Bankruptcy

Real Housewives of New Jersey Bankruptcy

By Adam Levitin

OK, I'm way, way late on this story, but I thought it was worth a few lines.  Teresa Guidice, one of the Real Housewives of New Jersey has filed a Chapter 7.  Here's the petition for all you financial voyuers.  It's a nice window on the noveau lifestyle, and reasonably comparable to the other Real Housewives' petition (the White House crashing Salahis').  

Astonishingly to me, the Guidices were not subject to means testing because they are below median income debtors.  I'm rather puzzled by their means testing calculations, as Schedule I lists $10K in monthly assistance from family members that is nowhere to be found in their means test worksheet.  Maybe they're getting the assistance only post-petition.  I would have thought that BAPCPA means testing was supposed to catch precisely high-flying debtors who are proposing to retain $1.7M houses and make them file for 13.  Yet another example of how poorly conceived the means test is, regardless of whether one agrees with the principle of means testing.  

The other point of interest is what Teresa is getting paid from Bravo.  She's getting $20k for six months.  Maybe there was an upfront lump sum payment, and not everyone finds an appearance on Real Housewives a dubious distinction, but $20k seems like an awfully low pricing for selling one's privacy and incurring negative publicity.  Bravo is going to have to pay me a lot more to participate in The Real Professors of Credit Slips.  

Full post as published by Credit Slips on July 12, 2010 (boomark / email).