amarante

The stars are paid HUGE amounts for wearing a dress for the Oscars because the dresses get such enormous publicity. And the brands don't really make money on the couture as they really make their money on the licensing and accessories. You might not be able to afford a Chanel dress or even a bag but then you see the Chanel glasses or makeup or even a wallet and it seems like an affordable splurge. ETA - By huge I mean $100,000 to $300,000 to wear a dress on the Oscar red carpet Some actresses have exclusive deals to be dressed by certain of the brands. I know that Kristen Stewart was exclusive for Chanel and Natalie Portman is exclusively dressed by Dior. There are others but these are off the top of my head. All of the social media stuff is a HUGE source of money for even D level Bravolebrities like the non-famous housewives. They are paid to promote on their pages and are also comped vacations and other stuff. That is why they fight for followers because each follower translates into pay per hit. That is one reason - among others - that they fight to stay on the show when it doesn't make particularly sense. They can easily double their salaries just with social media payments and then a few of them are also able to launch their own stuff but I don't think most of those make much money so they probably just get the up front money from licensing their names to whatever product they decide to shill. You can pretty much assume that everything is monetized although I think there are some like Meryl Streep who I have never heard of monetizing like the others. Even the stars that are theoretically above it all will do commercials and otherwise monetize themselves with commercials outside the US. I think both Clooney and Pitt do this.

At this point it goes beyond lending the dresses as stars are paid to wear the clothing and other stuff because of the promotional benefits. There are very few stars who don't have a deal which pays them and of course almost none of the stuff on the red carpet is purchased as it is generally borrowed. I don't think lending is that common for day to day type of clothing where there aren't going to be multiple magazines and websites showing a photo and stating that the dress is from X; shoes are from Y and jewelry is from Z. What is common are social media deals in which a famous person or influencer or whatever is paid to post photos of them using or wearing or eating or whatever. All of those ridiculous shots of a celebrity in a drugstore "purchasing" a specific bottle of cream or shampoo are all paid for by the product. That is different than a candid shot of course which just happens to truly see them leaving a place.

Different strokes. I am glad that I have a high level of security and many people deliberately seek out doorman buildings. Even multifamily homes without doormen now have closed camera security systems in the halls and elevators. In HH security is sometimes mentioned as a concern of HH - especially single women because they should be aware of potential security issues. In most cities all of the homes will have some form of security system. In poorer areas it will be bars on the windows and some kind of security door and in more affluent areas it will be wired alarm systems with the ubiquitous signs that they are protected by X Company. I roll my eyes at some of the stupider HH storylines like being worried if the staircase was by the door because the burglar would go up the stairs but I can't imagine the security of the neighborhood and building not being a rational factor in a real house hunt just the same as school district or commute. If one watches any of the true crime programs, video surveillance is pretty ubiquitous wherever one goes. Since I am not doing anything particularly interesting or nefarious I am fine with someone theoretically being able to look at video watching me. If I were buying shovels and large trash bags at Walmarts at 3 AM I might be worried. 😂🤣

Why wouldn't they have been? I am sure she gave fabulous parties and was absolutely charming and fun to be around. She didn't snag a billionaire without having some charisma. Being friends with celebrities isn't for the most part a sign of anything except running in the same circles. I don't understand why people are comparing her to Anna Delvey as they are completely different. Anna was an imposter and made no attempt to marry money - she was much more interesting because she wanted to accumulate her own money and status and not just marry it. In fact she actually made herself less overtly "sexual" looking when she was seeking financing in an attempt to make others take her more seriously. The people she managed to snooker were generally men but she also cheated her female buddies as well. Diana is an old fashioned gold digger - nothing grifting about her except possibly in the early days in London before she snagged her billionaire. But I don't think she was scamming or doing anything other than using her good looks and charm to run in certain circles frequented by rich people as is the oldest story ever. There is nothing indicating that she was fleecing them although no one would be shocked if they learned that her expenses were subsidized by rich boyfriends. Diana's husband wasn't a grifter like Girardi. He had genuine money and since they were married for a fairly long period of time and had a child she got $250 million in what has been described as an amicable divorce. Nothing grifting about that. Diana is who Erika would have dreamed of being. Married to someone who wasn't as old as Tom. Someone who wasn't a Pasadena lawyer so her life wasn't the stuffy existence she led for many years. And of course most importantly someone who had actual money and didn't leave her facing multiple lawsuits. I have no sympathy for Erika but she definitely isn't leading the life she thought she would.

