Maximona

That's my complaint, too. But Scott is terrific as Ripley. Reminiscent somehow of Kevin Spacey in Usual Suspects.

Frankly, I don't see how they get another season out of this RH franchise. These women detest each other.

Business deals must get brokered at Kathy Hilton parties. Throughout Hollywood history, there's always been a handful of draconian grande dames whose invitations were highly coveted because that's where drunken production chiefs say to one another, Let's do a show where some TikTok influencer becomes a cop!! And the next morning, personal assistants begin arranging the lunch. 😀 That's really the only explanation for it. Kathy Hilton is boring as f--k. And her offspring are downright repulsive. Obviously, Andy Cohen is pitching something to someone. Hence Kathy Hilton's completely gratuitous appearance at this reunion. Sutton's breakdown was... interesting. Evidently, you don't need Andy Cohen to offer you cocaine or whisper sweet threesome nothings into yr ear to create a completely toxic show environment. I am thinking maybe Reality TV needs a new type of employee, analogous to the intimacy coordinators they have on set when actors are filming sex scenes.

The reason I used to like this show is because the dancers started the season as half-formed dancers & emerged from it as real dancers. That process was fascinating to me. There are plenty of places I can watch real dancers dance. But not many where I can watch people turning into real dancers. I don't want to watch accomplished dancers go through all the BS & ass-kissing that this show will impose on them. So, I think SYTYCD is off my watch list.

I hate everything about this new format.

Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah. It was a big departure from his earlier style, for sure.

In Cold Blood was published in 1965; Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test in 1968. The individual pieces in Acid Test were published in magazines earlier. Still, I think it's fair to say Capote influenced Wolfe not vice versa. Of course, if you don't like what was then called the New Journalism—i.e. the introduction of the author's persona into the subject he/she is writing about—you don't like the New Journalism. It does come down to a matter of individual taste.

Awwwww. I loved the ending! Miami is def the best Housewives franchise!!!!!

I laughed out loud when I read this. 😀 YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm wondering that, too!!!!! 😀 I think In Cold Blood is a great book. And I like a lot of Capote's early writing—yeah, Other Voices, Other Rooms is overly sentimental & Gothic, but Miriam is a little gem & Breakfast at Tiffany's is fun. I don't think anybody except possibly Capote himself thought the published portions of Answered Prayers were any good. It's not the subject matter: Proust betrayed the foibles (sexual & otherwise) of his rich friends, and it's considered great art. La Côte Basque is just really badly written.

Amanda was the daughter from Babe's first marriage; Kate was the daughter from the second marriage (to Paley.) I've read that none of Babe's children bothered to attend her funeral, but that allegation wasn't sourced, so I don't know if it's true. And Episode 7 was a complete snooze fest.

Judging from the last name, this would have been Amanda Burden's daughter. Amanda herself rather famously disliked her mother. And Belle Burden had few compunctions about writing about her own ex-husband for the NYT's maudlin Modern Love series. I daresay she did a bit of fictionalizing herself in that one. (I suspect this because, in my own experience, people who say things about their intimates like, "I had no idea he was unhappy," are either lying or complete narcissists.) You can read her earlier piece here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/style/modern-love-married-to-a-stranger.html I guess it's okay to air dirty laundry so long as nobody has menstruated on it. 😀

I'd actually be surprised if Erika has "great sex." In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Erika is anorgasmic—at least at this point in her life. You have to be willing to lose control to have an orgasm, and I doubt that Erika is a big fan of losing control. I kinda suspect that Erika just uses sex as a promotional & manipulation tool.

Wait! What? They're replacing Comfort with JoJo Silwa? UGH. Jin, the last dancer, actually made me cry–even before the "spontaneous" (not!) tribute to Twitch. I have no idea why. I didn't even like her dancing particularly.

I don't see how Bravo can possibly keep this particular group together for another year. The two factions dislike each other so thoroughly that they're not even willing to fake camaraderie or good times for the camera. Plus, they really do seem to be doing their damnest to make the DR look like the worst vacation spot ever.

What a great question! (Sadly, James Mason & Dirk Bogarde are dead.) Sebastian Stan maybe? 😀

Not me! I watch various Real Housewives of ... every week. 😀 Swans, Housewives—they are one & the same. I thought this was the best episode the series has produced so far. From my perspective, at least, Capote's "friendship" with these women is completely a middle school construct: The women are vapid, superficial, not particularly smart, in fact pretty f**ckin' dumb, but they are a golden elite through their money & their connections, and Capote—who, however jaunty the front he puts on, feels desperately marginalized—was pathetically eager to be judged important by them. Of course, he never could be. Lee Radziwill's statement—“They’re just a couple of [homophobic epithet] and this is just a fight between two [homophobic epithet]. I think it’s disgusting that we have to be dragged into it"—is an actual Lee Radziwill quotation. (So ironic that her final husband was the closeted gay director Herbert Ross!) There was some real poignance in this episode. Though Hollander's accent slipped noticeably in places. 😀 I guess since the script was optioned from Leamer's book, the Swans had to be positioned as Capote's antagonists but all the posters above who note that the show would have been much more interesting as Feud: Truman versus Vidal are absolutely correct. It wouldn't have had the potential to attract as large a viewing audience, though. (And I wonder how big the intersection of Real Housewives viewers & Feud: Capote viewers is? 😀)

