amarante

Not defending Erika god knows but Teresa's case was factually much simpler. Teresa had actually signed the false bankruptcy petition after being warned by her attorney that you sign under penalty of perjury. It has been awhile but as I recall she also signed mortgage payments. That is quite a bit different than having to prove that Erika actually knew that her husband was running a Ponzi scheme. Again the issue is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. There are markers which one lead one to believe since she was a secretary in a few of his businesses but there is nothing to indicate that she had knowledge of the embezzlement. As I posted upthread, Madoff's wife was not charged but did forfeit most of the marital property. Madoff's sons were not charged and they actually worked in the business - albeit not the portion of it that was running the Ponzi scheme which operated on a different floor. However they were physically in the office and should have known that there was no way that the Madoff fund could have been run by the few people who were on that floor. I think someone calculated that Erika could easily have gone through $10 million just on her glam squad and the stupid music videos. The Glam Squad alone was half a million per year and that isn't counting all of the clothing, makeup, wigs, hair pieces, jewelry etc. ETA - I am not defending Erika in terms of her knowledge as I would have no problems seeing her doing time. However, I am not sure based on what is currently out there in terms of evidence that there is proof. Of course the burden of proof is much lower for civil liability and I think she will definitely be held liable for that and all of the judgments might be payable by her - again not entirely sure of what the financial liability would be in California for her earnings AFTER she filed for divorce but any of the stuff she has would all be seized down to the designer track suits she is so fond of. They took all of Ruth Madoff's valuable clothing like furs, jewelry, handbags and a lot of Erika's designer clothing would be quite valuable on the vintage market.

I saw the Hulu documentary last night and then finished it this morning. As others have posted, the Erica stuff is well known to anyone who is on these boards or even is just a casual watcher of the show. This was a production of the news division and so it didn't speculate but stuck closely to what was in the public record in terms of what has been filed. That really is damning enough. The real focus of the show was on the victims and that was truly heartbreaking. Many of the commentators pointed out that the flaunting of wealth earned through the misery of victims was bad enough without the actual stealing from them. I don't know whether Erika will actually serve time as there needs to be proof of her actual complicity in the criminal activities. There is tangential proof like the "loans" to her corporation and her being a secretary on several of the shell financing corporations but whether that rises to proof beyond a reasonable doubt - who knows? However, every inch of footage will be subpoenaed - not just the ones that made the final cut and all of that expensive stuff she flaunted will now be taken back. Bernie Madoff's wife didn't get to keep much after it was all negotiated and she probably had less reason to be suspicious of Madoff's businesses. Watching the documentary made me realize how sociopathic Tom and Erika were. I don’t have high expectations that people will be saints and altruistic but I genuinely can’t wrap my mind around being able to live with oneself after stealing from horribly injured people, widows and orphans. And for what - so one can have people dress and style you so that you are photographed.

The cost of household help in places like Singapore is extremely cheap. The cost of household help in Ireland would be equivalent to the US - she could probably afford a cleaning lady once a week but certainly not a live in or even a daily. I wondered how the father of her children felt about having the children live in foreign countries for all those years. And conversely as I recall his children lived with the mother in the US so they have had not much contact with the non-custodial parents for a significant portion of their lives. At least their housing budget reflected what they wanted and/or needed.

I am sure there is a back story to the Azores woman. I just didn't quite understand why she didn't move to Portugal - there is something between Italy and an isolated island with a very limited number of people to socialize with. Again I don't think partnership in life is critical to happiness but it just seemed odd to mention lack of gay marriage in Italy any marriage is irrelevant. Obviously people want to exist in a friendly atmosphere but I don't think the actual population of Italy would be more homophobic than the inhabitants of an isolated island. If there was a hidden companion at the end, I missed it because I TIVO HH and fast forward through all of the fillers - especially at the end when essentially they all love whatever place they have chosen.

