Really, it was only a matter of time.
While The Real Housewives of New Jersey's resident paranoid Manzo avenger Danielle Staub has spent the past two seasons trying to convince naysayers that her sordid behavior is a good couple of decades behind her, that apparently all changed last September.
Because that, according to Hustler Inc., is when the hated Housewife made the unfortunate decision to record herself doing the deed with a mystery man.
"She knows it's being released," Hustler spokeswoman Julie Messing told E! News, adding that it was neither Staub nor the mystery man who contacted them about the tape.
"It was shopped to Hustler by a production company that purchased the rights to the video. They purchased the tape legally from an undisclosed party, maybe a rep or an agent. They wanted us to be the distributor."
Messing said there was no question as to whether or not they would pursue distributing, and marketing, the tape.
"Obviously she is a very well-known character and she has stayed in the public eye for the longevity of that show...our recommendation as a team to Mr. Flynt was, 'yes, let's pursue this.'"
And therein seems to lie the difference: a decades-old sex tape suddenly making the rounds via a scorned ex deserves pity. But a camera-obssessed notorious reality TV star in flagrante at the height of her fame yields no such sympathy.
If the timeline is accurate, it would be at least the second such session Staub has seen fit to capture on video. Last summer, she successfully obtained a temporary restraining order blocking ex-boyfriend Stephen Zalewski from releasing a sex tape and explicit photos of Staub. That time, however, the Housewife claimed that she did not willingly appear in the video and didn't even know it existed until she read about it in a tabloid.
We've yet to hear the 47-year-old mother of two's side this time around since she has so far opted not to comment on the tape's impending release…and, barring a court order, it will indeed be released.
According to Hustler, all 75 minutes of the X-rated footage will be available for presale on Monday. Just in time for the next installment of Housewives. It's actual release is set for June 24.
—Reporting by Ashley Fultz
(Originally published June 8, 2010, at 7:35 a.m.PT)
________
Danielle's not the only Housewife in trouble. It's no money, big problems for Teresa, too!