Danielle Staub

From Speidi and Al Roker squaring off on Today and in the press, to Real Housewives of New Jersey Teresa Giudice and Danielle Staub nearly coming to blows, this week was chock full of quality celebrity feuds designed to entertain us.

Not to be outdone, Sarah Palin and David Letterman continued their war or words from last week before eventually reaching a detente, while Kate Gosselin delivered a nice spanking to daughter Leah and Stephanie Pratt eschewed nutrients.

Which was your favorite celebrity showdown? Vote in our poll below!

Danielle Staub's sordid past was the subject of an amazing fight on Monday's finale. Now it looks like it may continue to haunt her - sex tape style!

Steve Zalewski claims he has videos of The Real Housewives of New Jersey star performing sex acts - on him and on herself - and may sell them.

Her ex-boyfriend, 27, whom Danielle dated and dumped on the Bravo reality hit last week, says the 46-year-old Staub was a raging nymphomaniac.

"Not only does she want to have sex all the time, but she loves the thrill of doing it in public places, where she might get caught," he says.

"She wanted to make love in restaurant bathrooms every time we went out — she'd get excited and say, 'The people can hear you doing it outside!'"

Danielle Staub and Steve Zalewski had a good run. A sex-filled one.

Other locales in which Steve Zalewski porked Danielle Staub include the back patio of her home, in cars, at a police firing range (!?) and a crowded park.

But the two went through a bad breakup, fueled in large part by Staub's penchant for borrowing large sums of money from him, Zalewski says:

"She tries to look affluent. But she couldn't pay the household bills or buy food. Even then, she'd want to borrow 20 grand from me to buy jewelry!"

Now Steve is turning to the best possible way of recouping some of his cash: distributing a Danielle Staub sex tape - or tapes! to the top bidder.

"I'm definitely weighing my options as far as getting it out there," Zalewski said. "She cost me so much money, why shouldn't I make a few dollars?"

Why on earth would Danielle Staub think of bringing "The Book" to dinner on Tuesday night's season finale of The Real Housewives of New Jersey?

Simply put, the producers told her to she felt it was the perfect time to stick up for herself and to encourage serious ratings others to do the same.

"I have a lot of people emailing me in a real positive light and saying they're looking to me for courage to stop bullying," Danielle told E! regarding an epic Real Housewives of New Jersey finale that will go down in reality TV history.

"It's about confronting people when you have an issue you want to address. The message is to build fame each other up, not tear each other apart."

Here's an interesting revelation: Danielle's daughters not only knew about the dinner surprise, they insisted on staying for the final showdown.

"They felt that I had every right to address the issues," Staub said. "My kids deserved to see how Mommy was going to grow from this and move forward. My children need to learn from that, and that is why they wanted to stay in the room."

Danielle still isn't completely convinced that it was Caroline Manzo - and not her sister, Dina - who initially spread gossip about her super shady past.

"I really don't care at this point," she said. "I think if it was [Caroline], I might be completely surprised; I would be shocked, to be honest with you."

As for Teresa Giudice's now legendary table-flipping, no apologies have been exchanged. Even so, things aren't that bad between them.

"She's actually the nicest out of anyone to me," Danielle Staub said.

Next up for Danielle? Well, she's pumped to do a second season, plus she's got herself an agent. They're already talking to publishers about  (what else?) a book.

Last night on the epic season finale of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Teresa Giudice went absolutely nuclear, flipping over a table and berating co-star Danielle Staub as a "prostitution whore," among other choice adjectives.

In front of several of the cast members' children, too. Awesome.

There's a bunch of back story here, most of it involving Danielle's coke whore past and "the book" that describes it in detail, but that's really secondary.

You don't have to be a Real Housewives of New Jersey devotee to appreciate the insanity below, in which Teresa Guidice flips the f*%k out on Danielle Staub, who one gets the impression was told to show up by Bravo producers with this in mind.

