When Niklaus Leuenberger, manager of the New York Palace Hotel, saw ashes on the bell captain's forehead, he said, "Wipe that f-----g s--t off your face." Which is why Leuenberger is no longer working for the hotel. According to the Daily News, the "unholy ultimatum...was deemed so severe, Christopher Cowdray, head of the London-based Dorchester Collection, which owns the Palace, flew here to hand Leuenberger the pink slip." Bell captain Mike Murray, who has worked at the hotel for 25 years, said his Long Island priest "did a real number on me," when he applied ashes to his forehead, and that his Catholic beliefs never posed any problems before on the job. The News also reports, "The hotel leases its land from the Catholic Church."