In Los Angeles people do generally drive everywhere - that cliche is true even though I live in what by LA standards is a very walkable neighborhood. I am not sure what you are questioning but I assume you meant my tongue in cheek comment regarding always having an alibi because all of my movements are being videotaped as are the theoretical criminals in the building. However I have to physically walk out of my unit to get to my car - into the common area hallway - onto the elevator and these areas have video cameras recording 24/7 so anyone moving about any area of the building is recorded. Not only are they recorded but there is a screen at the doorman's desk which shows what is being taped by the cameras. In high rises the parking for residents and guests is generally in the lower levels because the reason there are high rises is because the land values make it economically rational to have density on the plot of land and so an open parking lot would be a waste of land and money. In other words as soon as I open the door to my unit I am recorded. In fact if I decide to actually walk outside the building I would be even more conspicuous because I would not only be recorded but since I would have to go through the lobby, the doormen would see me and the security cameras in the lobby also record sound 🤷🏼‍♀️😂 That is pretty much the kind of security that most high rise buildings in metropolitan areas like New York and Chicago have as well. Doormen buildings are much more common in New York City of course although most buildings in New York don't have parking so they don't have valet parking but the doormen in will often help people in and out of the taxi (or now Uber) and in the old days would hail a taxi.

Many of the larger condo buildings in Los Angeles have valet parking for residents and guests. They are scattered in certain neighborhoods and from what was seen of the neighborhood around the first home, it looked like it was one of the buildings around Doheny. This is a significant benefit because parking can be difficult. If someone rents a condo from an owner they have all the benefits/rights of the condo owner so they would have valet parking as well. A resident doesn't have to use the valet as they can just drive to their designated spot if they want but you can't have guest parking in a high density area without valet parking. It is also a significant safety factor as is a doorman which also are in certain of the larger condo buildings in Los Angeles. The reason why a valet offers additional safety is that no one can sneak into the garage as can happen with an unattended garage gate. That happens when the gate opens to let a car enter and someone sneaks in after the car and lurks in the garage and either steals from the cars or worse attacks residents. It is also theoretically a way for someone to enter the building and gain access to higher floors. My building has 24 hour doormen and valets and there has never been any theft, attack or vandalism in my building. All of the CC cameras also help provide security of course but the reality is that why would someone choose to attempt to break into my building when there are buildings all around which are easier to access and even if they got into the building how would they remove any stolen goods and their face would be on multiple video cameras as they moved through the building. My sardonic joke is that I would always have an alibi in the event my loved one was murdered even if I were home with no one to verify my alibi because there would be a video record of when I came into my unit and when I left it.

There are houses and design centers in Los Angeles that cater to that specific design taste. In certain neighborhoods in Los Angeles there were homes built in that style about a decade ago but that seems to have subsided to a great extent. It is viewed as exhibiting one’s affluence. I am not surprised she liked the mirrors although most people viewing the unit would have been immediately calculating the cost to rip out and repair the walls. 😂😂😂🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️But I found all of her options terrible and she could have gotten a nicer place in a better location for a single woman although ironically West Hollywood isn’t exactly a straight single woman Mecca althiugh the area she was looking in was more accurately Beverly Hills adjacent because thst is where the condos with valets are near Doheny.

I live in a high rise condo in Los Angeles and we have occasionally had these kinds of major projects. It is quite believable that it was in the process of being done because these buildings would not have a pool and common area left like this. In general major projects are funded by the reserves which condos are required to fund and maintain. If the reserve doesn't have enough because the project is too costly then there is a special assessment and in general you can either pay it off right away or you can pay in installments over the course of five years or so. When a unit is sold the special assessment has to be paid in full as part of the escrow disbursements. I am not sure why she had such awful choices although I am pretty sure that she wanted to stay in that area which would be closer to the family business. West Hollywood is very expensive but she could have gotten a much nicer condo in the closer areas of the San Fernando Valley or Burbank. Santa Clarita and Porter Ranch are really exurban and not normally where most single people would choose to live.

I think there is a HUGE difference between Sutton and Erika in terms of their clothing. Erika has no personal style at all. Sutton loves fashion and while often her choices aren't the most flattering to her body shape it doesn't matter because she loves them. She doesn't dress in logos the way Dorito and Erika often do. I think Sutton realizes that she could theoretically make more figure flattering choices but essentially doesn't care because she is viewing the stuff as a form of self expression. Left to her own personal sense of style Erika is either frumpy or completely shlumpy. Nothing about the way she dresses is particularly personal in the sense that she fell in love with something the way I imagine Sutton falls into love with specific stuff.

