Reporter who helped break the Erika Jayne story: I keep being told that this is the highlight of my career

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Los Angeles Times reporter Harriet Ryan, who co-wrote the December 2020 exposé "The legal titan and the ‘Real Housewife’: The rise and fall of Tom Girardi and Erika Jayne" with colleague Matt Hamilton, says of being part of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills storyline: "A lot of people that I like — close friends, colleagues, my children — seem to think this is the highlight of my career. Not the billion-dollar settlement USC paid abuse victims. Not the opioid exposé. Not the Pulitzer. No, it’s my name screenshotted on RHOBH. It’s the Housewives saying, repeatedly, that the story is too long. Which is extremely freaking rich. Their show is too long. It’s like 85% reaction shots. Someone makes a comment at a staged dinner party. Then we get five minutes of reaction shots to the comment, then there are three or four more discussions of the comment at different venues with additional reaction shots. And then sometimes a flashback of the original comment and original reaction shots. But sure, our story is too long."