Donny Deutsch shouldn’t expect much from Santa Claus this Christmas, if St. Nick really knows who’s been naughty or nice.
The advertising mogul, whose CNBC show “The Big Idea” was put on hiatus last week, has allegedly been fooling around with a married woman – and they got caught.
Sources say hedge-fund manager Andrew Sandler, whose father, Harvey, founded Sandler Capital Management in 1980, grew suspicious of his wife, Lisa, with whom he has two children, and hired a private detective a few weeks ago.
The private eye shadowed the attractive blonde until he was able to take surveillance photos of her kissing Deutsch, sources say. Sandler’s lawyer, Stephen Gassman, filed for divorce in Nassau County last week and the complaint is said to name Deutsch as the third party.
Sandler declined to comment, and referred Page Six to Gassman, who refused to discuss what is alleged in court papers, which are sealed. “I can’t comment. We’re trying to work this out amicably,” Gassman said.
Lisa’s lawyer, Bernard Clair, who has repped Jocelyne Wildenstein and Carolyne Roehm, didn’t return calls. Neither did Deutsch.
The Queens-born mogul – who celebrated his 50th birthday a year ago at the Time Warner Center with such friends as Michael J. Fox, Jeff Zucker and Star Jones – wed Stacy Josloff at the Plaza in 2001, but they split four years later. Deutsch’s girlfriend, Amanda Zacharia, gave birth last year to his daughter, Daisy, after they had already broken up.
Deutsch, who has been renovating a $21 million townhouse on East 78th Street, last year bought a 3.3-acre estate on East Hampton’s posh Further Lane for $29 million.