Teresa Giudice ‘Taking Care of Her Body, Taking Care of Her Mind’ in...

This week on The Broke and the Beautiful, Teresa Giudice mulls her future, Kelly Rutherford petitions the White House, and Rhode Island clears a pair of lobbyists tied to Curt Schilling’s defunct videogame company.

“Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Teresa Giudice is almost halfway through her prison stay. And although she will have to celebrate her 43rd birthday in Danbury, Conn., she at least has some time to think about her future. According to E!, Ms. Giudice plans to leave Connecticut better off than she was before. “She’s taking care of her body, she’s taking care of her mind,” attorney James J. Leonard told E!, adding that “she’s reprioritizing things in her life.”

”I expect that you’ll be seeing her shortly after she comes home,” said  Mr. Leonard, who noted Ms. Giudice is going to focus on her freedom, her children and her husband, “and then kind of getting back into whatever she’s going to get back into.”

Kelly Rutherford has long been working hard to get her children returned to her from France, where they are living with their father after he won custody of the kids. Now, the “Gossip Girl” actress has brought her plea to the White House. The Washington Post reports that a petition by Ms. Rutherford asking the Obama administration to return the children reached more than 100,000 signatures this week. The petition has even gotten some star-studded backing from none other than Kim Kardashian West. “I signed this petition bc I believe it’s the right thing to do,” the reality-TV star tweeted.

Ms. Rutherford filed for bankruptcy in 2013 because of the custody battle with ex-husband Daniel Giersch. She had more than $2 million in debt at the time.

The state of Rhode Island is putting the kibosh on two cases involving defunct videogame company 38 Studios. According to the Associated Press, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea said this week that the state of Rhode Island is nixing orders for lawyer Michael Corso and ex-board member Thomas Zaccagnino, who were accused of lobbying violations, to file reports or face a $2,000 fine. 38 Studios, which was founded by former baseball great Curt Schilling, defaulted on a $75 million loan guarantee from the state and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Write to Melanie Cohen at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @MelanieLisa