Cat

I'm telling you! Jessel really kept her cool. And Erin leaned into her Karenest Karen for that confrontation with Ubah. She got caught stirring the pot on everybody else. The episodes upon return to NYC may be illuminating for you with regards to how you might be feeling about Erin and Sai. LOL Brynn's dream is for Jenna to become her sugarmama.

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Just a final note on Stanbury's money -- I think she came from a family that was upper middle-class, connected and comfortably well-off. It wasn't crazy super-rich, but it was more than enough to pay for her private-school education, and it also paid for her socialite youth where she became a 90s It Girl. The real money came when she married Cem, who is Turkish and involved in the Azerbaijan energy sector -- in other words, oil money. In Ladies of London, they lived in a mansion in Surrey, possibly a gated community near Richmond where a lot of Russian oil oligarchs had homes. The fact that she and Cem moved to Dubai, the centre of the oil world, says to me that he traded in big money there, far bigger than what she grew up with. They divorced amicably, and she probably got child support, alimony and a settlement. But now she's married to Sergio Carallo, which is just Spanish Footballer money. I'm sure he made some, but he's not making any more. And the alimony from Cem has likely stopped as a result. So I think Stanbury is trying to carve out a life for herself in Dubai, the show is helping, but it's not Big Money. Big Money is Nina (who I will miss), Lesa, Sara (who has Family Money) and Brooks looks like she's making a good life for herself. Stanbury and Ayan are probably on similar socioeconomic levels below that. Totally agree with you on Ayan, for me it is the biggest turnoff when a HW tries to turn everybody against somebody else. Witness Sai and Erin on nuRHONY. Simone is SO thirsty and really doing the utmost to stay relevant. He is giving Joe Gorga a run for his money. I bet he tries to film with the new HW who is friends with Falynn, just to get some camera time.

Kenya is an alpha Acquarian to me so that's why I was surprised about Brynn. But yeah, now I see it. And Jenna too, after @Taoboi posted. Caroline Stanbury has some old money behind her, as @Taoboi said. She went to all the posh boarding schools, and those are expensive and difficult to get into without the right family connections. Your point about Ayan vs Lesa is very good. My worry for Lesa is that the person with the loudest bullhorn controls the narrative. Look at the discussion about Bethenny we've been having today ( @Gray Bunny ). Not so long ago, Bethenny's voice filled the entire void. No other voice could get a look-in. Kelly and Jill were psychos so she proved her point there. We all know what happened to Jules and Carole, though. It wasn't til OG RHONY was removed from the schedules that Bethenny had nothing to throw rocks at. The emperor has no clothes, and she unravelled. Her RH union flopped and now she's stuck trying to blackmail Chanel out of free purses. Her loudmouth dominated for a long time, and I worry Ayan will be able to do the same to Lesa because Bravo loves Ayan. Only if producers give Lesa room to express what went wrong will the audience have a true understanding of both sides. The good news is that the taglines suggest both momentum and personality, a certain tightness and cohesion.

The Sai villainy starts when they get to Anguilla, although there is a peep of it at the wreath-making event when she smirks at Erin walking out. I'll let you form your own opinion about everyone in Anguilla, just to say that I think producers told the cast to step it up on the trip. Because Erin and Sai seemed to be making issues with the other women. Sai even uttered "Just be straightforward" in one of her VTs, and I swear I got trauma-flashbacks to Kyle Vocal-Fry Richards "Just be honest," lol. Also I did that dumb astrology thing where I thought I could guess each cast member's astrology sign, but I got them all wrong! I could have sworn Brynn was a Gemini, but she's an Aquarius! Jenna, who I thought was straight-up Virgo, is actually the Gemini.

Let's hope Truly Original are actually filming when the breakdown in the Trick n Twirl 'friendship' occurs! They've missed so much thus far. Porsha and Kenya are oil and water; both are legends in their own mind, and often appear to be on different wavelengths. Will Kenya hold her tongue on the Simon-Porsha marriage? The Falynn and fake money of it all? Porsha's next sugar daddy? Will Porsha hold her's on Kenya's parade of TV-boyfriends-for-hire? Time will tell. @Taoboi You have inspired me to rewatch nuRHONY from last season. Is it perfect? No. Is it easy, breezy and relatively toxic-free? Yes. Still love Brynn! Erin is a spoiled princess but no less watchable for it. Jessel's ascension for me starts when she finally tells her mum about her IVF journey. From that moment, she finally feels comfortable showing her actual personality. Parvit is a star! Sai is starting to turn villainous. I find the rewatch a palate cleanser next to RHONJ which has entered its Point of No Return season. What I'm very much hoping is that nuRHONY S15, Dubai S2 and OC S67 get here soon. Bravo feels strangely underpowered after its RH-less Easter break. Meanwhile, on social media, Bethenny is trying to start a one-sided war against Chanel. Sigh. Good luck, Erin Brokovitch. This chick has lost the plot.

