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Monday, April 25, 2011

How Bethenny Frankel Used Her Reality Show to Make $120 Million

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"I want a Sauvignon Blanc. Do you want a Sauvignon Blanc? I'm having a Sauvignon Blanc." It's March 25, lunchtime, and Bethenny Frankel is every bit as energetic -- some might even say spastic -- as she appears on her Bravo series, Bethenny Ever After. Her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, Frankel, 40, draws a long sip from her wineglass. "It's Friday," she says. "I'm done with work. My weekend can begin." Sitting in a tucked-away corner of the BLVD restaurant at the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire, the wound-up reality star and executive producer of her own series visibly begins to relax. Frankel removes the oversized shawl she calls her "moosh" and tugs at her gray sweater underneath. "It's Club Monaco," she notes without prompting. "I love their tops. I don't have a lot of tops, but everything I buy is on sale. I never pay full price." She buzzes on for a few minutes about her controlled spending and how her husband of one year, Jason Hoppy, recently encouraged her to purchase an $800 Chanel handbag she was eyeing. "I couldn't do it," she says. "I didn't need it."

Any other day, her animated tangent about frugality might have seemed unremarkable, but this week Frankel was celebrating the acquisition of her Skinnygirl cocktail line (featuring a 100-calorie margarita) by the world's fourth-largest spirits company, Fortune Brands' Beam Global -- which distributes the likes of Jim Beam bourbon and Sauza tequila -- for a price tag insiders have placed at $120 million. It's a feat never before seen in the spirits marketplace by a single celebrity (typically, the transactions are pure endorsement deals), unless you count Ciroc's nearly $100 million deal to bring on Sean "Diddy" Combs as part-owner of its

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