amarante

I don't think he called her. As I understood it, he happened to mention Lt. Kidd and for whatever reason Trudy was alerted and she contacted Kidd or told whoever was on duty to contact her. There would be no bail because charges weren't filed and it appeared there would be no official record of it - obviously it is going to come into play at some point because otherwise it was a very elaborate set up for no purpose.

Well that was my point. While they have nice professional incomes, these are not people who have millions in assets. They are just standard professionals who are at best upper middle class. They can afford to give their kids a great head start but they aren’t funding multi million dollar trust funds. Kandi on Atlanta has real wealth.

I don't begin to claim to understand the finances of these women - until they explode into the headlines. I didn't get the sense that Robyn's parents are super rich. Isn't he a dentist? I mean that is a nice professional income but it doesn't mean that you have enough money to support your kids in grand style or leave huge trusts. Obviously if they are in real financial trouble you can help them with medical expenses or whatever. For sure, having middle class parents means one knows that one is never going to be living out of a car for lack of money but it's not the same as having ultra wealthy parents who buy you a home and set up a trust fund that enables you to not work for the rest of your life. I never quite understood how Candiace's mother was so wealthy - I mean she is a psychologist and that is a decent living but I never understood the "wealth". Of course she did pay what theoretically was about $250,000 for that wedding extravaganza.

I never saw the original movie nor read any of the books so I probably lack knowledge of some of the basics of vampire "science" I did read the original Bram Stoker Dracula book and so my knowledge of the rules were gleaned from that book which had extensive details. Great book by the way as it is the Victorian (or Edwardian) version of soft core porn as much of the horror novels were. But I digress - did Ann Price completely discard the old "rules" such as killing with a stake through the heart; garlic being a deterrent and crosses being a protection against them. As I recall in the original you had to actually "invite" the vampire into your home - there is a rather long seduction of a virgin in London and how Dracula is invited into her boudoir. Dracula had some slaves which weren't quite vampire. As I recall Renfield was the land agent the Count brought under his spell and was the person who handled shipping the coffin with the Count and his native soil to London.

I think the Peter scene is pretty much the equivalent of Sonya's toaster oven - it is a story line and it will never see the light of day or be heard from again after this season - hell maybe never heard from after this episode. Hasn't Peter had a string of failures in the restaurant bar line? A restaurant or club seems utterly random for Wendy as I don't recall her ever doing anything relating to food - to clubs - to music. It is as random as her candle line but at least with candles the upfront cost is minimal - buy some candles from aliexpress and slap your label on them. Kandi's restaurant at least evolved from long term branding on her show. There were lots of scenes of the family gathering to eat the Old Lady Gang's food even before there was any idea of a restaurant. Kandi has the capital to actually be able to fund a restaurant and keep it going until it is profitable. She also has the money to purchase business advisors. I doubt Kandi opened up the restaurant without having the numbers run based on costs and market. My understanding based on what I have read is that the restaurant was a hit and very busy from the time it opened.

Based on Ashley’s appearance on WWHL they are not divorced but six months into their legal separation. Ashley negotiated or more accurately renegotiated her prenup so I would imagine she would walk away with several million as well as very good child support. It is not that uncommon for a wealthy ex to own the house the other spouse lives in with the children. If they actually wind up divorced, she and the children can live in the house rent free as part of the child support arrangement or she could buy her own house from whatever she gets as part of the settlement. But there probably isn’t any financial incentive for her to put her own money into an expensive home so long as she is guaranteed the right to live in the house owned by the LLC. I would imagine all of their real estate is owned by some kind of trust or corporate identity anyway and I don’t think Ashley is on the deed for their penthouse anyway.

I don't claim independent expertise but since it is a state school the salaries are available on line and they aren't that high. Maybe there are bonuses that increase the salary. However the reality is that at this point Robyn makes significantly more money than Juan. Enough so that she was able to purchase a relatively expensive home on her own credit.

I doubt he makes anything close to what Robyn makes - she has her salary from BRAVO which is considerable plus payment for personal appearances plus monetizing all of her social media. I would add income from the hats but I have no idea whether that is really any kind of successful business. But at any rate at this point she would make more than him My very cursory googling indicated that his annual salary was about $100,000 - I don't know if there are bonuses but Robyn's base salary for HW far exceeds that. I doubt whether that basketball camp he runs is a huge money maker either especially since it would have not been open for the past two summers because of COVID

The charcuterie board made an appearance last night on Real Housewives of Potomac. I think at this point it is going to appear in every franchise.

I used to love that show. I found the episodes on YouTube - like a lot of television dramas from that period it didn't stand the test of time. Obviously not the fault of Asner but they had to work within the very strict Standards & Practices of that era and so the issues are dumbed down and some of the "progressive" thinking is really antiquated.

