Sonja Morgan Fights Back Against 'Manufactured Outrage' . . . in Bankruptcy Court

WSJ.com:

Bankruptcy, it turns out, isn’t that much different from reality television.


Sonja Tremont-Morgan, one of the Bravo cable network’s “Real Housewives of New York,” is accusing a creditor of unfairly portraying her “in the worst possible light” and also of wrongly attributing “sinister motive” to her bankruptcy filing last year. While it’s no table flipping or hair yanking, the accusations no doubt sound familiar to viewers of the Real Housewives franchise.


In court papers filed Monday, Morgan says that Hannibal Pictures Inc.’s request that her Chapter 11 bankruptcy be dismissed is an attempt by the California film producer to “manufacture outrage” that her bankruptcy filing allowed her to avoid paying Hannibal a legal judgment. (We’ll note that manufacturing outrage or any other strong emotion is certainly nothing new to a participant in a “reality” show.)


Hannibal had won the $7 million judgment in September 2009 in a court battle with Morgan over their failed partnership to make a movie called–no reality show producer could have made this up–“Fast Flash to Bang Time,” starring John Travolta. Following the judgment was a temporary restraining order barring Morgan from depleting or diverting her assets, which Hannibal says Morgan violated throughout 2010. Then Morgan, whose appeal of the $7 million judgment is pending, filed for bankruptcy in November, and the move automatically halted Hannibal’s bid to collect on the outstanding judgment.