THE BALLOON MAN

Karen Feld’s troubled life highlighted in circus family feud trial;

lawyer says seizures an issue in clash with brother

Kenneth Feld —in suit and tie on the right — poses with his late father Irvin Feld, owner of Ringing Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, with some of their employees in 1982. (Craig Herndon/ TWP - TWP)

By The Reliable Source

For years, Karen Feld cut a glamorous if eccentric path through Washington — a gossip writer from a showbiz family, known for toting tiny poodles long before Paris Hilton took up the habit. But the portrait painted Monday by rival lawyers in a federal suit over a fracas at a family gathering was much more dark.

Karen Feld in Washington this year. (Bob Burgess/AP)
Feld’s attorney described her as a woman crippled by brain injuries and broken by years of family abuse — offering her stormy outburst in court last week as an example. But a lawyer for her brother, Kenneth Feld — whom she is suing for $110 million for having her thrown her out of their aunt’s memorial service — portrayed her as a tantrum-prone troublemaker.
“She’s an out-of-control runaway train,” declared defense lawyer Matthew Kirtland, “and she needs to be stopped.”
It’s the latest chapter in the sad Feld family saga. The children of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus mogul Irvin Feld lost their mother to suicide and were mostly raised by their aunt, Shirley.
READ MORE AT:http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/karen-felds-troubled-life-highlighted-in-circus-family-feud-trial-lawyer-says-seizures-an-issue-in-clash-with-brother/2011/05/23/AFxdC49G_blog.html