RHONJ It's hard to engage with the show when I don't like much of the cast. Dolores is wonderful, so is Bill, so is,Frank, so are Teresa's dorters, but I'm just not clicking with the rest of the cast. Too much Fuda. I don't care about the husband, and Rachel's bad plastic surgery is distracting. This is the new gen of Jersey? Marge is so unpleasant, that seeing Jen Fessler turn the tables on her is long overdue. But Fessler is playing her own game with Jackie as backup, and while that is interesting to watch, I'm not warming to her overly thirsty ways. She thinks she's smarter than she is, and I'd watch her back if I were her. The Gorgas are same-old. I don't really care about Melissa's extended family. This has to be the last season we get this interminable split in the cast... right? With Sonja, it's hard to know what's real and what's fantasy. I just hope she has sonewhere to land, allowing her to live her somewhat wonderful life. I hope she appears on the next season of RHONY.

Quad was begging for her spot back at reunion. Remember that scene with Jackie during the break?

I hope she can stay in Manhattan! I need her on the nuRHONY. I've missed Porsha's quick wit TBH!

That's a great idea, actually. There is no love lost for Phaedra in the M2M group, not really. She was tolerated last year because Bravo wanted it that way, but given how much work she put into The Traitors by comparison... This year, I suspect the gloves will be off, and Quad will and should be swarming her. Heavenly and Toya, too.

I can't believe Toya is in a car with Heavenly, Quad and Jackie and everything is easy breezy! But that is the beauty of M2M sometimes. Honestly, I think Quad will have a full-time role on the show. She's got an alliance with Heavenly, she and Jackie had some beef, she and Toya obviously, she and Sweet Tea... it would be foolish for production to cut ties with her completely.

I do know who Amanda de Cadenet is: a wild child It Girl who hosted a Friday night show called The Word in the mid-90s. Years before that, though, we apparently went to the same elementary school. And I've met her brother -- an LA artist who moved back to London. He's a good guy. Amanda reminded me (looks-wise) of a young Caroline Stanbury back in the day, and I bet they (and Caprice) knew each other in the 90s. She moved with John Taylor of Duran Duran fame to LA; he later married the founder of the brand Juicy Couture. ADC is still active in LA social circles where she has calmed down, gotten sober, and become a bit new-agey. I hope she still has some bite in her when it comes to Kyle. Eva LaRue is a firecracker, and still close with Kelly Ripa and Sarah Michelle Gellar from her AMC days. I think she'd be a great addition to BH. Eat your heart out, Rinna!

None of this is a surprise. The rumors in the US and UK indicate a separate marriage for some time. PK basically spent most of 2020 in London while she was in LA with the kids. He loves the night-life, casinos, bars, booze, wheeling-and-dealing, and especially gambling. I don't think Dorit enjoys the precarity of a life one step ahead of creditors, whoever runs Vegas these days, or the IRS. I had a feeling the Marriage Breakup SL was actually meant to be hers last season, until Kyle said "Hold my beer." So now Dorit can discuss it this season. The only problem is, Dorit lies like she breathes. Even I believe elements of Kyle's story about her marriage. I rarely believe something Dorit says, unless Jagger and Phoenix say it first.

1,000%. Don't forget she dumped her buddy Siggy Flicker once she got canned from the show and moved onto befriending Marge. Fessler is doing what's best for Fessler. On this show, it would be foolish to do otherwise.

Is this... the end?

Re: RHONJ, can't disagree with any of you. Like @Gray Bunny said, RHONJ is the Ultimate Survivor of Real Housewives. I'd go even further: RHOC is Ultimate Survivor; RHONJ is literal hand-to-hand gladiatorial combat with a cheering Roman coliseum baying for blood. And like @Gray Bunny, I get the stomach knots when I watch. Nevermind them hating each other -- I'm not sure I like many of them. Dolores has long been my girl on this show, thanks to her sensible nature, and I hope and trust that she will continue to rise above the fray. Jennifer and Teresa are openly involved in bringing the other team down these days. However, they aren't very good at retaining soldiers (Kim D, Jacqueline, Danielle Staub, Staten Island, associated Twitter pundits) and that spells badly for them. Jen Fessler is on another level from most of these women in terms of intelligence. So why does she want to get involved with their drama? I liked Fessy a lot last season, but I am curious how she handles her blatant allegiance-shifting. I'm also curious how Marge will handle it. The whiff of Hawaiian Tropic/red-hot heat of the tanning bed that emanates from Da Huzzbinds! Some of the steroid abuse is also crazy. One of them is literally growing moobs. Grandma Fuda was funny and, boy, she had some poker face referring to Jennifer as 'Nose Job' while Rachel Fuda's elongated, purpose-built ski-jump was right there.

Thank you @Gray Bunny ! That is a lot of strong flavors in one glass, but the beauty of a truly amazing cocktail is to be surprised by the fact that you can taste all the different ingredients in one gulp, and that they actual enhance one another. LVP has been in the bar game a long time, so she knows what she's doing. I imagine Checkmate Bitch contained exactly the kind of spicy kick that Adrienne, Rinna and Bland Spice (if you know, you know) got in the face whenever LVP walked into a room.

