A driver for Jennifer Lopez‘s manager, Benny Medina, quit — apparently over his alleged diva behavior — during a celebrity-packed gala before the “American Idol” judge presented an award to Bill Clinton.
The limo driver quit after dropping Medina on the red carpet alongside Lopez, her sister Lynda and husband Marc Anthony at the Samsung Hope for Children Gala, which raised more than $1.4 million at Cipriani Wall Street on Tuesday night.
While Lopez “was lovely and did everything she was asked to do — organizers were very happy,” sources tell us Medina had swapped terse words with the driver. He got into a heated exchange with organizers, was grumpy when Clinton’s Secret Service detail asked who he was, and demanded extra bags of freebies.
One source said, “They arrived late. As they stepped on the red carpet, his driver was overheard saying, ‘Nobody speaks to me like that. I don’t care who he [Medina] is. Get his stuff out of the car, I am leaving.’ ”
Inside, a source said, Medina “questioned everything. ‘Why must we do this?’ He was trying to be difficult. He seemed to walk in looking for the exit. Jennifer was very friendly, did all the interviews and went to a private room to meet Clinton. Benny was stopped by the president’s security, who checked who he was. He was annoyed. He had a discussion with an event producer who looked visibly shaken.”
As they left, they were given three gift bags, each containing a $500 Samsung Galaxy Tablet. But, “Benny asked for five more. Event staff were running around panicking.”
A rep for Lopez said her group was slightly delayed after an earlier photo shoot ran late. But he said, “We arrived in time for the red carpet. Jennifer presented Bill Clinton with an award and everything went extremely well. The evening was very positive, and a lot of money was raised for the charity . . . It sounds like there are a lot of inaccuracies in your story. Marc and Jennifer were each given a gift bag . . . I have no knowledge of anyone asking for more gift bags.”
Medina didn’t get back to us. A rep for the event declined to comment.