MatildaMoody

Yeah, I never thought she was trying to portray herself as innocent. This past episode is the first one where we got a chance to see how she interacts and so far, I am impressed. Until this episode, there really wasn't enough there to tell what her personality was like or what type of "character" she was bringing to the show.

This is what I just don't buy. What Lisa said was a direct hit on Kyle's character as a friend. But it had nothing to do with Mauricio's character as a business man. I don't think there is a single person out there who at the time was contemplating doing business with Mauricio who saw his willingness to befriend and suck up as a liability. That is exactly what they would expect of someone that they were trusting with their listing. It might make them second guess whether or not Kyle was a true friend, but in no way would it hurt Mauricio as a business man. And I will also jump aboard and say that my feelings about Mauricio cultivating friendships for the sake of his business have been out there since season 1. And, I don't think that is a horrible thing. I think denying that this is the way sales works - especially in high end real estate - is much more offensive than pretending that he is somehow hurt by what a woman on a reality show (It's not like these are ratings bonanzas in comparison to other primetime television) said about him cultivating friendships for the sake of his business. If anything, I would want to list my home with the guy who will befriend millionaires and billionaires to get their listing. It means a higher profit for me as his client. ETA: Now if Lisa had backed up Kim's claims that Kyle and Mauricio "stole her goddamn house" I could see that being a direct attack on him as a businessman.

I don't know the details about Gigi, but Bella will be rooming with another student - at least according to the last episode, so that may be why they aren't sharing an apartment. I wonder how much the roommate will contribute to rent, if at all.

I remember that show! It was so fun! Lisa Rinna was a hoot on it, because of her love what other people have in their houses. Great memory!

I could totally buy this. But, I don't think even Tamra directly attacked on the first meeting. Even with Gretchen, Tamra pretended to be her friend to her face while trashing her behind her back. She didn't stage a frontal attack until she had ammunition. Gretchen didn't even find out the degree to which Tamra hated her until sometime after filming and Tamra came at her full force at the reunion. I never thought I would ever say this, but maybe Brandi should take some pointers from Tamra on the best way to be the show's number 1 shit stirrer.

OK, I read that part of her blog as a response to Yolanda's "Love is a strong word." That it was an insult to Yolanda totally went over my head since she said that she was hoping to include Yolanda in that equation. I'll take your word for it as I find that reading the blogs once is usually enough for me. ETA: It's too bad though, I was hoping for some major piece of shade being thrown Yo's way.

Is it Lisa's most recent blog? I read that the other day and didn't see her insult to Yolanda, can someone tell me what she said? Or was the insult when she said (paraphrasing) that Yolanda was enabling Brandi's behavior and letting her be the center of attention? She didn't say it directly, but that was the gist. Was there some other insult that I missed?

I can just imagine the backlash if Kyle or Lisa did something like that and it worked. Those that hate Kyle would be all about calling her a mean girl bully and those that hate Lisa would be all over her being a manipulative mastermind. The outrage would be so loud that people would probably forget how much they hate Brandi. Or, it would prove Brandi's victimhood. I agree with the above poster that icing Brandi out is probably the safest bet for any of the women. The potential backlash - including threat of lawsuit - would be way too great for either Lisa or Kyle. Not to mention they would both have to deal with being called unprofessional for trying to pull a Jill Zarin and call the shots for production.

When did this happen? And what did she say? Was it during the toast? Because I was cringing so hard during the party I may have missed it.

Kyle and Lisa made up in the first or second episode didn't they? They haven't been feuding since the season started and they toasted to not talking behind each other's back during the sit down. They both realized that their feud wasn't interesting to fans and moved on.

I think that if the implication is that she should some how be ashamed of her unbridled sexuality and that somehow correlates to her being an awful person, then yes it is slut shaming. Brandi is awful enough on her own with out her sexuality being a reason to condemn her.

Kyle DID mislead Lisa about what happened. She downplayed all of her and Kim's behavior and made the whole thing about how horrible Brandi was that night. Lisa never said that Kyle lied about Game Night. She said that she believed Kyle when Kyle told her what happened. And she had no reason not to believe Kyle. Kyle was her friend. Brandi wasn't. Plus, Lisa wasn't there. If she is hearing what is happening after the fact, of course she is going to take Kyle's word over anyone else's until she has the chance to watch it herself.

The only exception to this rule is Taylor badmouthing Kim to Kyle. Maybe Kim is looking for payback? Probably not though. Kim probably doesn't even remember season 1.