This is what I mean about every RHONJ-adjacent's grandmother and her cat trying to scare up some coin by joining the RH ecosystem. They become gossip bloggers or podcasters and trade in leaks and information passed from the HWs. I scroll past them on Twitter at this point, but Melissa's Old Nose was quite obviously Teresa/Jennifer's mouthpiece for years. Behind the Velvet Rope used to get dirt from Marge until they fell out. Now that podcast is pro Teresa. It's a whole ecosystem out there built to push different HW narratives, as you say. It really got going in Atlanta when early RHOA took off. I don't see what all the fuss is about, except that I'm finding it an increasing distraction from the actual shows. They need to be careful it doesn't take away from the franchise itself, because all the contrived stuff on the shows are starting to pale in comparison with the Twitter dirt and surprise announcements. This past season of RHOBH is a prime example where Kyle's PR team and Netflix spinoffs have totally stolen BH's thunder. ETA: your point about SLC is especially interesting, because while the whole reveal involved the fact that Monica was a SLC gossip bloggers, the drama was played out entirely on the show. Entirely! RH Twitter went nuts (in a good way) and it helped drive viewership to the show itself.

Seriously. In NJ? Marge needs to watch her back. She's going to threaten to spill on the wrong person one of these days. And I think that blackmailing/intimidatory nastiness has weighed on her. There's no joy in her RH game anymore. LVP looked absolutely glorious, that light, bubblegum pink complements her very well. Back in the early days of RHOBH, LVP was literally the physical cross of (at their peak) Liz Hurley, Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Bissett. Truly spectacular looks.

I'll give the NJ opener this -- it has actually made me want to watch the first episode of the new season. One reason is the Lack of Marge. I just can't stomach the woman anymore. The other is Dolores looking like a mob queen and trying to bring the famb'lies togethuh. I simply do not care about Whoville Fuda and Staten Island (aka the defanged chihuahua -- all bark and no bite). I'd much rather have Jackie Goldschneider and Jess Fessler take their places. Jennifer has always been about the alliance that keeps her on the show. Why she's trying to save Melissa's job now is beyond me. Yes, the hate is real for real. It seems like half of Northern New Jersey is personally invested in the show -- in being a part of it, in collecting a paycheck from it, in making a living in the RH ecosystem off of it (podcasts, etc). The cast themselves are highly invested in remaining on the show and will literally destroy family relationships to stay. Marge has apparently accrued serious dirt on everybody, to the point where if this were Murder, She Wrote, she'd be in danger, girl. I'm not sure this season should even have happened. But I will see how long it can hold me. Last season was an almighty chore. What was in this Checkmate Bitch cocktail? I love a tasty cocktail!

I felt that it didn't quite have the 'it' factor until the end of his run, by which time Lane's time on GH was already marked. And the end felt rushed, with GH desperate to squeeze some of the old chemistry out one last time before his character Cameron was bumped off. Lane had great chemistry with Chad Bannon who played his son. It was a disappointment because HW Bob Guza was part of the Santa Barbara brain trust (a breakdown writer at one time), and Mulcahey was a breakdown writer for GH and had penned Julia & Mason's greatest scenes on SB. 2003/2004 was deep in Sonny/Jason/Carly era, though, and Guza was obsessed with The Good Mob. Everything else was just a peripheral illustration of how hard 'love in wartime' is when you are Sonny Corinthos and Jason "box of pain" Morgan.

I'm serious! I'm getting JFP vibes from this guy -- look at his cast pets. His bland filming 'aesthetic.' His stunt-SL-whenever-my-job-is-in-danger moments. Hey Mia girl! Thanks for the finale-episode lift! Your impression of the first few episodes on nuRHONY is interesting in that it highlights how things changed over the course of the season regarding audience reaction. Sai, Erin, Ubah and Jessel saw the biggest 180s. (I'd even argue that Sai saw a 360 because in a weird way, audience estimation of her, which was at rock bottom by the finale, edged up a bit after reunion because she acquitted herself pretty well and did a few Mea Culpas). Ubah imploded at reunion and I'm not even sure why and whether we got the whole story on that, but I liked her during the season. Jenna is an icon but... I'm wondering, by the time you get to the end of your viewing, whether you will feel that the bloom is coming off the rose? Jessel in the early days, I thought, would be a one-season wonder. I felt she was contrived, trying to be someone she was not (New York important fashionista) and hiding a strained marriage. Then, somewhere along the way, Jessel changed her mind and revealed that she was actually a slightly quirky, eccentric nerd, and she was OK with talking about her marriage (and so was her husband!). Her star rose very quickly indeed after that shift. Her personality infuriated Sai and Erin and made them look worse.

It's total bait-casting, of course, but Mason/Julia on SB meant an awful lot to this nerdy kid back in the day. And with Patrick Mulcahey writing? I'm already intrigued.

@Taoboi @DaytimeFan Eric Fullner is the Notorious JFP after she killed AW and before she elbowed her way onto GH.... i can see that now!