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BY LAUREN ZIMA

If you thought Hostess had the mostess -- think again. The company is preparing to file for bankruptcy. Here’s KOVR.

“Hostess brands could file for bankruptcy as soon as this week. This would be the second significant core restructuring for Hostess, which is a privately held company. The company is carrying nearly $900 million in debt, and rising prices for ingredients like sugar and flour are certainly not helping.”

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news, and says Hostess’ filing puts its 19,000 employees at risk -- but the company says rising labor costs are another part of the problem. The Journal reports:

“Hostess's filing would mark what is known as a Chapter 22 proceeding in restructuring circles, since the company had already sought bankruptcy protection once before. … The company has struggled since emerging from bankruptcy proceedings in February 2009.”

And TIME says, though the company has annual sales of about $2.5 billion -- sales of sweets are actually down.

“ … although we gobbled up 36 million packages of Twinkies last year, that’s actually a 2% decline from the year before.”

On her show, Wendy Williams, for one -- says she’s afraid of losing her sugar high. 

“We count on food for our comfort, right? Everybody’s gluten-free, but I know everybody is a secret fatty who loves a secret Hostess cupcake. ... Those chocolate cupcakes with that hard icing and that squiggly line, and when nobody’s looking you pull the icing off and you eat it like this.”

But -- don’t go stocking up on Ding Dongs just yet. The Journal reports this doesn’t necessarily mean snack-cake apocalypse -- Hostess has arranged for $75 million in financing to keep it afloat during bankruptcy proceedings.