Pigs on the wing, Guinea Teresa Giudice, husband Joe Giudice now face reality show cancellation amid tax fraud charges

[Liberals At Their Best]

Teresa and Joe Giudice face a fate worse than prison � getting
their reality TV show canceled.

In the wake of their federal fraud indictments, Bravo executives
are debating the future of �The Real Housewives of New Jersey,�
on which Teresa is the fiercest of the fraus, sources told the
Daily News.

The show about the lavish lifestyles of five Garden State gals
is reality TV king Andy Cohen�s baby and has been a ratings hit.

But the show has become a headache for Bravo in light of the
recent flurry of bad publicity about the Giudices.

�Nobody wants to see their talent in this kind of a situation,�
a network source told The News.

Teresa has, in recent months, been pitching her own spinoff show
to Bravo honchos, sources said.

�They are not interested,� said an insider. �Bravo only spins
off happy situations � marriages, baby news. Not prison.�

There was no official comment from Bravo.

Word that the Jersey housewives might have a target on their
backs came a day after Joe and his foul-mouthed parents engaged
in boorish behavior before and after he and Teresa made their
first appearance in Newark Federal Court.

Joe slapped a news camera out of the way, his parents swore at
reporters, and his dad, Frank, capped it all by mooning the
shutterbugs.

Teresa is in denial about the charges, which could send her and
her husband to prison for 50 years, sources said.

�Teresa thinks people are coming after her because she is
famous,� one source said. �She honestly thinks she has done
nothing wrong.�

Neither Teresa, 41, nor her 43-year-old husband have entered a
plea. And Teresa is letting Joe direct their defense strategy,
sources said.

�She is old-fashioned and thinks her husband knows best,� a
source said.

While Joe supported the family for years running everything from
a stucco company to a pizzeria, Teresa now brings home the bacon.

The News reported Wednesday she gets paid $33,000 an episode and
makes thousands more promoting her cookbooks and a specialty
food line called Skinny Italian.

Recently, Teresa was hoping to give her show a sweet plot twist
before things went sour with the feds.

Just days before she and Joe were indicted, they were scouting
locations for a �cupcake cafe,� sources said.

Teresa saw the shop generating new plot lines for her Bravo show
along the lines of �2 Broke Girls.� That CBS sitcom is about two
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, waitresses � one formerly rich, the
other always poor � who scrape up enough dough to open a cupcake
shop that quickly goes bust.

The Giudices had zeroed in on a restaurant for lease located in
a strip mall just a mile from their tacky $1.7 million mansion
in Montville Township, N.J., the sources said. Last week, Teresa
came by herself to scope out the site, they said.

Alas, there is already a bakery that sells cupcakes and other
treats in the strip mall, along with a salon, barber shop and a
deli.

Teresa likely did not come up with the cupcake cafe idea on her
own.

Kathy Wakile, her cousin and castmate, has been trying to launch
a career as a pastry chef for the past couple of seasons. She is
often seen creating desserts for parties and pop-up shops on the
show. And she just inked a cookbook deal.

That Teresa would filch an idea from a castmate will come as no
surprise to regular �Housewives� watchers.

Teresa frequently feuds with sister-in-law and castmate Melissa
Gorga. But Gorga noted on the show that after she wrote a self-
help book about keeping a �hot and happy marriage,� Teresa began
speaking at conventions about having a happy and healthy
marriage.

Jon Fellgraff, an architect who claims Joe still owes him $7,000
for work he did, said it�s a marriage made in hell. He told The
Daily Mail that Joe treated Teresa like a �lowly housewife�
before she got rich.

�He was the boss,� he said. �She would try to speak and he would
put her down.�

Teresa and Joe are charged with conspiracy to commit mail and
wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements on loan
applications and bankruptcy fraud.

Joe is also accused of failing to file tax returns for 2004
through 2008.

Some neighbors complained that Teresa and Joe are as surly in
real life as they are on the show and that their house has
become a favorite spot for gawkers.

�A family from Indiana driving to New York stopped by wanting to
know where their house was,� one local business owner said. �My
sister-in-law from Florida came up and wanted to see their
house. I said, �Let�s drive by!� �

Still, the Giudice�s have fans in the area, especially at A & A
Fine Foods, an Italian gourmet deli in nearby Lincoln Park,
where they�re regulars. An autographed photo of Teresa in a
slinky dress leaning seductively against a convertible hangs
proudly in the entryway.

�She used to come by all the time before she got the show,� said
owner Alfonso Ciampa. �Now they�re more low-profile because when
they come in, people are gawking and bothering them for
autographs.�

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/teresa-giudice-
plans-buy-cupcake-shop-article-1.1413798

��