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Bravo is standing behind their Bethenny Ever After star. Following a journalist's claim that Bethenny Frankel fabricated her dramatic "lost at sea" story, the cable network has come forward to confirm that, yes, Frankel, her husband and their therapist (not to mention a Bravo camera crew) actually were stuck on a sailboat for 20 hours until being rescued.
"It is accurate that Bethenny, Jason (Hoppy) and their therapist were stranded at sea when the navigation on their boat broke during a taping for the new season of Bethenny Ever After," Bravo said in a press statement. "The Coast Guard referred a private tow vessel who eventually led their boat out. When people see the episode, they will certainly see for themselves that this was very real."
The Bravo statement comes after Tim Russell, the private tower sent by the Coast Guard to lead Frankel's boat back to safety, told JewishJournal.com that Frankel's GPS was working, that she was never in any real danger and that she patiently waited for cameras to roll before kissing the ground up her safe landing on the shore.
But Bravo has seen the unedited tapes, and the network is sticking to its guns. We're not sure that "watch the episode" is a good method of determining what's real, though; even with no deceptive storylines, the Bethenny Ever After episode would still be 20 hours edited down to 45 minutes. Still -- good to know both sides of the story.
Unfortunately, that's not the only controversy that Bethenny Frankel finds herself tangled up in this week. The Huffington Post alleges that the diet guru lied about the sale of her Skinnygirl cocktail business, claiming that she made $120 million instead of the actual figure, $8.1 million. HuffPo says they've looked at SEC documents which reveal the true financial details of the deal. In light of the allegations, Frankel is once again defending herself on Twitter, calling the HuffPo piece "irresponsible journalism" and "false info."
"Most people are morons," Frankel tweeted a fan who questioned the new report. "Stay tuned."
And once again, someone has come to Bethenny's defense. Forbes magazine -- which put Frankel on the cover as "the it girl of reality TV (who) sold her line of Skinnygirl drinks for $100 million" -- has published an article breaking down the SEC document, and confirming that the $100 million number holds up.
Indeed, Huffington Post has since printed a correction, reading: "Our reporter misread the $8.1 million figure in the financial documents. As Forbes points out, the number refers to the amount of Skinnygirl attributed to goodwill, not the total purchase price. We regret the error."
The good news is that Frankel seems to be unaffected by the press -- and so is Skinnygirl Cocktails. Frankel tweeted today that her cocktail line is officially the "#1 fastest growing spirits brand in the country."