Mrs. Tom Girardi obviously has zero sense of style. I mean anyone with the slightest bit of style sense could dress better with clothes from Target. The various shots of Erika when she is "casual" and not dressed for the cameras are really terrible.

They mentioned that neither Boden's wife or Trudy was available on short notice. Obviously they didn't want to pay for their appearance since it was completely non-critical to the plot. Is it my imagination or did almost every show this season end with a wedding or a cancelled wedding? I guess the network or the producers think that weddings drive up ratings but I don't really think anyone at this point is seriously invested in any wedding like they were years ago when it was some kind of "very special" show. Stella's dress was pretty but unfortunately they didn't take the trouble of fitting it properly OR having her wear an appropriate strapless bra so the top of the dress protruded when it is supposed to lie around the mounds AND she had no cleavage at all. An appropriate bra would have given her a pretty bust. That whole storyline with Emma really made no sense and then ended too quickly and so conveniently. It was never explained why she was White Single Female who desperately wanted to become permanent at Station 51.

Lisa wasn't a particularly "fashionable" woman nor were her hair and makeup stylized in the same way that Dorit and Erika do. Lisa just seemed like a "normal" rich lady. Lisa had some pretty stuff and it was generally obviously expensive but I never got the sense that she was lived and died for fashion. She was much more into showcasing her decorating and gardening stuff - more of a lifestyle person rather than a fashionista type of image. Denise - at least in my opinion - cultivated a kind of anti-fashion kind of image and I think it was partly because she wasn't invested in fashion and also because it was her "thing". Denise was such a natural beauty - she had that kind of beauty where she looked beautiful just rolling out of bed. I think both Erika and Dorit were relatively plain looking until they became surgically enhanced and they need their makeup and hair and "costumes" in order to prop themselves up.

I agree. I know people are harping on the Hermes bag but the reality is that if push came to shove she could actually sell it for probably more than she paid for it because limited edition Hermes actually do increase in value. No one - least of all Crystal - is saying that she is wearing Target or TJMaxx. However I don't get the sense that she buys out of boredom or frustration or had the kind of material possessions that Erika had in terms of clothing. Erika really and truly hates Diana because Diana is living the life that Erika wanted but Erika had to settle for an old Pasadena lawyer who left her relatively poor. There was a moment when they panned out from the La Quinta estate and Erika was heard calling Diana a "bitch" - it came out of nowhere and seemed to reveal how resentful she was of the woman. Diana looks like Melania because they essentially have the same Slavic gene pool with the slightly upturned Asian eyes and the cheekbones. They probably have also had the same plastic surgery as well.

I don't think this is gender based as boys as well as couple - both gay and straight get help from their parents on down payments. My parents gave both my brother and I equal amounts for the downpayment on our first home purchases. At any rate the issue would be the mortgage which would have been almost impossible for a woman to get prior to the 1970's absent unusual financial circumstances.

By standard I just meant there might have been extremely unusual circumstances in which a particular woman had established a separate financial life but it was rare. I don’t think having parents provide a down payment is rare as many people I know got help with the down as their parents gave them some of what was going to be their inheritance.

I don’t think anyone needs a stylist to dress them unless one is going to a special event and even then the stylist isn’t generally actually dressing the person unless they are checking the fit or deciding on accessories or jewelry loans at the last minute. However a stylist is useful because they know what is available and current and so they can pull together items from multiple sources and a woman only has to spend a few hours instead of having to spend large amounts of time visiting multiple stores. But generally they would help the women with what shoes and accessories work. The studios will pay for a stylist to put together a wardrobe when someone is doing a promotional tour but they don’t generally travel with the woman but have given her photos of what to wear with what. The hair and makeup person will travel on the promo tour.

I think Mikey is *working* for free at this point since it gives him camera time. Unlike past seasons she doesn't seem to be shlepping the "glam squad" with her on trips and there didn't seem to be elaborate hair and makeup. I don't understand why anyone needs a "stylist" to advise them on what clothing to bring. I do understand how stylists work in terms of pulling together a look but if you have bought an outfit and have worn it presumably you know what to wear with it. And the outfits being worn by Erika at this point aren't particularly "styled" the way she used to style them. It is still not a great look for Erika but she has decided to remain completely defiant and tone deaf.

