Breaking: Jessica Cutler Files for Bankruptcy

This news is a bit mystifying to us. From the Associated Press:

Jessica Cutler, the former Senate aide whose online sex diary landed her a book deal and a Playboy photo spread but got her kicked off Capitol Hill, has filed for bankruptcy….

Cutler has spent much of her time [recently] fending off a lawsuit by ex-boyfriend and fellow DeWine staffer Robert Steinbuch, who claims Cutler’s blog publicly humiliated him. He is seeking more than $20 million in damages.

In court documents filed in the case Thursday, however, Cutler says she can’t even pay her American Express bill, legal fees and student loans. She submitted to the judge a copy of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition filed in New York dated Wednesday.

The lawsuit is being closely watched by online privacy groups and bloggers because the case could help establish whether people who keep online diaries are obligated to protect the privacy of the people they interact with offline.

Our advice to Jessica: retain William P. Smith to represent you in bankruptcy court. You can pay his fees in “Happy Meals.”
On a more serious note: How did the Washingtonienne wind up in this financial predicament?
We’re not so good with math, so please help us out. We run some numbers, after the jump.


Okay, here’s how we see it. Jessica Cutler, aka “Washingtonienne,” landed a $300,000 book deal in the wake of the blog scandal. Her book was picked up for possible conversion into a half-hour HBO comedy (Sarah Jessica Parker producing) — presumably more moolah. And, according to rumor, Cutler earned a six-figure payday for posing nude in Playboy.
So where did all that money go? Is it possible for one person to blow that much on, as Cutler says on her personal website, “slutty clothes and drugs”?
Update: Maybe we’ve been overly optimistic. Per Ted Frank:

What money? Assume $300k for the book deal and $100k for Playboy (the latter seems high). The agent takes at least $40k. Taxes gobble up another $100k (she lives in DC). Switching lawyers all the time can’t be free, and it’s been three years since her last big paycheck.

Sex blogger files for bankruptcy [Associated Press]

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