Search

Entertainment

‘Real Housewives’ Bethenny And Sonja Reignite Booze Wars For New Season

By Amy Feinstein

From the archive: published Mar 31, 2016, 10 years ago. Details may have changed since.

Another season of The Real Housewives of New York is looming, so bring on the drama amongst the wine-drinking women of Manhattan. But this time, the alcohol is not just flowing in the glasses, but the booze wars have reignited between Bethenny Frankel and Sonja Morgan, who wants to leapfrog Frankel’s success with Skinnygirl to launch Tipsygirl. Morgan insists the similarity is just a coincidence, launching the RHONY booze wars.

The Inquisitr says that the Real Housewives booze wars started with Bethenny Frankel’s huge success with Skinnygirl. Since then, Ramona Singer launched a line of her favorite drink, Pinot Grigio, which was no challenge to Skinnygirl or Bethenny Frankel. However, Sonja Morgan, who has had some serious financial trouble, launched a line of Prosecco, which would have been fine until she named it Tipsygirl.

Radar Online is reporting that Sonja Morgan is coming out of the gate on the new season of RHONY, and she claims that Frankel is the one worked up about by the booze wars. In the last season, Frankel tried to mentor Morgan in her fashion line and gave her thoughts on the toaster oven. However, she was proactive when it came to allowing Morgan to copy her brand and trademarked Tipsygirl to stop Morgan from the blatant inference that Frankel sanctioned Morgan’s new brand.

Both Morgan and her business partner thought this was underhanded, even for a Real Housewives crew, but they had nothing to say about the similarity between the two brand names. If not for Skinnygirl, would Morgan ever have thought to name her brand Tipsygirl?

“I think she basically took it personally that I had done a brand with the name ‘girl,'” Morgan said. “So we have yet to see where that’s going to go.”

If Morgan thinks that the use of the word “girl” is what set Frankel off, then it will be a long season of RHONY. Morgan believes the problem is Frankels, but some would argue that since Frankel now owns the trademark, Morgan is the one who needs to “get over it.”

Forbes spoke with RHONY star Sonja Morgan about her “International Lifestyle Brand” and the launch of her proposed Prosecco line, which will be called Tipsygirl if Morgan gets her way. Forbes asked how Morgan’s fashion line and other brands were coming, and in true Sonja Morgan fashion, she rattled off a litany of products coming to a store near you.

Morgan explains that her Sonja Morgan New York collection has fashion, jewelry, and swimwear are in the works, and the Fall 2016 collection should be in at any time now. It’s a little late, but she calls it couture. She is looking to perhaps provide items at a lower price point.

But according to Morgan’s conversation with Forbes, don’t expect to see Tipsygirl or Tipsy Girl anytime soon, as Morgan says she is going “back to the drawing board” on all of her alcohol projects. She says she doesn’t want her Prosecco project just to involve licensing. She is a big Prosecco drinker and wants to be involved in the creation.

“I’ve always been a big fan of Prosecco, when I was a model living in Italy I drank Prosecco.”

Morgan says she is very close to Bethenny Frankel and claims there should be no conflict between the names Skinnygirl and Tipsygirl, because Frankel’s brand is calorie conscious and Morgan’s brand is “full calorie and fully tipsy,” but apparently, Frankel doesn’t see it that way.

Morgan claims that her Prosecco line is in for the long haul, so she will take her time and work out the details.

Do you see a conflict between the Real Housewives of New York brands Skinnygirl and Tipsygirl?

Latest from Inquisitr

Front page