film noire

This perfectly, imo, describes the moment -- well said.

That's an important distinction, one that also (less often) applies to alcoholics and some addicts. My family is riddled with alcoholics (and one pill junkie, and another member who had electric shock in the late sixties -- so much misery) and the two family members who could repeatedly drink an enormous amount -- until they were falling down drunk -- were complete opposites. One was vicious and constantly cruel, and the other was quiet and withdrawn and bone-deep sad, with no (visible) anger about him. It had all turned into paralyzing depression and a drop by drop, painfully slow suicide. (He got clean, and became a much beloved sponsor -- he's dead now, but I consider it an honor to have known him. The other became a dry drunk, which was a truly special hell.) So all drunks are not mean drunks, and all addicts are not violent -- if the drug is legal, that seems to make a big difference in how that plays out -- but I will say this, I never met a dry drunk who wasn't a total asshole.

I think (from the wonderful posts people have written in the episode thread, the info about addiction posted there, etc) all of us know how difficult the journey to sobriety can be and how complicated the process, whatever mental health issues the addict is experiencing (and I've yet to meet an addict who does not have some kind of mental health issue -- balanced and happy people do not routinely become addicts). My initial point was (and remains:) that Kim Richards has not struggled, she has indulged her worst addictive impulses -- and done so as a privileged white woman with every resource at her fingertips -- so I don't see a struggle, I see an insistence on being praised for sobriety, while behaving like an addict. Her children are struggling, imo, not Kim.

All the more reason to get into a program and get sober, imo.

Fixed that all up:)

I don't think she does honestly struggle, which is the problem; addicts struggling for sobriety go to meetings, follow a program, make amends, check self-indulgent impulses, fight to not give in to rage, self pity and blame, etc. Kim has done the opposite of all of that (and her pretense of sobriety is shameful, imo. When so many people have fought through and struggled on -- and still struggle to stay sober every day, many of them decades after their last pill, drink or needle -- those people deserve my respect and compassion and all the applause I can give them -- not Kim Richards. Not until she stops pretending to be sober and actually struggles to become sober -- until then , it feels like a kind of theft to me -- she's trying to steal or con by lying, the attention and admiration recovering addicts receive.)

Fixed that right up for you:)

I always assumed it was the falseness of her invented persona coming through that made Drummond seem so awkward and charmless and badly contrived, but damn, now you've got me wondering if it's all by design..

Yes -- and the dress/hose combo has the look of that annoying thing that happens when you have super-slippy material catching on the grain of the hose - - very strange fashion choice from a usually stunningly well put together woman. (ETA: sorry to post back to back)

A lighter moment I loved from this episode: Eileen eating -- as she talked with Yo and LisaV about the cray cray -- and then suddenly, Eileen turned to Yo and said "This is delicious, by the way" -- food so good, it overwhelmed the smell of bullshit in the air!

God how I wish women would drop the large keyhole style: makes Yo look like she has plumber's asscrack on her chest. Agreed -- where's the "To Catch a Predator" voiceover when you need it? ("Her MO is always the same; giddy talk of old sitcoms, designed to put the victim at ease -- then breaking down physical barriers through rough housing and "jokes" until finally, Brandi the Randy has someone in a headlock, about to engage in forced sexualized contact -- and tonight, our cameras Catch it All!")

I think Kim was possibly referring to an old rumor that Hamlin was gay (which started when he played a gay man back in the early eighties in a movie called "Making Love" -- it likely killed his film career). Whatever the meaning of the dig, Yo laughed; charming. I thought Brandi had a weird little moment with Kim last night. When the women left the table, and Kim started her creaky-voiced crying (which I hate the look and sound of -- always feels more like she's leaking self pity than real tears) at that point, Brandi looked at Kim with..not quite contempt, but something unpleasant and borderline impatient (as if saying, “I do all this for you – and this is the thanks I get? More whining about fighting?”)

I'm so glad you switched to o.b. with the shorter string!

I agree. And if I were one of Kim's kids, her addiction aside (a big aside, I know) the fact that my mother was willing to spit out humiliating, ugly gossip -- while calling another woman a beast -- that alone would make me feel deeply ashamed. So Kim was hurting her own kids in the process as well -- nobody's children were going to be protected by Kim's vicious mouth running like an overflowing toilet.

I'd not use the arrowroot (gets slimy when mixed with dairy -- and the cream is enough) and I'd add the tomatoes right near the end (I hate puckery, slippery skins -- SO MUCH) but yes, I agree -- wish Drummond would rob her older blog posts of material.

So much for her brand --living large on the range with her All American mythic cowboy -- she's been milking those beef cattle like they were dairy queens:)

no wood on that pecker.

In this situation, I’m a fan of addicts getting treatment -- or getting off television -- not a fan of any one housewife. You sign away a huge part of it when you participate in reality tv (and in scripted tv, in the form of a morals clause). Add in Kim herself bringing it up & all bets are off. I think the only 'privacy' protection these women have is a mutually-assured-destruction mentality (which Kim seems to have destroyed, based on the other housewives gasping, calling Kim disgusting, etc) Me too – just no way to see that as anything but corrupt beyond measure, imo.

Ditto -- congratulations, JennyMominFL -- always so good to hear about someone who beat the devil. (And maybe, inadvertently, all this addict-on-display ugliness from Kim will ultimately be a teaching tool for someone, somewhere, trying to work through this with their own family.)