I had to fast forward to just confirm the boyfriend would be convicted since it was going to be so obvious that it was the boyfriend. And not to blame the victim, but she certainly made poor choices for a seemingly intelligent 40 year old woman. The first baby daddy was an alcoholic drug addict when she was involved with him. The second was married and still living with his wife. If that wasn’t a serious red flag for avoiding any kind of relationship I don't know what was Even if he weren’t a murderer, why would anyone want a relationship like that let alone have a child with him. To me this isn’t like a murder when a psychopath breaks into a home or abducts you off the street at random. One has deliberately make certain choices that increase the risk of one being killed. There are a lot of these "true crime" stories in which everyone claims that the victim lived an exemplary low risk life and then as it turns out they did indeed have significant risk factors in their life. Not every "affair" with a married man ends up with a dead pregnant woman but certainly the odds for that happening are much higher than someone who leads a "simpler" life. ETA - In my opinion this didn't merit any kind of show because there was no "mystery" at all and unfortunately this is the kind of murder that happens fairly often - a form of domestic violence. The only reason it made it into the news and then ultimately a show was because they had footage of the little girl with the pillow walking back and forth and my god did they use that footage over and over again to stretch it to an unendurable two hours length. I could see it as a 1/2 hour Forensic Files type of show - one hour would be too long but 2 hours was ridiculous.

Seems to be an audience on CBS for this kind of programming - Hasn't hurt Blue Bloods or S.W.A.T. I don't know if it has changed markedly but CBS skews somewhat older so they probably have more of an audience that either stays home on the weekend OR doesn't have streaming services. This is classic counter programming against NBC and ABC as neither of the other networks as the only series game in town on those time slots - drama or comedy. If you look at the CBS lineup for Fall there aren't many time slots that were available and that would work with this kind of show - maybe Sunday where they are airing East New York

On a completely shallow note, how do people actually do anything with their hands when they have fangs as long as Jen has.

A modern publicist isn’t just for getting a client’s name in the press. It is often for keeping it out or spinning events to shed favorable light. Also as was discussed above, social media accounts are generally handled by PR firms. Ericka has lots of money between her BRAVO salary plus all the money she gets from monetizing social media. Everything she posts earns her money. She is also reputed to have at least one old rich casino owner who gives her money.

I posted an article in the Sutton thread in which it is explained that designers do not loan to the housewives for a variety of reasons. It was written by Brian Moylan who wrote Erica’s book and recaps for Vulture and he is a pretty reliable source. I think some but not all of them rent. I also think that some of the really heavily branded stuff are high end replicas because that crap doesn’t depend on beautiful fabrics or great construction but is essentially cheap crap with a logo so easy to replicate I think Sutton and Crystal own their clothing and accessories.

Completely understandable because Garcelle is much smarter than Eboni and most importantly Garcelle has much more emotional intelligence than Eboni. Garcelle nailed it last season when she had lunch with Kyle and lucidly - and not in a condescending manner - explained exactly why Kyle's statement about Garcelle not paying the charitable pledge was especially damaging when it was said against a woman of color. She wasn't angry - she didn't have an agenda - and Kyle (and the audience) could understand exactly what the issue was. Garcelle accepted Kyle's apology and didn't use it to pontificate on larger issues of endemic racism. Eboni on the other hand reamed Luanne for a comment that Eboni took completely out of context and then the whole discussion escalated into a typical HW shit show. As I recall - and it has been awhile - the Luanne's comment had to do with Luanne having gone to parochial school and so she didn't grow up using certain kinds of language. Obviously Luanne at this point is not chaste virgin but I do think she was sincere in explaining her upbringing. I am also no chaste virgin and I also grew up where certain language wasn't used in polite society and while I might have used the occasional swear word as a teenager among my peers certainly not around a dinner table. Also - and this could be me - but even as an adult with my female friends, we don't regular sit at a dinner table and discuss dicks and other very graphic sexual stuff.

FWIW charcuterie boards are super trendy which is why they are appearing. Also easy to order and to send as a gift. There are cookbooks that are only charcuterie board recipes. The next trend is evidently butter boards in which you serve a board or platter with butter spread out that has been seasoned or has other ingredients on it. Very instagram evidently.

I agree as they probably took the opportunity to flesh out the back story of the alienation. The storyline still would have worked even without the episodes shot this season which expanded on the alienation because there was the scene between Jubal and ex in which there was a discussion of how she tried to tell him and enough of the kid explaining why he had been hanging with them.

