Daily News: LOWDOWN: Turn the page on a former rep? Not Regan's style by Lloyd Grove 12/05/2005 Apparently it's more treacherous to leave the employ of HarperCollins imprint Regan Books than it is to leave the Mafia. Or so Judith Regan's former PR director Paul Crichton learned after he abruptly resigned Nov. 11. It took just two weeks for Regan to dispatch her "interim PR director" Paula Conway to smear Crichton in a gullible gossip column across town by claiming that he was "under investigation by HarperCollins" for unauthorized spending. Only problem is, there was never any such investigation, a top source at HarperCollins confirmed to Lowdown. "There is no foul play," says the HarperCollins source. "There is no issue. There is no problem." A second insider added that it hardly matters that there was no theft. "When somebody crosses Judith, which in her little world is unfathomable, she will say whatever she needs to say to bring that person down. I don't even think it's calculated." The 51-year-old Regan - whose allegedly abusive tactics with her employees have been well-documented in this column - didn't respond to multiple detailed messages asking her to account for reports that she seems to have gone off the reservation to impugn Crichton. Conway, meanwhile, has apparently gone missing. HarperCollins operators could not locate her in the system. Likewise, attempts to reach Crichton were unsuccessful. A company spokesman told Lowdown: "HarperCollins' policy is not to comment about departing employees."

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