For me, and I can't speak for anyone else, the issue isn't whether or not Lisa is manipulative. Of course she is. ALL of them are. The women keep accusing her of trying to manipulate them and that is where I see the disconnect. Lisa isn't manipulating individual people. She is manipulating her onscreen image. All of the women do it, but they don't do it as well as she does. That whole, "just remember I love you" thing was a manipulation of her own image. She calculated that instead of defending herself or engaging in a never ending argument that SHE would look better if she 1. Still appeared the bigger person who loved Brandi despite her attempted take down 2. Completely removed herself from the situation leaving the other women to gossip or trash talk her behind her back. The Brandi/Scheana stuff? Does anyone seriously believe that Lisa didn't tell Brandi that she would look like the bigger person by congratulating Scheana before the cameras started rolling? I would bet my right leg that she told Brandi, and that is why Brandi agreed to film it. She was showing Brandi how to manipulate her own image. Brandi caught feelings after her initial agreement and tried to use it against Lisa later. Brandi can't claim that Lisa manipulated her into being around Scheana, because I would bet anything that she asked Brandi to do it and told her why it was a good idea. The reason I personally felt that the Bobby Fischer line was uncalled for was because it wasn't accurate. Lisa isn't trying to manipulate her friends. She is trying to manipulate how she appears on camera. Maybe that is what Kyle meant, and it came out wrong. But, it doesn't change the fact that it wasn't accurate. First and second season, Lisa defended Kyle. She even immediately sided with Kyle over game night brushing off anything that Adrienne said about how Brandi felt attacked. She backtracked in her blogs AFTER the season played out. She did it because she was again manipulating her own image. Not because she was manipulating another person.

Both Kyle and Lisa claim that they were friends for a few years prior to this show even being a thing. Lisa would have to be an even bigger manipulator than is even being speculated to have garnered and nourished a friendship with Kyle on the off chance that Kyle would one day have a reality show in the works. For me, Kyle and Lisa's friendship was evident. I could see and feel the warmth between them. Maybe they weren't the bestest friends to ever best, but I have no reason at all to think that Lisa was only friends with Kyle because of the show. It would have taken way too much time for Lisa and Ken to befriend Kyle and Mauricio for the sole purpose of getting this show. Because, let's face it, all Lisa would have had to do was meet a producer at BRAVO and Andy would have had a hard on for her to be on something anything that he produced.

For me that whole thing seemed like Lisa was trying to guilt Brandi into remembering who has been the most supportive of her. It was like she was saying, "you have surrounded yourself with people who were awful to you and turning on the person who wasn't. Just remember who has been there for you." The whole thing really fit with Lisa's "Benevolent Mother to the downtrodden" persona. It was also a way to make herself still look like the better person. Here she is being attacked from all sides and instead of fighting it out, she just shows how hurt she is by still claiming to love Brandi even though Brandi is leading the attack. To me it was a move designed to take the wind out of Brandi's sails while still appearing to be the bigger person. To me that is much more indicative of Lisa's being a manipulator than any example these dimwits have trotted out so far. Lisa not inviting the women to her Palm Springs Star event because she doesn't want any of them bringing up Housewives drama isn't even in the same league when it comes to being manipulative as that moment of telling Brandi that she still loves her. That's why I love watching Lisa on this show. For all of her manipulative behavior, she only ever gets called out on the petty stuff, like not inviting someone somewhere, when her true manipulative behavior goes completely unnoticed or even leaves people feeling confused about what just happened.

I'm new to this show and only recently got caught up from season 1 to the most recent episode, but I have a question about Victoria. What is her deal with falling in love so easily? I mean she went from David was a great love to betraying him to keep Daniel and her marriage to Conrad safe. Then it was Pascal who she said was trying to buy her and that she couldn't be bought. Only to have him give her the deed to the Hamptos home and suddenly she was his for the taking. Then, he was suddenly the love of her life - so much so that she murders Aiden because she blamed Emily for his death. Then she comes back to David being such a great love that she goes out of her way to keep him from his daughter only to find herself completely disgusted with him. All of the characters seem very uneven to me at this point, but Victoria seems to be the most uneven character so far, IMO. Does it just seem that way because I have been watching the episodes back to back, or is Victoria written really unevenly?

To be fair, Brandi didn't introduce herself to Yolanda that way either. Taylor said that to Yolanda about Brandi. And if I recall correctly, Yolanda was anything but warm to Taylor that night.

I have to respectfully disagree, especially to the bold parts. Your list of ways to illustrate how horrible these girls supposedly are all came from the same episode. And that is way way less than 90% of their on screen behavior. Their actual screen time for this episode doesn't even add up to 90% of their onscreen behavior for this particular episode - and this was the most that we have seen them or heard their voices. We don't know what is or isn't the one redeeming quality for either of these girls, because we know nothing about them. We don't know any one real thing about either one of them. And I don't want to know anything about them. Even if they don't realize that they are still children, they are; and we know they are. I don't think we can decide what types of kids they are or what type of parents they have based on their small moments on this show. I am all for judging parents based on their behaviors as parents. But, I don't think it is fair to judge kids based on their few minutes on an episode of Real Housewives.