Chicago HH - planning to ruin the nice wood cabinets with a crappy paint job that will peel and chip within a few months because neither the mother nor HH have a clue regarding how to properly paint cabinets. So the ugly duct work is I guess a cheap way to put in air conditioning and not have to conceal the ducts in a ceiling. I lived in a "loft" in NYC and it didn't have ugly ducts exposed on the ceiling. Exposed brick is one thing - how did exposed ducts become an aesthetic choice when they were obviously a way to put in A/C inexpensively? The first unit had death stairs. Forget coming home drunk. I can't imagine those stairs could pass code since you could fall off on either side. I'll give her a pass on talking about the grandmothers because the reality is that women could not get credit until the late 1960's absent extremely unusual circumstances but the standard woman couldn't and married women definitely couldn't establish a separate line of credit.

I think theoretically many homes "settle" even in non-earthquake areas. I have seen some HH episodes where there are older homes and there are cracks or even sometimes in extremely old homes sometimes the floor slopes a bit. I would assume that a competent inspector can determine whether it is just slight and a cosmetic issue versus something wrong with the foundation. I think there is one HH episode where it turned out that the place needed extensive foundation work where they jack up the home and put in additional support beams. As I recall it was an older woman on a limited budget and the place might have been in Rhode Island with a view of water. It seemed like a money pit and poor choice for a single woman on a limited budget. For whatever reason I have only experienced earthquakes at home in my condo which is on the 10th floor. It is a weird sensation because the building will sway and in the two strong ones it sways quite a bit back and forth. I am not a seismologist but there seem to be two kinds - one that feels like a strong jolt and one that kind of rolls the land. I have never had major damage and no cracks in the sheet rocks of the interior walls but in one bathroom there was very heavy paint of some kind that had accumulated and that did develop cracks in the paint and kind of peeled away in a heavy layer from the wall itself. But it was cosmetic.

Based on HH episodes in Florida I thought that masonry was considered to be a very solid construction material for hurricanes. There were some HH who wanted this type of construction - I was picturing cinderblocks or the equivalent type of construction. In California where there are specific building codes, masonry is not allowed because withstanding seismic grounds forces from an earthquake are different than those from a hurricane winds. If you have older masonry like brick it needs to be retrofitted and I believe even frame construction that is older needs to be firmly "tied" to the foundation. In past earthquakes many of the older brick buildings in East Hollywood crumbled versus framed construction. High rise construction - at least in LA - is a bit different. I live in a high rise and it is concrete with reinforced steel. It has a lot of internal support structures so that the interior of my condo has beams and columns in certain areas. It isn't terribly obtrusive since the units were more or less built around the beams but if you remodel you will find that there is a beam behind a cabinet or a column at one end of a room. And the ceilings and floors are solid cement which also makes for excellent sound proofing.

It is one of her significant money streams. However I posted last episode being WTF as to why she seemed to take umbrage at having sucked sick in a locker room. It doesn’t seem to be particularly salacious given what she has openly discussed about her past sexual escapades. It seemed odd to fake pearl clutching at such a non issue.

That kerfuffle about the condo is ridiculous. Kandi is absolutely correct. If she travels to New York City she wants to stay in a hotel in Manhattan and not have to deal with housekeeping - buying food - cleaning it etc. Why didn't he fix it up for his daughter who I thought lives in NY. It must have been vacant for a long time because it dates to before his marriage so why is it suddenly an issue. It is also not a particularly comfortable space - no one actually uses a loft space reached by a spiral staircase unless they are desperate for space because it is so difficult to access.

It is not just the makeup although this episode her makeup seems to be clownish with the heavy blush. It is also that whatever plastic surgery or procedures she is having done make her face look freakishly smooth. It looks like when someone has too many procedures AND uses heavy filters and photoshopping

If I am not mistaken this is at least the third doctor who has bludgeoned his wife and claimed it was an accidental fall in the shower. There was a doctor whose wife was recovering from plastic surgery she had at his urging but as I recall the daughters were behind trying to get him convicted There was a doctor who bludgeoned his wife on Valentine's Day in between surgeries and was convicted - in part - because he had failed to change his shoes when he discarded the other bloody clothing.

Not to be snarky ha ha but I suspect it was a Birkin in a FAKE Birkin