Danielle Staub's Bankruptcy: Post-'Real Housewives,' Mortgage Woes, Legal Fees, Discount Shopping

NJ.com:

It's hard out here for an ex-reality show star. Danielle Staub, the lightning rod of "Real Housewives of New Jersey"'s first two seasons, has floundered financially since declaring she was "too good" for Bravo's signature ladies-behaving-badly franchise. (Bravo says it let her go to move the "story" forward.) 

Staub filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last week, and new documents obtained by The Star-Ledger show Staub has $1.9 million in liabilities, and has only earned $63,791 this year -- $13,791 from her work with Dial-A-Star and $50,000 for appearing on VH1's barely-seen reality show "Famous Food."

Staub's biggest liability is the Wayne mini-mansion seen on "Real Housewives," which has been on the market off and on since 2009 and was most recently listed at $899,000, a 40 percent drop from its initial price. (She now lives in a North Bergen apartment, according to the bankruptcy filing.) And if you compare the bankruptcy filing with that of Staub's nemesis Teresa Giudice and her husband Joe (who have since withdrawn their bankruptcy not long after Joe pleaded the Fifth Amendment after being accused of hiding assets and income), it's clear Staub hasn't been living as large: She lists as her personal property a couch and chair ($200), $2,000 in clothes, and $200 in costume jewelry, and while she was still shopping at Nordstrom (she owes $7,270), she was also a patron of the Gap ($384.91) and Annie Sez ($126.35).

Staub also owes $111,161 to the Internal Revenue Service, $70,000 in taxes to the township of Wayne, $5,162 to the New Jersey taxation department, and is indebted to various lawyers and communications specialists, including the attorney who represented her in claim against an ex-boyfriend who allegedly threatened to release a sex tape, and another lawyer retained by Staub after she was attacked by "Real Housewives" offspring Ashley Holmes after an argument with Giudice at the North Jersey Country Club. 

While Giuidice has continued to bring the drama on the show and co-written three bestselling cookbooks (which she indefatigably flogs), Staub's post-"Housewives" career has been less stellar. She did release her own memoir, "The Naked Truth," detailing her terrible childhood and alleged abuse at the hands of her ex-husband (he sued her over the contents, and she settled), but she doesn't appear to receive any royalties. 

She taped the "Famous Food" reality show alongside other D-listers such as Heidi Montag and former "Bachelor" Jake Pavelka and appeared on the gentleman's club Scores' website shimmying topless. 

According to her website, she's currently developing a fitness and nutrition video and a Danielle Mafia T-shirt line. Her only ongoing gig appears to be Dial-A-Star, for which, it must be noted, she charges more per minute than almost any of her colleagues. including Nadya "Octomom" Suleman, Michael Lohan, and vintage game show host Wink Martindale. So there's that.