The Real Housewives of New York City may have just started back up again, but we’ve probably only just begun to hear about Book Gate between Carole Radziwill and Aviva Drescher.
It all started during last night’s episode when Aviva accused Carole of using a ghostwriter to write her bestseller, What Remains. Carole, who is a professional journalist and writer, could not more vehemently state that this is in fact a lie.
“What Aviva keeps calling ‘silly show drama’ is called something else by the legal community — slander,” Carole wrote on her Bravo blog. “Slander is serious business. If she were a lawyer as she claims, then she would know that.”
Carole says that this feud isn’t about writing or if Aviva used a ghostwriter to write her book, Leggy Blonde. In fact, Carole says she’s happy for anyone (including Aviva) who gets anything published because it’s a great accomplishment.
“This isn’t about books, it’s about behavior,” Carole blogged. “I can’t understand why Aviva is so set on being dishonest when it’s much easier to tell the truth. It’s common procedure in the industry for people with little or no professional writing experience to get a book deal because of their profile, and then hire a writer. Let’s be clear: me asking her about a ghostwriter (a woman she wanted to hire, who we had talked about) is not the same as her asking me. I am by profession a writer, she knows that, and she is not.”
“It was eye-opening to see that Aviva not only has little respect for me, specifically, but she has even less for working women in general. Instead of celebrating our accomplishments, she belittles them. Yet she feels it’s okay to slander my writing career, reduce my decades-long news career to ‘a few essays,’ and dismiss Heather’s multi-million dollar fashion company as ‘fat-binding pantyhose.'”
Of course, Aviva has words of her own regarding Book Gate.
“I don’t care if Carole used a ghostwriter, an editor or room full of monkeys to write her book,” she wrote on her Bravo blog. “It doesn’t matter if it takes a village or a solitary journalist, Carole’s first book is really, really good. Read it. Read mine first, but then read Carole’s. You be the judge.”
The Real Housewives of New York City airs Tuesdays at 9pm on Bravo.
(Image and video courtesy of Bravo)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
