The potty-mouthed niece of fashion icon Ralph Lauren was fined just over $2,700 in an Irish court Wednesday for a booze and pill-fueled air-rage freakout on a flight from Spain to New York.
Jewelry designer Jenny Lauren, 41, was fired up on alcohol and prescription meds on Monday when she launched into an obscenity-filled rant against the crew of a Delta jet that was forced to land in Ireland because of her frightening meltdown.
Irish cops told a judge in the rural market town of Ennis that Lauren screamed at flight attendant Constance Topping to “get the f–k out of my face!” when Topping tried to calm her down, The Irish Times reported. She then called the attendant a “f–king ugly, blonde b—h” and insulted another crew member, Jennifer Simpson, calling her a “fat ugly, unhappy, blonde b—h,” according to Garda Inspector Tom Kennedy.
The Upper East Side resident also violently shoved another crew member against the interior fuselage of the jetliner, terrifying passengers on the Barcelona to JFK flight. Lauren pleaded guilty to causing a breach of the peace on and being intoxicated. Judge Patrick Durcan dismissed a third air rage-related charge during the hearing.
A distraught Lauren bit her lip and hung her head in shame as Kennedy described the shocking outburst.
The trouble started about two hours into the trans-Atlantic flight when a crew member spotted Lauren weeping in frustration because her seat would not recline.
Topping tried to help, but then went into the first-class compartment to alert Simpson, her supervisor, about Lauren’s abusive rantings.
Lauren, who was not flying first-class, ran after Topping and began yelling and screaming incoherently, Kennedy said.
When a pilot came to help, she blurted out, “You’re an a–hole!” he added.
“Passengers were getting concerned and standing up out of their seats. She told the air hostess she was going to go ballistic and pushed the air hostess hard and she hit her back against the wall of the aircraft,” Kennedy said.
Lauren’s lawyer, Sharon Curley, admitted the celebrity designer’s behavior was “bizarre” but insisted it was totally out of character.
Lauren, Curley said, suffers from depression, bi-polar and general anxiety disorders and was on medications for her mental maladies.
“My client is extremely embarrassed and extremely upset by her actions,” Curley said, apologizing on Lauren’s behalf to the airline crew, passengers and Irish cops.
“She found the combination of the drinks, the altitude [and] medication … made her act completely out of character,” the lawyer said.
Curley also gave the court a testimonial from Lauren’s father, Jerry Lauren.
“I know that this will not be repeated. This is not the Jenny everyone knows and cares for,” it read.
But Durcan called Lauren’s abuse of the staffers reprehensible.
Lauren, wearing a black jumper, dark red skirt and knee-high boots, did not speak during the hearing.
The flight was already over the ocean at the time and had to be diverted more than 400 miles back to Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland Monday night.
Once cops arrested her after the plane landed, her bad attitude continued.
“Can you say that in English please?” she said to cops who were questioning her.
Lauren spent a night in a local Garda lock-up and then made her initial court appearance Tuesday in a makeshift courtroom in the nearby Brian Boru pub.
She owns a jewelry line called Jenny Lauren Jewelry.
Brad Lauren, 46, said he wasn’t surprised when informed of her arrest.
“That seems like Jenny. She can be explosive with her temper,” he told the Daily Mail.
In 2004, Jenny Lauren wrote “Homesick: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Finding Hope,” which detailed her struggles with anorexia and bulimia and was described by Publishers Weekly as both “gruesomely fascinating and tediously sad.”