XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MON DEC 02, 2002 21:05:22 ET XXXXX
FAIR HAIR CARE? KERRY CUT COST HALF OF HILLARY'S; SENATOR CONFIRMS CRISTOPHE CLIP
**Update**
Senator John Kerry confirmed late Monday that he's been visiting Washington's famed Cristophe Salon for haircuts, where he has been paying $75 a visit -- half of what Senator Hillary Clinton was charged for a similar shampoo, cut, blow and go!
This report revealed on Monday how Kerry, a self-described "Man of The People", has been quietly visiting Cristophe's, getting cleaned and coifed by Isabelle Goetz, Hillary Clinton's hairstylist.
A well-placed source claimed Kerry had been charged Isabel's going rate of $150 for the trim; the WASHINGTONIAN also reported in August that Ms. Goetz charges $150 a visit at Cristophe Salon.
"Isabel charges Senator Clinton $150, but charges Senator Kerry $75?" challenged one Hill source. "I think Hillary needs to speak out for all women everywhere against the discrimination, if this is true!"
The District of Columbia's Human Rights Act prohibits gender-based pricing.
Hair designer Isabelle Goetz could not be reached for comment late Monday.
The Kerry $75 haircut versus Hillary's $150 one raises an important civil rights issue waged by the National Organization for Women, among others. Hair salons have long employed practices that charge women prices far greater than their male counterparts.
"There is a growing consensus that basing prices upon gender is wrong and illegal and that increasingly it will fall, either under existing sex-discrimination suits or new ones as they may be passed," says John Banzhaf, a law professor at The George Washington University Law School in Washington.
In 1995, the Republican governor of California Pete Wilson signed a law that did away with different prices based on different genders for haircutting.
The Gender Tax Repeal Act, also known as the Equal Pricing Act, made the state the first in the nation to specifically prohibit gender discrimination in pricing.
But what if Hillary requires more work than her senate counterpart?
While California does allow merchants to charge higher rates to one of the sexes if they can prove the costs are justified, the District of Columbia has ruled out the cost-basis defense in its law.
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Filed By Matt Drudge
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