say, the truth hurts.

Posted at 9:08PM on Feb 27th 2007 by Carribean Goddess

5. That would be like Con Agra Foods Corporation not releasing information on the serial numbers of the jars of peanut butter, or the states they were shipped to which were recently found to be contaminated with Salminella.

Arrest him and sue him. Its outrageous this "star" can take the low road when it comes to health, even if for now its only suspected his organization is responsible for it.

Posted at 9:11PM on Feb 27th 2007 by Puck You

6. would you like some secret sauce with that.

Posted at 9:23PM on Feb 27th 2007 by Sick saucier

7. Wait . . . is his camp saying they won't release the list to the Health Dept. or they won't release it to TMZ et al? They are certainly not under any obligation to release the list of private parties, events and/or guest lists to the gossip rags. The Health Dept. on the other hand is a different story. They have mechanisms for notifying individuals discreetly, assuming these were invitation only events.

Posted at 9:43PM on Feb 27th 2007 by LThompson

8. I think they dont want to release the list in order to respect the privacy of people and im sure they are alerting all concerned and effected by this, wouldnt it be criminally negligent if they didnt? Im sure they are handling it quietly.

Posted at 9:44PM on Feb 27th 2007 by shafali

9. Yikes! Another case of "I'm so important and famous that laws don't apply to me". Does Hollywood/LA actually enforce any laws on the famous? If you have a recognized name then you can drive drunk, hurt people, drink underage and now expose people to a deadly disease that is sitting there like a ticking bomb. Since tomorrow is the deadline to get the shots what happens now.

Posted at 10:29PM on Feb 27th 2007 by my opinion

10. I actually had hepatitis A 15 years ago. It is very serious and this should not be taken lightly. I was sick for 4 months and had to get my billirubin checked every couple months for several months after that. I was hospitalized in the second month of being sick beacause I thought I was all better and went to a cookout and drank 1 beer and it all came back with a vengance. It is a liver sickness and is very serious,not to mention the itching of your skin on your entire body 24/7. When your billirubin levels are elevated it makes you itch horribly. Anyway the shot you can get does work if you do it in time before you are sick.It worked for my husband and son, but is very painful to get. It is free to anyone who thinks they could have been exposed through the health dept. Hope this could help someone.

Posted at 10:30PM on Feb 27th 2007 by shell

11. Maybe Paris went to his party! Good news!!!

Posted at 10:30PM on Feb 27th 2007 by my opinion

12. About 10 years ago the company I worked for ordered in lunch for about 70 people from a chain restaurant. Almost a week later it was released that someone at the restaurant had Hep. That weekend the restaurant served over 1,000 people - all of whom had to go to the health department for a shot. The restaurant had to pay for the serum. The inconvenience was annoying. The thought that I could get very, very sick was scary as all hell. SHAME on whomever is advising Mr. Puck to NOT release that information.

Posted at 10:33PM on Feb 27th 2007 by tired mom

13. This is not something to be taken lightly. Most cases are not too bad, feeling yucky for a couple of months. However, there are a lot of people that have other health issues that are exacerbated by Hep A that make it much more serious.

It is also a serious issue because it is highly contagious. The list of events this person worked SHOULD be distributed widely and not left to chance.

There is NO WAY they would have any idea of ALL the people attending that many events to contact them discretely.

Posted at 10:56PM on Feb 27th 2007 by Ms_Tell_It_Like_It_Is

14. "....reckless and irresponsible by not releasing the list?"

No. I'm certain the catering business, party hosts and/or the health department have contacted all involved. I highly doubt they were public parties and there were guest lists, lol.

Posted at 11:49PM on Feb 27th 2007 by Me

15. It doesn’t much matter if the PR firm releases the function list only to the Dept of Health, unless the identity of every last attendee and service worker at all 13 functions is known.

Keeping the list of events a secret is absolutely not in the public interest, and it’s likely the Health Dept will have to release the information to make sure that anyone who was a “plus guest” or “plus one” is notified about their exposure.

Why would Puck prefer to have the government issue a warning to anyone who ate his potentially tainted food when he has an opportunity to do the responsible thing by being open, truthful and regretful at the thought someone may have gotten ill (through no personal fault of his own)?

If he’s taking a PR agency’s advice and attempting to keep this on the downlow, he needs to fire Moe, Larry and Curly before he does real damage to his brand and exposes himself any further to liability.

Posted at 12:05AM on Feb 28th 2007 by dimes

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