In a healthy family (like yours -- congrats, btw!) that can create a wonderful bond; in a sick family (like Kim and Kyle's) it creates a living hell – that’s why in rehab, family members are often asked to come and break the "family armor" to bits, to tell the truth and save the life of the addict, and life of the family as a healthy unit. And if family members insist on being suppressed and unsupportive and toxic, it’s also why you have to walk away. Nobody has the right to use you as a spiritual slave and emotional whore. If I were Kim I would've said “Thank you for apologizing, and for helping me understand why you kept bringing it up. We can put it to bed, now.” Moving on, end of story, everybody hugs, Kim looks like hero – but Kim is nowhere near sober, so that was never going to happen. She’s never hit bottom (despite wandering around a hotel hallway w/o her pants on, or on her hands and knees, all but sucking a hotel carpet in search of drugs) because there’s always been an enabler to fix it, smooth it, make it go away, or lose it in editing; they've done her no favors, retarding her recovery by half a decade.

I think both are true, in this case. When it comes to the most emotionally perverse of addicts (which is what Kim is, imo) they love nothing more than to egg on, lash out and spur other people into behaving badly, in order to degrade *them*. Once done, they can play victim, avoid their own filth and blame the world, all over again, for the millionth time. LisaR, likely from living with Hamlin (who if now sober, was clearly once NOT sober) was prime to be drawn into Kim's sickening addict-games -- and Kim likely smelled that on her (addicts often have an unerring instinct for picking out the person who will snap if bullied or threatened or verbally humiliated enough). So yeah -- IMO, this is that rare instance when one person is fully responsible, and the other person is as well. (And that's the problem with the worst kind of addicts -- the Kims of the world -- they spread the disease all over everyone around them, leaving nothing clean or untouched in their wake. Never mind this level of shit, even less violent interactions can leave you feeling dirty and used and ashamed of *yourself*, instead of revolted by them.)

Great Kazu's excellent post says it all (eta: and SistaLadybug nails it down), but I will add this, respectfully -- thank god we don't endure anymore! Thank god that over the last forty years -- from studies of addiction, to Phil Donahue and Oprah and the magnificent Betty Ford (and even those ridiculous "Portrait of a Teenage Drunken Runaway Pill Popping Cheerleader Mom" cheese-fest movies) to doctors becoming more and more educated -- thank god we now understand that "enduring" actually ends up being enabling and co-dependent. Based on how Kim has behaved on camera, I have no doubt that she has verbally abused her children (at the very least, if not worse) and I hope they understand, without guilt or shame, that they deserve dignity and freedom. I hope they know that their lives are not at the mercy of a vicious addict and her untreated sick whims. If Kim had a highly infectious and dangerous disease, nobody would expect her kids to get infected -- and remain infected -- as a show of support, so why should we expect that with this horrible disease? Why should her children have sick lives, just because their mother repeatedly refuses to stick with the treatment for her illness?

LOL (I've been singing my own tribute to Kim off & on since the episode, using Blondie's "Heart of Glass" -- "Once I did drugs / and it was a blast / Soon turned out / Had glass in my pants".) Addicts are exhausting -- they suck the life and joy and freedom out of those closest to them -- I hope her children cut off all contact until the woman finally gets sober (which she isn't now; even if she isn't using, she's still a vicious, selfish, arrogant dry drunk.)

grisgris wrote (in the "All Episode" thread; thought I should move my reply here) Sadly, I can – it goes something like this: Ree gets gussied up like a country Spice Girl (“I'm Cooking Spice! Get it Ladd, Get it?”) while doing affirmations (“I’m a whole BUNCHA hot lady tonight!”) in the mirror (that’s her foreplay) while Ladd weeps in the bathroom, dreaming of a foreign exchange student he met in college named Malik, a Morrocan man from Paris. “Malik, where have you gone?” Ladd sobs into his hat, thinking of tender kisses and the future he had once dreamed of -- his family ranch turned into a haven for abused cows (“I just can't kill no more, Daddy!”) Malik by his side, bringing him dish after dish filled with fresh vegetables and pasta -- food he can no longer even eat, it reminds him so deeply of Malik -- and then Ree bangs on the door with her shoe ( “COME AND GIT HER DONE, SON!”) and Ladd is brought back to this hell on earth he must live every Friday -- when the ratings come in for the week -- and he wipes his eyes and opens the door to find Ree standing all up in his face (winy-breathed, tossing her bright red hair extensions hither and yon, whispering, “S’if hot mama ain’t happy, s’nobody happy”) and he falls on to the bed, hat and boots still on, and goes deep deep deep into his Safe Place (where he meets up with Lori Fieri -- oh, how they cry and laugh, and cry some more -- as they speak of themselves, and then, with pride and envy, of the most recent Safe Place alumni, Todd Thompson. “He’s free!” Lori says, trembling with happiness and resentment, "No more Giada -- he's FREE!!" “That’s right, Lori,” Ladd says. He could feel bitter too, but Malik's love left him with a heart bigger than the state of Oklahoma itself. “Todd's free -- as free as the wild mustangs the government pays me two million a year to house and feed.” (Plus, there are sex toys -- with cute animal names -- every fourth Friday.)

"But then I was reminded of how she made the Oscars a must-watch even to many people. So she deserved recognition" Rivers is also one of the very very VERY few women to write a movie/direct it ("Rabbit Test", Billy Crystal's screen debut -- Joan also has a small part in the film as a nurse) so for that alone, I think she deserved to be included.