The '90s &34;Stop the Insanity&34; icon opened up about shady business dealings with the late &34;August: Osage County&34; producer in her emotional new documentary. Susan Powter threatened to bite Broadway producer Jerry Frankel's finger off: 'I own you' The '90s &34;Stop the Insanity&34; icon opened up about shady business dealings with the late &34;August: Osage County&34; producer in her emotional new documentary. :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/JoeyNolfiauthorphotoba4923fec03a4027868306485696ef41.jpg) Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at .

The '90s "Stop the Insanity" icon opened up about shady business dealings with the late "August: Osage County" producer in her emotional new documentary.

Susan Powter threatened to bite Broadway producer Jerry Frankel's finger off: 'I own you'

The '90s "Stop the Insanity" icon opened up about shady business dealings with the late "August: Osage County" producer in her emotional new documentary.

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes *RuPaul's Drag Race* video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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November 22, 2025 11:30 a.m. ET

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'Stop the Insanity' icon Susan Powter. Credit:

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

- Susan Powter revealed in her new documentary why she threatened to bite Jerry Frankel's finger off.

- The *Stop the Insanity!* icon reflected on bad business deals that led to poverty later in life.

- "Things happened that nobody expected," Powter said in the film.

Throughout a new documentary about her life after fame, *Stop the Insanity!* fitness icon and '90s pop culture fixture Susan Powter opens up about shady business dealings — and the aggressive wag of Broadway producer Jerry Frankel's phalange — she says led to her career downfall.

About halfway through the new Jamie Lee Curtis-produced documentary *Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter*, the wellness figure recalls the events that precipitated her current life, as she went from head of a $300 million media empire in the '90s to delivering Uber Eats meals in Las Vegas to make ends meet.

"When I signed with Jerry, I signed to franchise exercise studios, maybe a clothing line, that's it," Powter says in the film, referencing a 50-50 business deal she said she'd made with Frankel to form the Susan Powter Corporation following the success of her seminal 1992 *Stop the Insanity!* weight-loss infomercial.

Then, "things happened that nobody expected," Powter says in the film, between shots of her attempting to scrounge up $500 to repair a broken vehicle she now uses to deliver food for a living.

'90s fitness icon Susan Powter in 1994.

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

"Millions of dollars were made, and *being* made. I called a meeting of the Susan Powter Corporation, and I said to Jerry, 'What I would like to do is in projects moving forward, I want to diversify what I'm doing a bit, and I want to just change the percentages" of what each party would receive.

Powter explains that she was "rallying for the team" in giving a cut to others, with 50 percent of the corporation's earnings going to her, but that her former friend and publicist, Rusty Robertson, requested 50 percent of *that* 50 percent, leaving Powter to take around 25 percent in the end — half of which she remembers going toward expenses, anyway. (** has reached out to Robertson for comment. The documentary includes a title card that claims Robertson declined participation in the film.)

"Before I got the sentence out, he put his finger in my face and he said, 'I own you. If you choose to teach piano lessons for the rest of your life? I own 50 percent,'" Powter says of her alleged interaction with Jerry. "What I said to him, before he finished that sentence, was, 'Get your f---ing finger out of my face before I bite it off.' Never saw him again, except in court."

News reports from the time indicate that Powter filed for bankruptcy court protection from creditors in January 1995, with the star telling the *Tampa Bay Times* that year that she was "broke" and didn't have "any money" to her name. In the same article, both Frankels alleged that Powter didn't fulfill her obligation to the corporation.

In the new film, Powter also discusses various lawsuits that also plagued her finances, which the 1995 *Times* article also outlines as part of reported $3 million in liabilities as part of the star's bankruptcy filing.**

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"I didn't see $300 million. Ever. And 30 years later when I filed for social security, [it] shows the salaries, and at the height of *Stop the Insanity! *my salary, max, was $200,000," Powter, who also fronted the successful *Susan Powter Show* talk program at the time, reveals. "I figured, 14 lawyers, an accountant, a financial expert, a manager, and a literary agent could kind of do something. I was stupid. It was never sorted out, and I never knew until years later."

Now, Powter says "I can't get an apartment. I can't get anything," because of how the bankruptcy has impacted her over the last three decades.

Powter explains in the film that that she takes "full responsibility" and that she doesn't "blame a soul" other than herself for the predicament she's in.

"Did I ask? No, I didn't. That's the biggest, hardest part," she says in the movie. "I never said, 'Show me the damn bank balance' [because] I was doing all the work."

In an exclusive interview earlier this year with EW between Uber Eats deliveries in Las Vegas, Powter looked back on the twists and turns her career took after her meteoric rise with *Stop the Insanity! *took her everywhere from a guest role on* The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air* to interviews on *The Tonight Show* and even a Kirstie Alley-fronted parody on *Saturday Night Live*.

She also previously exclusively told EW she was offered a role in Kevin Costner's 1995 blockbuster flop *Waterworld*, but she turned it down because she didn't want to distance herself from her core message of health and wellness.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter*.**

"My manager was livid because she wanted the movie. She wanted me to do a movie," Powter said in January. "[She thought] it would've been a great thing for me."

She added, "What I know is I had a nice conversation with a very nice man, and [Kevin] understood," Powter noted. "I was not in any way affected by it."

*Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter* is now playing in select theaters.

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Published: November 22, 2025 at 07:38PM on Source: MARIO MAG

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