Jackie Beard Robinson cites 'irreparable loss of personal reputation,' humiliation and emotional distress after 'Real Housewives of New Jersey' star Melissa Gorga claimed on the show that Beard Robinson, her former business partner, snuck into their boutique in the middle of the night and lifted merchandise.
The saga of the spurned “Housewives” business associate has taken another turn.
A lawyer for Jackie Beard Robinson, the former business partner of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Melissa Gorga who is suing Gorga, Andy Cohen (executive producer of “Housewives”), NBCUniversal, and the show’s producers for $ 30 million, filed a document on Thursday opposing their motion to dismiss the case.
In February, Gorga, Cohen, NBCUniversal (parent company of the show’s Bravo network) and Dorothy Toran, producer of the show for Sirens Media, called for the case to move to arbitration. In a court filing, they said that contracts Beard Robinson signed before she appeared on the reality show require any complaints to be addressed in arbitration in New York.
But Beard Robinson, in her lawyer’s filing in federal court for the Southern District of Florida, said Gorga and Cohen had made malicious and defamatory statements about her that were “broadcast on national television for millions of viewers to see” on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live,” damaging her “reputation and goodwill nationwide,” but especially in her Florida community. (She formerly owned a boutique called Ginjer in Delray Beach.)
In the season eight premiere of the show on Oct. 4, Gorga, a Montville resident, said Beard Robinson “snuck in in the middle of the night and took all the clothes” from Envy, the boutique they operated together in Montclair. The subject also came up during a post-show episode of “Watch What Happens Live” with Cohen.
“Wow, so, that lady (Beard Robinson) wound up kinda ripping you off?” Cohen said to Gorga, who said yes.
“Under Florida law, these statements constitute the most egregious type of slander, defamation per se, because they falsely accuse Robinson of committing a criminal offense amounting to a felony,” the filing says.
Gorga and Beard Robinson parted ways in December of 2016 and Gorga took the reins at the boutique. The show had chronicled their efforts to open the business.
Beard Robinson’s lawsuit counters Gorga’s claim that she went into the store in the middle of the night to lift merchandise by saying that she already dissolved the business relationship before she went to the boutique “in broad daylight” to retrieve items that belonged to her.
Who Is Melissa Gorga’s Envy Boutique Business Partner, Jackie Beard Robinson? https://t.co/R4MCiOBNjK pic.twitter.com/jkETDvDJNb
— Bravotv (@Bravotv) August 9, 2016
On the show, Gorga says Beard Robinson sold the merchandise from the boutique at Posche, a boutique in Allendale owned by Gorga’s nemesis, Kim DePaola. But Beard Robinson says Gorga’s lawyer told her she could sell merchandise from the boutique before Gorga assumed complete control of the business on Jan. 1, 2017.
NBCUniversal, Toran, Cohen and Gorga say Beard Robinson signed two release forms for the show — one in October of 2015 and another in February of 2017 — stipulating that any “controversy, dispute or claim” relating to the show be resolved by arbitration or confidential mediation in New York.
Beard Robinson’s filing rejects the attempt to move the case to arbitration, saying she “has already experienced irreparable loss of personal reputation, loss of reputation and economic loss to her businesses, humiliation, emotional distress, and other severe damages in this judicial district” (in Florida). Her lawyer’s statement says the contract that Beard Robinson signed with Sirens Media doesn’t cover such conduct.
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.