If you watch Big Rich Texas, you know there's no love lost between its stars Pamela Martin-Duarte and Bonnie Blossman. Now, they are taking the drama off screen and into a Dallas courtroom courtesy of a lawsuit filed 2 days ago by Martin-Duarte.
D Magazine's Tim Rogers reported today:
I don’t watch Big Rich Texas. I’m told it’s a thing. So I guess this lawsuit will get some attention. It was filed two days ago by Pamela Martin-Duarte, who is on the Style Network reality show. The defendants are Dena Miller (aka Mrs. Highland Park), Bonnie Myer (who is also on the show), and Merritt Patterson (who used to write recaps of the show for our FrontRow blog). Here’s how Courthouse News describes the suit:
Note the wording by Rogers that says Patterson "used to" recap the episodes. Until they got hit with this lawsuit that is. |
| Take THAT bitches! |
D Magazine's Tim Rogers reported today:
I don’t watch Big Rich Texas. I’m told it’s a thing. So I guess this lawsuit will get some attention. It was filed two days ago by Pamela Martin-Duarte, who is on the Style Network reality show. The defendants are Dena Miller (aka Mrs. Highland Park), Bonnie Myer (who is also on the show), and Merritt Patterson (who used to write recaps of the show for our FrontRow blog). Here’s how Courthouse News describes the suit:
Business disparagement, defamation and tortious interference actions where the plaintiff says defendant Miller is jealous that she was not cast by the reality show Big Rich Texas. She says the defendants have since engaged in a cyber-bullying campaign by falsely accusing the plaintiff of being a former stripper, drunk, sociopath, pathological liar, criminal, gold-digger and “drunken barfly” who “pays her bills by servicing old men and stealing credit cards.” She says the defendants have also contacted members of the media, Style Network and Fly on the Wall producers to damage her reputation.
Blossman | Miller | Patterson
Now, if you read this blog with any regularity, you know that I am friendly with the cast of BRT and might be wondering what my take on this lawsuit is. Let me just state for the record that while I am happy to bring you the facts in this lawsuit (as presented in court), and you can expect regular updates from me on breaking developments, you won't be getting any opinion on this case from me.
For one thing, I run in the same social circles as Pam and Dena and like them both. Dena, Merritt and I have children in the same school and live in the same neighborhood (Park Cities). I have always been as much Team Pam as I have been Team Bonnie, depending on the episode. Merritt Patterson and I have known each other for years from our time working at D Magazine/People Papers. This is their fight, not mine, and I plan on staying neutral. Like Switzerland. I might be dumb sometimes, but I'm not crazy enough to want to get on the bad side of any of these ladies!
Some are speculating that this is a publicity stunt. I can assure you, it's not. Some are saying you shouldn't go on a TV show if you don't want people to talk about you. All I have to say, is wait until the case is presented in court and the facts come out. They say there are three sides to the truth: The Plaintiff's side, the Defendant's side and the truth that lies somewhere in the middle.
All I know, it that it will be verrrrry interesting to see what is reveled in court under oath.
UPDATE (4/4/12)
The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Merritt Patterson has been dropped from the lawsuit. "I spoke to my client and recommended that she non-suit her [Patterson]," said Duarte's attorney, well-known litigator Larry Friedman. "We're going to dismiss her right now." "I haven't had a chance to read it [the lawsuit], so I don't have a comment," Patterson said. "I was certainly surprised that someone on a reality show would sue someone who reviews a reality TV show."
