O.K. this is my first blog so to get me started I’m going to blog about one of my guilty pleasures; Reality TV shows. Currently I am enamored of the Real Housewives of New Jersey. The women are feisty & most assuredly drama prone. For those of you not familiar w/the cast, it centers around Caroline & Dina Manzo; sisters who married brothers. Caroline is the matriarch, is very outspoken, tough as nails & is my 2nd fave on the show. Dina is more subdued & is frequently the center of drama. Next is their sister in law Jacqueline who is as sweet as a peach & had the misfortune of befriending Danielle Staub who is definitely the shows antagonist. Lastly & my personal fave is Teresa Guidice. She’s a bit ‘dizzy’ but to quote Jacqueline, she ‘clearly has no limits’.
The second season of this show is about to begin on 5/3 & I can’t wait to ‘watch what happens’. During the first season Caroline unearths a book written, in part, about Danielle. The show mainly centered around the womens discovery & reactions to the content of the book as it pertains to her. The book was written about the exploits of Danielle’s ex-husband who was a police informant. In it, he alleges that Danielle was a prostitute, a crack whore, coke head, & of being arrested for kidnapping. Mind you these crimes took place 20+ years prior to the women’s discovery of the existence of the book. Caroline & Dina saw to it that word of the book got around town, & understandably so due to the nature of the crimes discussed w/in. I mean who can resist a good scandal? Danielle categorically denied the allegations, only admitting that 2 things written about her were true: 1st that she was arrested & 2nd that she changed her name afterward. The show culminates w/all the ladies having dinner together; Danielle brings the book w/her & places it on the table (drama) so that she can achieve clearance on it w/the other ladies. Arguments & accusations fly & the show culminated w/Teresa’s infamous table flip.
During the re-union show Danielle (tearfully) continues to deny the allegations in the book w/the exception of the name change & having been arrested, insisting she was in the wrong place @ the wrong time & had no knowledge of what was going on in the house she lived in. At the end of 2nd part to the re-union show, Caroline is reduced to tears because Danielle has done something unspeakable, & despicable to Dina. They never disclose what it is that Danielle has allegedly done that was so devastating. Dina insists that Caroline not mention the specifics, Caroline honors her request & of course Danielle denies having knowledge of what Caroline is talking about. Talk about your cliff hangars?!! The world is desperate to find out what Danielle did to Dina, including yours truly! I searched the internet numerous times trying to uncover the treacherous answer. Speculation ranges from Danielle attempting to hire someone to ‘rub Dina out’, to the general consensus & most plausible explanation, that Danielle gave Dina’s ex-husband a phone # to contact the authorities accusing Dina of having abused her daughter. Danielle in her final blog of the season, vaguely admits to having given someone a phone # when asked, but in retrospect wishes she had remained uninvolved. Danielle is described as being a pathological liar, so who can believe anything she says? & the not knowing is killing me! 🙂
Since the show is about to resume airing; I again commenced my ‘investigation’ to see if anything new had developed w/regard to Danielle’s unspeakable acts against Dina, seeking new information or confirmation of the old. Unfortunately for my enquiring mind, I wasn’t able to unearth any new info on that topic 😦 BUT what I did find out is juicy to those of us enamored of this show.
I found a link to the smoking gun, which contained the 26 or 7 pages of indictments etc. against Danielle; AKA Beverly Merrill. Contrary to her claims of being arrested as an accessory & being in the wrong place @ the wrong time; the indictment specifies her direct involvement in the kidnapping plot. This woman went so far as to call the father of the victim threatening the victims life if a certain amount of money wasn’t paid. How does that equate to being in the wrong place @ the wrong time? Umm.. she had no knowledge of what was going on? Puh-leez! The kidnapping occurred over a cocaine deal that went bad involving the victim. Danielle agreed to testify against the main man behind the kidnapping, pled quilty to one felony charge & was sentenced to 5 years parole & enrollment in a drug rehab program. An F.B.I. report in these documents confirms she was working as an escort. No offense to anyone in the profession; but what is an escort; except a nicer term for a prostitute? Don’t get me wrong I’m all for a woman doing what she to to make money; especially in today’s economy lol, I just don’t put much stock in ‘titles’. My point is she denied the allegation from the book. So what? The F.B.I. investigator was lying? PUH-LEEEZ!
Kilo’s of cocaine were found in the residence she shared w/the main man behind the kidnapping. She denied the allegations of coke usage insisting she was a pot head. However; contained in the docs I found, was a letter written by her rehab counselor 2 years after her sentencing stating that while all of her tests were negative for drugs for the duration of treatment to that point; due to the nature of & her past heavy use they recommended she not be released from the program. Although the report does not specify the drug she was heavily using; my point is she denied having a coke problem. I can’t imagine anyone who was only a ‘pothead’ receiving a recommendation (after 2 years of cleanliness, thanx Teresa, for the terminology) to continue in rehab. It just doesn’t seem reasonable to me.
What I find so unbelievable about all this is Danielle’s denials in the face of these court documents. There’s no way she couldn’t have known this paperwork existed (she signed it) & would ultimately become public. They prove what everyone suspected already that she’s a pathological liar. Or maybe pathological narcissist is a better term. I find it incredulous that anyone w/these kinds of skeletons in their closet would volunteer to be on a reality TV show. While the exposure of the book certainly made the show worthwhile watching, was the embarrassment worth it? I understand everyone has a past; everyone makes mistakes. This is some hella scary dirty laundry for a woman w/children to risk having brought to light on nationwide TV. What I find the most disturbing though, are her denials. In my opinion knowing that paperwork exists that proves out the allegations in the book, she would have been far better admitting what she had done; what she had ‘been’ & then focusing attention on whatever good (is there any?) that she may have done in her life since then.
She’s writing a book of her own & has accused her ex-husband from the book of raping her on broken glass; & killing her dog by hanging. Her ex-husband has voluntarily taken & subsequently passed a liar detector test, that he did no such thing. He issued a public challenge for her to take her own lie detector test, is suing her for $5,000,000.00 & her deposition is about to go down. His lawsuit is filed in California where lie detector results can be admissible in Civil actions. Will Danielle take her own lie detector? What will the results be? Will her deposition be publicly available?
Danielle’s tag line on the show is “You either love me or hate me. There is no in between w/me.” I have to beg to differ; there is an in between & that’s pity. I pity Danielle & I pity her children. I think she’s shameful & very lucky child protection services have not stepped in & removed her girls. She blatantly & repeatedly exposes them to adult topics beyond their years to comprehend or understand. Discussing phone sex w/a 10 & 15 year old? Showing them nude pictures of herself? Puh-leez! She exposed them to her criminal past under the guise of ‘preparing them’ after the books discovery. Seems to me, she could have avoided having to do that simply by not being on the show. Just because she served no jail time does not make her innocent of the crimes she was arrested for. She plea bargained; struck a deal so the bigger fish could fry; but she’s not innocent; & not a victim, except to her own stupidity & vanity. I pity her not seeing that she’s her own worst enemy & then attempting to portray herself as a victim, she brought about her own demise. But she certainly does make that show more interesting to watch.
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