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Kingsley attack a member of the production crew, which prompted production to get the trainer in the first place? If production was named in the lawsuit by the family friend (I can't remember if that is accurate or if it was just gossip), wouldn't the fact that it would be a major liability for the members of the crew (insurance-wise), as well as the fact that they were being sued, be enough reason for production to step in and say, that they couldn't work at Kim's house until Kingsley was gone? I could see Kim agreeing to re-home Kingsley with Kyle, Mauricio, and Production coming at her. I could especially see this happening if Kim's own kids had issues with Kingsley getting unnecessarily aggressive, or if it was more difficult for Monty to convalesce there during his cancer treatments.

I think this illustrates a point I was making a while back perfectly. That what you DON'T show is just as important/detrimental as what you DO show on reality TV. I think Lisa Rinna is that upbeat "You are awesome! Tell me more about you!" person. I think that she probably came on the show determined to do nothing but be everyone's favorite cheering squad and therefore everyone's friend. And, she probably thought that as long as she gave only positive stuff while filming, she would never get caught in that "They can't show anything that you don't give them" trap. I would be willing to bet that she filmed hours upon hours of footage of her being upbeat and positive about all of her interactions with the housewives, all the while thinking no one would be able to accuse her of not being true to herself or of sinking to the level of Reality Television. I think production saw this and managed to turn it around on her. I can almost see them twirling their invisible evil mustaches and deciding the best way to get the worst out of her was to edit her as suck up. What the hell else could they do with that much positive footage on a Real Housewives show? Plus, when she really does finally sink to the level of your average housewife, whether for the sake of her spot or just because she couldn't take it anymore, they have that awesome positive footage to contrast it with. Before you know it, she will be involved in Twitter wars about her parenting and being a hypocrite and how maybe Harry is actually cheating on her. It speaks to the evil brilliance of production teams for Reality TV shows that even a veteran of Reality TV can't outsmart production. Because come what may, Lisa Rinna is going to regret her decision to do this show, but her payday and the surge in relevance she is going to get from this appearance is going to make her really consider coming back again and again. I can see Andy promising her better edits and more money just to come back one more season.

She totally knows there is a middle and high road. Her first season, when Kim was at her worst and telling Brandi that her daughter had some things to say to her and Brandi's refusal and stating that she doesn't fight with children, shows that she knows the difference. She just generally refuses to take the high or middle road.

Aside from the PR comments, which to me were more about her feelings of having to spend too much time with Ken, the other women made a bigger deal of how Lisa would react to the accommodations than Lisa did. Colorado, Palm Springs, in those instances it was Kyle or someone else who questioned how Lisa would handle things and in those instances Lisa was all, "It wasn't what I was used to, but I was game to give it a go." And, I haven't seen her act as though she were THE authority on taste an decorum, only her giving her opinion on how something should be handled, which is something all of the women do. Her doing so with a British accent, doesn't make it any more of her acting above everyone else and is more like her behaving like the others only with an accent. As for bawdy, I agree funny is important, but for some reason people think that Benny Hill's bawdy humor was funny and I never got that either. So, obviously, when it comes to humor mileage varies, but bawdy and raunchy seem to be universal.

I guess I am a grudge holder too because I thought Lisa's response was perfectly reasonable even if she has decided to move forward with Yolanda. A person can forgive and not forget bad behavior or snide comments. Being called a "Hollywood Friend" by Yolanda had to sting and there is no reason for Lisa to invite more such characterizations. And let's face it, if Lisa had invited Yolanda, Yolanda would have still found some way to spin this as more of Lisa simply being a "Hollywood friend." She most likely would have worded it as "Of course Lisa invited me as we invited her when David received his star. But, since I am supportive of all my friends I chose to go and show my support and not treat it as a tit for tat situation." If she even decided to mention her snipe about Lisa never getting a star, it would have been in a way that totally dismissed the nastiness of what she was throwing out there. Lisa is doing what I would do, except with more money. If I were getting something like that, I would only invite someone I knew I would have fun with and not someone who would try to bring up past fights or try to force my hand in re-starting a friendship with Brandi.

But, that is just it. The audience is going to choose to see Lisa how they choose to see her. She from day one has always been up front about her bawdy sense of humor and has never put it out there that she is in anyway a "Manor Born" high society type. She has let it be known that she is failed actress who has appeared topless in B-Rated movies who adores pink, no matter how bad she looks in it. People assuming that she is some classy high society matron is based on their own assumptions and not anything that she has put out there. If people are seeing her as some high class matriarch, it is going directly against what she has put out there as 20-something of the debauched 70's night club lifestyle. And I think her love all things gaudy and dirty jokes proves that she hasn't been trying to pretend to be anything else. This is probably why she and Kyle were friends in the first place, as well as why she befriended Brandi against her own initial judgement.