I apologize that we haven’t been keeping up with the day-by-day developments in the Teresa Giudice case. I needed a break from her constant drama. (We have been linking stories about her in the featured links, they’re right above the comments, and in the afternoon links. You might want to check those out every day for stories we don’t cover.)

In the last few days, Teresa found a new lawyer to handle her case. She subsequently filed a request with the court to be housed in Danbury, Connecticut, at the same prison where OITNB is supposed to take place, where she would be closer to her family. She also requested to serve the majority of her 15 months sentence in a halfway house, which would allow her to “work” and to visit home on the weekend.

Teresa made this request without informing her longterm legal crisis manager, Wendy Feldman. Feldman subsequently quit, and issued a scathing statement that Teresa had never consulted her about the prison request and had in fact gone around the work she had done on Teresa’s behalf. “Teresa’s Bureau of Prisons designation request was not done with my knowledge or input… A designation to a camp is a gift, not a requirement from the BOP and the judge. By making this request, Teresa has jeopardized months of work, months of preparation and in fact may jeopardize where she is ultimately designated or sent to.” Damn.

The judge has denied Teresa’s petition to spend most of her time in a halfway house. Judge Salas specifically said that Teresa needed to make this request during her sentencing hearing. It’s unlikely she would have granted it regardless. The prosecutor responded that it was ridiculous for Teresa to be sent to a halfway house, basically, and recommended that Teresa serve hard time.

Teresa was assigned to serve her 15 months at the same Danbury, Connecticut federal prison camp which inspired the Orange Is The New Black Netflix series. (OITNB author Piper Kerman was housed there for a year.) She is somewhat lucky to receive this placement because that prison camp, FCI Danbury, is transitioning to a mens-only facility.

There are so many other stories about Teresa. She’s apparently being paid a quarter of a million dollars to do a Christmas “before I get sent to the pokey” special on Bravo. Of course she is. So, despite the fact that she’s still on the hook for the $13 million that she and her husband defrauded from creditors, she reportedly wants to have a lavish Christmas for her four daughters. Remember, this is how she got in this mess in the first place. She spent other people’s money in order to get famous, and now she’s going to have a blowout Christmas to make for more compelling television. According to Radar Online, Joe is the voice of reason and is begging Teresa not to spend too much on gifts. I don’t understand how someone can be so deep in denial. I really hope that her wages are being garnished to the point where she can’t continue to spend like this. While I do feel sorry for her girls, they’re not going to suffer if they get smaller gifts.

This is going to sound mean, but I’m somewhat bummed that we don’t have a mugshot of Teresa to use with these stories. This really needs a mugshot. Maybe someone will get a photo of her in an orange jumper. Paparazzi, get on that.

Photo credit: WENN.com