This clip should do wonders for the Garden State's reputation:

Real Housewives of New Jersey Finale Meltdown!

Tough break for Danielle Staub.

She lands a role on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, only for her past to suddenly be dug up and her former life of drugs, sex and kidnapping to be exposed in front of a national audience. What unfortunate timing!

Now, days after Bravo aired an episode that focused on Staub's shady past as a stripper named "Beverly Merrill," the author of Cop Without a Badge, the book that started it all, is speaking out.

From knife-wielding and cocaine-snorting to reality TV, it's been quite a journey for Danielle Staub.

According to Kevin Maher, an ex-con turned police informant, Danielle lived as an escort, stripper and drug addict in the 1980s; she was also arrested on felony kidnapping and extortion charges by the FBI.

“She’s very smart, and when she wants something, she’s one of the most determined women in the world,” Maher told Star Magazine. “But she’s also a pathological liar. I believe she’s been psychologically scarred since childhood, and when you live that kind of life, you have to be a liar.”

Now a private investigator, Maher says he and Staub met at a party in Miami and proceeded to have sex in a bathroom. But the relationship didn't last because she once slashed his arm with a knife and continually cheated on him.

Then again, he can't really blame her for the latter incidents. After all, Maher labels his ex as a"raging nymphomaniac."

On last night's edition of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Danielle Staub opened up about her past. Sort of. Kind of. Okay, not really.

The cast member sat down and said she was ready to discuss "the book."

But then didn't really respond to allegations in Cop Without a Badge, the 1995 memoir that claims Staub used to go by the moniker "Beverly Merril" and was a cocaine-addicted stripper with an arrest record for extortion.

Watch the video after the jump and judge for yourself:

Is Danielle Staub really a cocaine-snorting former stripper with a criminal record? We don't know for certain.

But is this Real Housewife of New Jersey a perfect pitchwoman for her reality show? No doubt about it.

Interviewed on The Today Show this morning, Staub didn't shy away from stories in Cop Without a Badge, the 1995 memoir that allegedly details her shady life in Miami under the alias "Beverly Merrill." Instead, she used the book as a means to promote tonight's new episode.

“I can only touch on [the rumors],” Staub told host Hoda Kotb. “I can just say, it’s out there and it will be addressed. And I will definitely touch on all the subjects that are crucially in need of touching on at the time when the time is right.”

Translation: the time will be right each week on The Real Housewives of New Jersey!

Staub, who was reportedly arrested in the 1980s for her involvement in a kidnapping, said of such a rumor:

"It's not that I don't want it known, I just think there's a time and place for everything and it was deemed by Bravo that now was my time... [but] this was way before I got married - way before I had children. And maybe people can watch and see how it unfolds. Because I think people are go to be shocked."

Will we actually have all questions answered on tonight's new episode? Of course not. A good drama knows how to suck in its audience and leave viewers wanting more.

"You won't have them answered for - actually until maybe next season. Who knows..." said Staub, already doing her best to solidify a spot on the show for next year.

She's good. Staub must have gone to the Spencer Pratt school of public relations.

Over the first couple episodes of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Danielle Staub confessed to a two-year phone sex relationship with a man she'd never met; and offered a blow job to some random dude in a restaurant.

Both those developments pale in comparison to Staub's alleged past, which are just now coming to light.

As the show teased in its preview for next week's episode, this Real Housewife was not always a member of the Garden State's elite. She's reportedly mentioned in the 1995 book "Cop Without a Badge," a memoir penned by former FBI informant Kevin Maher.

Thanks to "Cop Without a Badge," the entire world now knows the history of Danielle Staub and her vadge.

According to this biography, Staub used to go by the name Beverly Merrill. She met Maher at a drug party in Miami in the 1980s. (He describes Staub/Merril as a "coke whore.")

The initial interaction between the pair came after she was released on $10,000 bail, following an arrest for her alleged involvement in the kidnapping of a man who owed her drug dealing friend money.