I thought this was a good pilot. Pilots are extremely hard to do because you have to introduce the characters with enough exposition of their stories so that there is some kind of understanding by the audience plus have a storyline. Now that almost every show is available for streaming I really like going back to watch the pilots of older shows to see how brilliantly some of them achieve this. There are writers and directors who specialize in pilots and are paid huge sums for their services - everyone gets paid more for a pilot and of course the really major players get either Pay or Play or even better Pay AND Play You also need to impress the networks and the advertisers which includes convincing them there are at least 100 stories - enough for at least 100 episodes which is historically the minimum to maximize syndication revenues

Advantage Plans are HMO and are not traditional Medicare. They limit network providers just like private insurance because they are a form of private insurance. They were a "gift" to the private insurance companies. They are marketed to consumers as being "cheaper" but they have significant drawbacks. Anyone who is approaching Medicare eligibility should really understand their options - but a discussion of that is beyond the purpose and scope of this forum. Your circumstances are completely different than a 65 year old who is eligible for Medicare on their own and can select "straight" Medicare which has no networks or limitations or an Advantage Plan which is just an HMO with limited networks.

Actually Medicare is the best insurance there is because there are no networks and almost every doctor takes Medicare. Almost every doctor accepts Medicare and you can travel anywhere in the US unlike most insurance plans which are only good in your state. The only doctors who don't need Medicare are pediatricians and obstetricians LOL A podiatrist would not have much of a business without seniors. Medicaid is a completely different ball game and it is hard in most areas to find providers who accept Medicaid. The reimbursement levels are lower than Medicare and also you can have a decent practice without Medicaid. It is really hard to have a practice and not have patients over 65 which is why almost all doctors accept Medicare. Someone had written a prescription FOR an appointment with a podiatrist. If the person had seen the podiatrist already they wouldn't need money in order to pay for an appointment. But as everyone has pointed out, this was a scheme that made no sense if you give it a nanosecond of thought on any level. I think that the writers basically don't give a damn - anyone decent probably got a staff job on a show that wasn't going off the air with a limited number of episodes. And they certainly don't have any interest in making the show better - because it is cancelled and they knew that months ago.

My comment on HH being *horrified* if they could see their neighbors was directed when they could literally just see a house pretty far at a distance - not necessarily for some homes which are built on tiny lots - typically with a front facing garage and so there is almost no space between the homes.

My childhood home in Brooklyn was built just after WW I and there were three identical two family homes built next to each other. Two of the homes still are standing which is where I got the current value from but the actual home I grew up in was torn down as was the home next to it and someone built a huge McMansion on both plots so the real value was the land in that location. Essentially someone paid close to $2 million for just two small lots - because these were standard narrow New York City lots - not attached or semi detached but with only a very narrow driveway between each home. Whenever a HH complains because they can see a neighbor's window at a distance I just snort because we were literally just a bit more than a car's width from the homes next to us and could look into their homes if we wanted to - which is why people had blinds and shades on the side windows. And of course people had the good grace to not spy or eavesdrop. My childhood neighborhood is not in one of the hipper parts of Brooklyn LOL but it is lined with large old trees and it is a narrow one way street traffic so not much traffic - just from people who live on the block - as kids you could play in the street without much danger or interruption from cars. The rise in Brooklyn neighbors is fueled by different demographics. What most astounds me is the "hipness" factor since when I was growing up my chief desire was to escape Brooklyn into the sophistication of Manhattan. It wasn't the same demographic as the Italian neighborhood from Saturday Night Fever but my neighborhood was VERY provincial. You wouldn't shop there and you wouldn't eat there unless you wanted standard Americanized Chinese food or pizza of course. After I left I was astonished that my very humble pizza place where my father would pick up a pie had turned into a foodie destination - DiFaro on Avenue J. The neighborhood was always Jewish for the most part but turned into an area with very Orthodox Jews and many of them are Sephardic instead of Ashkenazi. The original Jews of the area were fairly non-observant as was my family - Seinfeld instead of Shtisel LOL

A small point but Medicare does indeed cover ingrown toenails although I am not sure if Medicaid does. Medicare even will cover costs of a podiatrist making a home visit. Of course a nurse or doctor at Amsterdam could also do it rather than provide a prescription for money to withdraw from the ATM to pay for a podiatrist because presumably the person was already in the ER for something because no one would possibly go to an ER just for a toe nail unless it had gotten severely infected. I can't imagine what the wait would be in an ER with triage for an ingrown toenail.

The mother who wants their daughter to buy a home that is suitable for a family is somewhat of a theme on this show. What makes it even more puzzling is that generally if people get married and then have children, they look for a home that is suitable for their new circumstances. It is as if the mother is thinking either the daughter is going to be an unmarried mother who just had a sperm donation or that the future man in her life would be an economic loser who would not have their own income enabling the new couple to pool resources and buy a home that they decide they can afford and which is a better fit. I wonder if the mother married a soldier stationed in the Philippines given the obvious difference in their backgrounds.