Larry Mendte Alycia Lane, It ain’t just the steaks that are cheesy in Philly. A bitter lawsuit involving two fired high-profile TV news anchors from Philadelphia features salacious details of their alleged make-out sessions and lovey-dovey on-air texting and a toy frog dressed like a prince.
On one side is journalist Alycia Lane, 38, a Long Island-born stunner and drama magnet whose troubles include a dustup with a New York City cop.
On the other is her ex-employer, CBS Broadcasting, and her ex-co-anchor, Larry Mendte, who is now a contributor at New York City’s WPIX-TV.
Lane is suing both for damaging her reputation, and the case is set to play out in a Philadelphia courtroom next month.
She had been a star anchor at CBS’s KYW station in Philly when controversy struck.
First, it was revealed that Lane had e-mailed bikini photos of herself to NFL Network anchorman Rich Eisen.
Then she was busted Dec. 16, 2007, in Chelsea for allegedly smacking a female cop’s face in a drunken rage and yelling: “I am a reporter, you f – – king dyke bitch!”
Citing the “series of incidents resulting from judgments she has made,” Lane’s bosses at KYW fired her in January 2008. The charges against her in the cop case were eventually dropped.
Mendte was fired five months later — just before he pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for illegally accessing Lane’s computer and leaking material about her to gossip columnists.
The married Mendte says that he and Lane once enjoyed a steamy relationship — a claim that Lane denies.
In a recent deposition in Lane’s suit, Mendte said, the first time they kissed was in her apartment in 2004 after he had driven her home.
Lane went into her room and came out with her top off but bra still on, and the pair began making out, Mendte testified.
Another time, in the car, Mendte said, “Alycia unhooked her seat belt and — actually, while I was driving, straddled me and started kissing me, and we — I pulled off to the side of the road and that continued for a while. There was some fondling.”
During newscasts, Mendte said in his deposition, she would instant message him the numbers “1-4-3,” code for “I love you.”
Lane’s deposition in January gives a starkly different account and says she believes Mendte “is a sociopathic narcissist.”
Asked if “Mr. Mendte made unwanted advances to you and . . . you spurned those advances,” Lane replied, “Yes.”
Lane said she once lectured him when he leaned in to kiss her after dropping off a Christmas tree at her house in 2003, saying, “A kiss is cheating, Larry. You’re a married man.”
She said Mendte gave her a Starbucks toy, a frog dressed as a prince, “because he knew I didn’t find him attractive.”
