City official resigns after ‘dressing man as old woman’ for media photo op
A city official in Rhode Island has resigned – after a man was apparently asked to dress up as an old lady for a TV interview.
Sue Stenhouse, the executive director of Cranston’s Senior Enrichment Center, had spoken at a press conference last week in front of the assembled media about their snow-shovelling programme.
However, it has since emerged that the adorable little old lady who stood behind Stenhouse was actually a male bus driver.
NBC 10 reports that Stenhouse asked the man to dress up to “make it look good for the media” – and he didn’t fail to disappoint, wearing lipstick, jewellery and a wig.
He was also wearing a name tag that read “Cranston Senior Home Resident” – despite actually being the bus driver for the centre.
Mayor Allan Fung, who was also present at the photo op, has not commented on the row – but Stenhouse has resigned from her post.
Director of administration Rob Coupe declined to offer further comment, saying it was a personnel matter.
Stenhouse told a reporter outside her home: “I’ve been in a meeting all night being a great public servant for the city of Warwick, and now I get this bulls**t.”
Local hairdresser Elaine Mancuso told WJAR-TV that she supplied the wig, saying: “He says to me, ‘Elaine, do you have a wig that I could borrow? I have to get dressed as a senior’.
“I said, ‘Oh, my God. He wanted it for that.’ I probably would have given him a better wig if I had known.”
Watch the clip below:
