Cat

God, I love Eric Braeden interviews. Not only his TikTok but also his Twitter has been solid gold for years, complete with exclamation marks and "YOU GOT THAT?" He is a pretty sane voice on that platform. As for this article, he has great energy and mental attitude. Those Tweets at the end of that article are . The black grandmas one went viral last summer for, like, a whole week.

Maybe it's also bad timing. Garita came to prominence on SuBe at a time when writing for females on soaps and network Primetime began to shift. You might call it the Les Moonvesification of TV during the late 90s/early 2000s! Less interest in fleshing out multi-dimensional roles for women. More interest in young pretty girls playing young and pretty as their defining character trait. Early on during Garita's run as Gabi, it seemed like the SuBe writers didn't really have an idea for the character, who she was, why she was -- unlike, say, Olivia, Annie and Meg. Garita played her character as quite ruthless and unlikeable at time, while also balancing it out with moments of devastating vulnerability (on the witness stand, for example, when she revealed she'd been abused by her father) and that is how Gabi evolved on the show. It worked. But later, maybe that played against what producers/casting directors were looking for in ingénues at the time. When she subbed for LH on Passions, I remember there was discussion on SON of how 'icey' and 'hard' Garita played the character of Theresa. Not criticism per se. Just that she was revealing some of the darker elements driving Theresa's obsession. I notice in her IMDB resume she has played a passing Hispanic on the odd crime show, and @John mentioned she previously played hooker Lupe on GH which that right there... that's it. That's all you need to know about the character! It's hard to make material work when you're not given a lot. On SuBe, Garita was given that breakdown on the witness stand and she ran with it. It totally changed the way the audience perceived the character and established her permanent place on the show.

When you are a foreigner/outsider, you are often on your best behavior so that you can be accepted by the community at large. Even when drunk, Bill seems to have manners -- I don't think I've ever heard him swear on the show. He isn't into public confrontation. When asked to comment about someone, he is always super diplomatic. He is maintaining a polite distance from the mud wrestling because he feels he has a lot to lose reputationally and professionally from all this. IA. It's been a decent run but time to change it up. If WWHL is the barometer of which way Bravo/Andy swings, Marge, Jackie and Joe & Melissa have been on a lot controlling the narrative. (Teresa was on recently, too, but I feel like Tre is an island apart, bigger than the show -- and boy do I enjoy how lowkey intimidated Andy is by Gia!). As a viewer, I don't like being subliminally pushed to 'pick' one group over another. Production tried to do that with NJ S3-5 too, and it didn't work then. Haven't watched part 2 of Miami reunion yet, but I can only echo your warm feelings. It's a return to old-school RH. One good thing Peacock did is to bring back some OG RHOM vibes so that the show is recognizably a continuation of the original series. It feels like we are watching something familiar but brand new at the same time. Larsa's denial of PS on her posterior is just the right amount of non-anxiety-inducing petty I need right now.

It was fine when they were shooting the sh!t and giggling about the petty drama, but they really have no business getting involved in teams. Joe Gorga is a pOrn addict, Frank was such a bad husband that Dolores divorced him, Weasel (ha!) cheated with Marge when they were married to other people, Tiki's rep precedes him, and Lord knows what Evan does at the gym. They can't gang up on Bill for infidelity because that's cool, apparently, so they go for him because he didn't diss his wife to them? Evan's 'Get lost' was not a great look. Bill's got a professional reputation so he can't start laying hands on people. I know they're trying to call Jen out on what she did last year, but Marge digging for dirt on Louie is the same thing. And Jackie pretending she is done with Jennifer and oh, the betrayal! She was kind to her for a hot second but we know it was only to get dirt on her. They think they're great actresses but they're really not. And Melissa pretending to be scared of the bees was cringe too.

Almost a waste of Priscilla Garita's potential. She did some great work as Gabi on SuBe. Really.

I am stunned she didn't offer refunds after posting that statement. That says to me that MG knew full well she was selling fakes, but thought she could get away with it. As you say, no way haute couture brands would distribute to some one-off boutique in Montvale, NJ. Melissa knows this. She's definitely tried to buy the real thing for herself and was told by, say, the Fifth Avenue Chanel store that the quilted purse has a waiting list! Distribution for Chanel is limited in terms of number of items, and to its own standalone stores, or concession spaces within the fanciest department stores. This is more embarrassing for the Gorgas than when her former partner sold off unsold Envy stock at a 90% discount at a Kim D yard sale! It highlights how shifty they are (but love to accuse others of being).

Lisa Barlow is not smart. When you play both sides, you are going to get called out! So why does she keep throwing temper tantrums and stalking off? Pretty much everything she said was ON CAMERA. She is so foolish for showing that she can't take the heat. Tamra Judge got caught out on S9 RHOC and still took it like a champ at reunion. She understood that when you play the villain, you are going to get knock-backs. Lisa Barlow got her head swelled from pandering to social media's breathless cries of ICONIC KWEEN but has only just realized that this offers her no protection come reunion time. You once spoke about Meredith's past as a lawyer, and I can really see it in the clear precision with which she gives Jen her due but also quietly demolishes Lisa and Jennie for their doublespeak. I think she is great. Heather is actually one of the smartest people on RH, but she and Whitney got off way too lightly for their pot-stirring. And Jen Shah is having the easiest, breeziest Reunion experience ever! Much better than last year. Is no-one going to grill her about the criminal charges, though? If/when she goes to prison, is the show going to call it camp too?

Whenever I see any organization claiming to be on behalf of 'The People,' I give it a huge side-eye. Since 2016, there has suddenly appeared all manner of vengeful nastiness and buffoonery under this banner. The People's Convoy. The Will of the People (used to push through Brexit over the course of 2016-2019). It all sounds very 1930s and 40s when all manner of unspeakable evil was imposed on, well, people by power-mad characters and their acolytes.

Whip! That name was so bad. B&B notoriously loves dialogue where characters repeat each other's names for emphasis ("Widge!" "Rickkkk!"). All I remember of Ric Lansing is Katherine Kelly Lang breathily intoning, Marilyn Monroe styles, "Weeeep." Not gonna lie, I loved loved loved the character of Grant.

Wait a minute-- Julia had a baby with Edouard Stern?? OMG, the drama! Edouard Stern came from a wealthy French banking family but really blazed a trail in the 80s and 90s with his hostile takeovers. He was ruthless and powerful business-wise. And for Julia's baby's paternity to be under question... and a psychologist to assess whether Julia would be a 'suitable wife.' Crazy that he had her assessed and surveyed like that. And then the baby dying in mysterious circumstances and the nanny disappearing -- what on earth?? That is some Sheila Carter-level stuff. Poor Julia, it must have been completely devastating. Stern's girlfriend showing up later and dangling the mystery of what happened to Julia's baby is just horrific. Whether that means that the girlfriend arranged the baby's death, or Stern did, or Stern knew something about what happened to the Bulgarian nanny -- all of this is completely chilling. The girlfriend, Cecile Broussard, ended up going to prison for Stern's death. Stern was found wrapped in latex -- a sex-game gone wrong, people said -- but also with bullets fired into his body. Cecile at the time of his death was on a plane, presumably to confirm her alibi, but there were suggestions that she had tied him up and left him to die of dehydration and blood loss, to make it look like an accidental death. The Stern family at the time said that she was very possessive of Stern and isolated him from his family and friends, and that it was an abusive relationship. The whole thing was very dark and suspect, and the Swiss authorities hushed up some of the details at the behest of the Stern family who were embarrassed by the whole thing. Meanwhile, the girlfriend only served 8 years in prison and is now out. I can see why Julia wanted to get away from that whole dark, traumatic time.

The Kenya-Cynthia rift actually makes me emotional. They really were good friends outside of the show, and to have it just wither away like that during RHUGT made me quite sad. Sad for Cynthia especially because I think Kenya can shrug this friendship away more easily than Cynthia. Cynthia was on WWHL last night discussing this and other things, and honestly, I am going to miss Cynthia on RHOA. I think she may have been let go too hastily. JMO. Glad you are enjoying RHUGT. I too enjoyed the behind-the-scenes glimpse into how these women act outside the show. I think I pretty much gained a new appreciation of everyone on the cast... but you may find as you keep watching that the old, manipulative, looking-for-an-opportunity Kyle does reappear!

I remember watching that episode back in 2014, when I started watching Knots Landing for pretty much the first time ever (though I was aware of its existence growing up). The scene was shocking because it was an unplanned, impulsive act that came from left field. While Chip was a serial killer in the making (and therefore no loss to anyone except knowingly-self-deluding Diana), Lilimae was one of the fundamentally decent characters. Not a great mother, yes, but she wasn't evil or plotting to destroy someone. But she did have this impulsive, untameable heart under that church lady exterior. And her hitting him came from a decent place in the sense that she couldn't fathom this man (who had initially charmed her) was going to get away with killing Ciji. I love early Knots Landing: David Jacobs' opus. I wouldn't have appreciated it as a kid: the shades of grey, the unpredictability of life suddenly striking someone out of the blue, bad things happening to good people. Watching it older, as someone who works in finance & economics, I was struck by Ciji's story, how she was this beautiful girl with an amazing singing voice but who had no true agency, no money nor power. How she was exploited economically by various people on the show for her voice. And then cast aside. And then brutally, shockingly murdered while pregnant. I appreciated that Jacobs wanted viewers to be shocked, to care about Ciji's fate. Even in this charming suburban cul-de-sac, these things happened, reminding you of what some people are capable of. Especially when money or status is involved. As for Diana, I felt this was someone who wanted to be deluded by Chip. She was 100% committed to him, to the lie, like a devoted cult follower. She'd be by his side right through to the end, the loyal henchwoman making sure the acolytes would be literally drinking the kool-aid!

Omg! That's Hope! I really thought that was Denise Richards with great make-up.

God I would love to see Sarah Buxton back again! Given the sudden out-of-the-blue references to Phoebe (B&B use the sledgehammer/anvil approach to drive home its 'shocking plot twists'), I'm starting to think that The Return of Phoebe could be in the works.

I'm surprised they didn't title this Very Special Episode To All the Men I've F*cked Before. However, it is fitting that they honor the character of Brooke, still played by KKL, the OG! Love her or hate her, so much of B&B over the past 35 years has hinged on the character. Nice to see WH back, I always liked his take on Thorne (not that I had a problem with Norcross or Trachta. And I'm pretending that the Ingo Rademacher aberration never occurred). It's actually 6 true loves. Y'all are forgetting Deacon Sharpe! That would be Stephanie Forrester -- the whole year of Stephanie's Goodbye was basically a tribute to the Stephanie-Brooke axis. God, now I'm getting the ice-cold chills. Remember that boat set they had for him? The way they segued him from Brooke to Bridget to Taylor (briefly)? Shudder. They even hired gorgeous glamor-puss Lesley-Anne Down to play his mother. She is only, like, 4 years older than JW! I think after a looooong hard try, B&B finally realised that the Marones (and making Ridge Forrester a Marone) was never going to take. So they sent Nick away on his boat and studiously tried to avoid mentioning Ridge 'Marone' -- unless it suits them to remind us (like when they want semi-cousins or offspring to date). I didn't want to mention anything about looks and JW either -- but by the same token, I think it's just a case of aging. People get older. JW is practically a pro-golfer, he does (or used to do) so many celebrity tournaments out in the California sun. He's also pulled out the Sun-In for the hair color. I love the photo posted TBH -- it reminds me how many great established characters B&B has (though also the wasted potential). Everyone looks pretty good, too, and it's crazy how much like Hunter Tylo Krista Allen looks here. Also, Denise Richards and Jack Wagner look cosy! LOL.

Yikes @ this SLC reunion. I still haven't watched, but Bravo and Andy had PLENTY of time to re-adjust/re-edit this reunion regarding the Jennie mess -- which, lest we forget, they took an entire effing week to respond to when it first happened! So they threw up a lazy disclaimer and let Jennie accuse Mary in absentia of being racist? Did Andy and Bravo learn nothing from a month ago? Once again -- tone deaf and behind the curve. The audience view on Jennie and Mary is now many steps ahead of this. RHONJ Teresa seems over the show. Now she has Juicy Louie and, apart from the Bravo money, Teresa could well be happy to just live her life. I was struck on RHUGT how shy and lonely she was, and how she felt everyone on NJ was out to get her. (It was really sweet the way Cynthia and Kenya embraced her). However, I am not sure RHONJ can survive without Teresa and the Giudices. Where would everyone else get their SLs? The Gorgas literally have zero story apart from what is going on in Teresa's world. Joe has gone from an unnecessary fight with his nieces to picking on Luis. MeHo thinks her job is to model Daisy Dukes and share private texts from Teresa with the cameras. Like, literally no compunction in using Teresa's life as fodder for her own SL. This week she gets in Jennifer's face for no reason other than she craves a Table Flip moment (because Cheese Flip last season was not it). I don't get the Luis hate. Sure, he could well be a Brooks Garth 2.0. However, he seems kind to Teresa's kids and working on blending two families. He's not a camera hog. And the video Budget Coven is bellyaching about? It's not really a big deal. They are looking for tits on an ant in order to 'bring down' Teresa. Disheartened at the way Dolores has come over to the Budget Coven. It feels like she's left Jennifer and Teresa in the dust for her new buddies. And by buddies, I mean Margaret, because Dolores clearly cannot stand Jackie and barely tolerates Melissa. This is Dolores's bad-edit season. However, I don't think she is coming off nearly as badly as Margaret, who keeps coming for Jennifer's marriage as well as Luis. Dolores will probably take the fall for this season, but the true sniper from the side is Margaret. Weren't Jennifer & Bill iced out of group events during the first half of filming? I thought I read that, but so far they have been showing up. Jackie's ED story is moving. A lot of people can relate to fear of food and living off lettuce while staying hungry all the time. I hope she can get to a better place because it sounds like she still struggles.

Haven't watched the episode yet, but this clear, precise annihilation of Jennie by Meredith is amazing. It's also why I love Meredith.

RHOM I cannot put my finger on why I enjoyed this reboot season of Miami so much. Maybe it's because I pre-gamed the three OG seasons of RHOM in the months beforehand and came away with a new appreciation -- even the much-maligned S1. In fact, I thought this S4 was going to suffer from no lowkey legend Lea Black! How wrong I was. While the reboot was extra-glossy and you could tell production had planned it out carefully, the addition of four OGs (and the previous production crew) helped to secure some of the original fandom. The show seemed to have barely missed a year, let alone 8. Miami really benefits from having Queen Alexia -- surely a top-tier HW in her own right and frequently compared to NJ's Teresa in terms of her influence on the show as a whole. The addition of the newbies proved to be inspired. I wasn't sure about Guerdy, Nicole and Julia at first, but I have completely warmed to all three (and sweet Kiki!), for different reasons. They all bring something distinctive to the show but more than that, I feel like they bring something true to themselves. Guerdy has her events planning, Nicole her medical work, and Julia is Mrs. Martina Navratilova -- a true tennis icon who (in this time of Cold War invasions of Ukraine) stood up to the puppet dictatorship in Czechoslovakia and bravely defected, leaving her family behind. BTW, WWHL had a pretty good interview with both Julia & Martina this week, including Martina talking about her tennis career. I even warmed to Larsa, who finally stood up to Adriana's endless baiting. They both managed to shade each other beautifully before Larsa got the last word. She left Adriana bitter, angry, and perhaps it was this moment that Adriana lost her mojito and became a FOH. I still want Adriana back next season being messy as hell, of course! And while Larsa showed up Adriana, Julia showed up Larsa the next morning when discussing the out-of-wedlock comments and pointing out Larsa's deep superficiality (i.e.: her dismissal of Julia based on her Instagram follower count is insane). All in all, a light, fluffy confection which seemed to hit the spot for me this year. Can't wait for reunion.

Omg Mia, no! I hope they find out and cure this quickly!

Prior to 2014, I think Putin enjoyed being a heavy on the world stage. Invited to G20 summits etc, he was given pride of place next to Merkel. Putin was always considered a bit of a gangster, but he was a gangster the West felt it could 'do business with.' The view was that he had to be extra thuggish to bring a lawless 1990s Russia to heel and, later, to blanket-destroy Grozny and Aleppo (among other places). He existed to ensure Russian stability. Then the invasion of the Crimea happened, and Putin/Russia became a pariah. That's when his stance noticeably hardened towards the West and Russia retreated into isolationism. He felt he had been humiliated by a group of governments he viewed as largely weak and stupid. French president Macron long argued that Russia should be brought back in from the cold, that the channels of cooperation had to be open to Putin. I didn't disagree with him at the time, but now that Putin has made this move (a move that signals he may not stop at Ukraine), bringing Russia in from the cold looks like a pipe dream. And it is a constant pattern of behavior: Chechnya, Crimea. Not to mention the poisoning of defectors and dissidents in other countries. As for Xi -- 100% agree. China has studiously avoided taking a position against Putin, and that's not because Xi is VP's ride-or-die. It's because they have the same methods and a similar agenda. With this assault on Ukraine, Putin has again highlighted the 'weakness' of the Western democracies which are following the international rules laid down by the UN and geopolitical treaties. He has threatened the nuclear option so that the West backs off. China can easily do the same with Taiwan and HK. Back off, this is an 'internal' situation, we have nukes, too. I am gravely worried for Taiwan. Putin has not been able to shut down (yet) demonstrations at home against the war, nor Ukrainians on social media tweeting live events, nor Navalny tweeting his condemnation. I worry he will turn to Xi for the infrastructure of a hardcore dystopian surveillance state.

He's come to the skiing capital of the world! He probably got a lot of snowboarding in before that reunion.

Real Housewives of Miami reunion trailer! Andy when Marisol was sucking loudly on her sippy cup.

VP subscribes to the Dead Cat on the Table theory of media distraction, misdirection and disinformation, and it has suited him immensely to cultivate this opaque, sphinx-like image, the great chess-master, three moves ahead of everybody else. He has basically become a real-life Bond villain (Blofeldimir?). I don't know how to answer the riddle that is VP. On one hand, this could be his grand plan since Crimea in 2014 -- laying the groundwork for a wider invasion to reclaim valuable parts of the lost Soviet empire. (And Ukraine is valuable -- bread-basket to Europe, route to the Bosphoros/Mediterranean, etc). Or has he lost it, surrounded by only a few sycophants and Xi Jingping? I actually don't know which is worse -- a competent VP or a megalomaniacal one. I am getting really scared and anxious about where this may head. I don't blame the Ukrainians or indeed the Poles, or Baltic States, or any other country for wanting to free themselves of the 50-year-long Soviet yoke and running headlong into the arms of the EU and NATO. I visited the Baltic States for work 15 years ago and that was the unmistakable message I got from people there. I despise this false-equivalency of "We're just as bad as Russia; one is as corrupt as the other; we're all bloodthirsty megalomaniacs, the West just hides it under the guise of democracy; VP is such an awesome StRoNg LeAdEr; we in the West are so lame!" I won't accept these self-defeating false narratives. We are NOT like VP in our adherence to some form of human rights, to free and fair elections, and to a free press and mostly free justice system. Ever since 2016, I have become exponentially more aware of how lucky we have had it, and how fragile our democracies are, how complacent we have been. The Ukraine looks to the West and sees countries like its own, former Soviet satellites, which have regular multi-party elections, some form of economic stability, and self-determination over their own future. It looks north to Belarus (firmly under Putin's control) and sees repression and stagnation in the form of Putin's puppet, Lukashenko. I know which I would choose.

IA! BH last season did a much better job of trying to hold Erika to account. Even though some of the cast tried to shield her and turn it against those asking the questions, it was clear that the news rocked the group to the core! Andy had no choice but to spend an entire reunion episode grilling Erika about the whole thing. With SLC, it was like they thought Jen Shah is the center of the show and must be protected at all costs. IA with you that the plan was to get Mary since episode 1. They underestimated her popularity with a lot of the audience and how it looks to gang up against the lone black woman in order to deflect from someone else. @Chris B Agreed. Time for a break. Last week would have been finr for a finale, but the producers were desperate to show the Jennie incident now that everyone knows Mary didn't show at reunion. And it was unedifying. Jennie was all hyped up in her VTs, she thought she was being really boss. Congrats on watching the after show, too - I couldn't!