Miami is my very favorite of the Real Housewives franchise. Back-to-back reunion episodes? Heaven!!! But one thing I don't understand, and that is this: Kiki, Adriana, & Marisol technically are friends, not Housewives, right? So, what were they doing at the reunion? Don't get me wrong! They pull their weight! They should be Housewives! But they're not! What's up with that? Did Bravo run out of gold apples? Kiki had the best reunion look. Followed closely by (ugh) Lisa, who looked better than I've ever seen her look. I think maybe Lisa is using hyaluronic acid in her lips these days. She actually looked like a Real Human Girl! I also enjoyed Larsa's Catherine de Medici look. But then, I generally enjoy Larsa. She is just so relentless in a steely, quiet, unstoppable way. To amuse myself during the reunion, I played a game: Which Miami Housewives have real breasts? You can usually tell because implants leave a lot of scar tissue between the breasts, so cleavage tends to be problematic—there is like this big, yawning chasm between implants. Larsa, Alexia, Lisa, & Adriana clearly have them. Marisol was wearing that hideous, gold insect-exoskeleton thing on her chest, so I couldn't tell. Julia looked unenhanced, and if I had to guess, so was Nicole. The big question mark was Guerdy. Because you don't necessarily have to have implants removed with State 1 breast cancer.

Ah! Thank you for the clarification. If she doesn't have a DNP, she should not be characterizing herself as a doctor. 😀

Just a data point: APRNs don't get doctorates; they get a degree called "Doctor of Nursing Practice" (DNP.) I have no idea whether AnneMarie has a MSN (Master's of Science in Nursing) or a DNP frankly. But if she has a DNP, she's entitled to use the honorific "Doctor." Physicians are "Medical Doctors" (hence "MD.") They do not have a monopoly on the use of the word "doctor" no matter how much the AMA would like you to think they do.😀

AnneMarie does have a loud, forceful voice and a rather annoying habit of announcing, I am not finished talking yet! 😀 I think that is her "indoor voice" (as parents of toddlers like to say! 😀) But, yeah, she'd be doing herself (and everyone else) a favor to tone it down.

No, actually, they don't. At least, not in California, which is a full-practice state for advanced practice registered nurses where APRNs are free to practice to the full extent of their education and their training. I mean, they may work under the supervision of a physician if they're part of a practice group that's headed by a physician because that's the hierarchy in that particular organizational structure. But in that instance, other physicians can also be said to be "practicing under the supervision of a physician." AnneMarie is free to practice independently without physician oversight in the state of California. I don't really get the hate here for AnneMarie. Seems like a lot of Mean Girls piling on to me. I don't actually remember the scene in which AnneMarie introduces herself as an "anesthesiologist" to Crystal. Was it shown? But I've seen CRNAs do that before in the ER where I work (I'm an RN), and when they do that, they are not trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes, they are using a word—"anesthesiologist"—with which they think the patient may be more familiar than the word "anesthetist," which almost invariably devolves into a five-minute conversation along the lines of, An anesthetist is a..." at a time when minutes are critical. Was the word "anesthesiologist" ill-chosen in a conversation outside a medical context? Yes, it was. But I personally don't think AnneMarie was attempting to inflate herself here. I suspect she just mispoke. Also, there are two academic degrees associated with advanced nurse practice: Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP.) There is presently a big push to make DNP the terminal degree for all advanced clinical nursing specialties. If AnneMarie has a DNP, she is certainly entitled to call herself a "doctor." You are certainly free to continue with your (in my opinion) misguided reverence for physicians and the magic that they & they alone can do! 😀 The AMA is a very effective lobbying organization. But that's why your medical insurance premiums continue to rise every year, and healthcare as a whole has an inflation rate of 12% a year. Many studies show that APRNs provide primary care that's comparable to physicians in terms of safety and effectiveness and some suggest that APRNs can provide about 90% of primary care services that physicians provide, with similar outcomes and at a lower cost.

And there is a corresponding rumor that Harper Lee is the one who actually wrote In Cold Blood. 😀

Except that Capote did not have a good relationship with Harper Lee after To Kill a Mockingbird was published. He was incredibly envious of the novel's success.

Yep, yep, yep. Tatty orange sweater as he gobbles the pills; tatty orange sweater when he wakes up the next morning. I think Baldwin works as a dream guide within the context of this particular series. I personally have absolutely no sympathy for these women either in the context of this series or from what I know about their real lives. They were/are vapid, brittle, & self-absorbed. Amanda Burden famously remarked that she had absolutely no relationship with her mother, Babe Paley. Baldwin would have despised them. And the screenwriter is correct that Baldwin would have seen them as mere appendages to their rich, powerful, white husbands. But would the real-life Capote have allowed himself to be rescued by the real-life Baldwin (even in a dream?) Probably not. Capote disliked Baldwin's fiction. Capote did have a few kind things to say about Baldwin's essays, which delved into the relationships between wealth, class, race, & gender. As a writer, though, Capote was singularly uninterested in sociology. Capote & Baldwin were both interested in writing about marginalized humans, but for Capote, the marginalization was always caused by some deep emotional flaw. The dots Baldwin connected would have flown right over Capote's head.