I also wondered what the real story was with Azores lady. I wondered why her sexuality mattered because what kind of gay lifestyle would she have in a place where the largest town is 6000 people. All power to people who want to remain single whatever there sexual persuasion is but I don't think I would move to such an isolated small place and then mention that sexuality was a factor in moving from Italy. As others have posted, it is difficult to believe it wouldn't be easier to find gay friends and potential partners in Bologna. If marriage was a factor (and she mentioned that Portugal allowed gay marriage) why not just move to Portugal where one is much more likely to have a large enough group of gay people so that one might find really compatible friends and potential partners

I don't disagree that Mike could quite possibly have been fired. However I do disagree that they would not have done what they did in order to provide Mike with a storyline. He makes a lot of money from being a Shah - it is his job essentially and he needs to provide producers with a storyline at the beginning of each season.

I probably know what the answer is but does anyone know what happened with that condo construction project that Mike was theoretically managing last season. Was the whole development absolutely bogus - i.e. the parents never owned property or was just Mike's storyline fake - i.e. that he was never going to actually do anything but his parents let him pretend he was going to be doing it for the sake of his storyline.

Probably a combination of both. I have friends in production and dealing with COVID restrictions is super expensive. So they probably would have had to find ways to cut costs in other areas and I imagine the fire scenes are the most costly as opposed to the "human interest" scenes. And I do think there was definitely a conscious focus on issues of systemic racism after Floyd's murder. I am a fan of escapist television but I also think that popular culture and television is really a way to move people's minds and hearts in a way that straight news and documentary doesn't. I am of an age when Julia was a HUGE television event and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner was viewed as very provocative. And now it is really great that to a great extent interracial friendships and relationships aren't viewed as "exotic". But I also think it is great that characters who are POC are able to provide a voice for what it is like to live as a POC in modern America and that their "friends" who are watching them through the screen might be moved and start to think about things a bit differently. So there is more of an understanding that all these "nice" "heroic" "middle class" POC have to deal with issues of racism and experience life quite a bit differently than their white counterparts even if they seem to be living parallel lives.

I currently live in a high rise located on a relatively busy urban street. I am located on a high floor. My neighbor who I am friendly with lives on the first floor. Because of the vagaries of how sound travel, I actually get more noise in some ways because the sound bounces off buildings. So I hear motorcycles, cars blasting their stereo especially when they are at the light and crashes at the intersection - I am trained to recognize the screech - a few seconds of silence and then the bang. My neighbor on the first floor actually gets less traffic noise although she obviously can hear people talking when they walk outside whereas I don't really hear people talking and walking unless they are drunk and shrieking or if there is the occasional fight. FWIW I don't live in a bad neighborhood but it is contiguous to where people go for clubbing and some of them are cheap and park in the more residential areas and then when they walk back to their cars at 2 AM at closing they can sometimes get rowdy. When I lived in Manhattan on the 10th floor, I would be woken up at dawn when they collected the trash - those are truly noisy and they make noise for a LONG time because they are either doing the whole street or because they are doing a commercial building. As others have said sirens from police and ambulances are so ubiquitous in an urban area that living next to a firehouse is really not going to make much difference. As others have posted, they don't leave the station with sirens blaring. The negative is that it is not a fully residential block. On the other hand - and nothing to sneeze at - there is a high safety factor. When I lived in Manhattan, I did live in a doorman building for safety and convenience and if I was walking home at night I would generally deliberately take routes that were either busy main streets or which I knew had doormen along the way. So having a block with a police station would definitely have made my list of streets to walk on. I am so familiar with that neighborhood - made me nostalgic because I went to school from 7th through 12th grade at Lexington and 68th Street. I would normally walk down to 59th Street with friends to explore Bloomingdales and then take the subway at that station since it was more of a central terminal and the 68th street station was just a local on the IRT line.

A small point regarding venting of dryers versus cooktops. There are dryers which don’t require venting to the exterior. They are typically European brands like Bosch and Miele but LG and Samsung also have good models. They are smaller and originated in Europe because of smaller apartments there. They are used quite a bit now in US urban apartments as they are also generally stacked and smaller. Therefore they don’t dry as much as a typical enormous US dryer but as Tyler said, it’s not an issue because the people in those apartments aren’t dealing with doing massive loads. Either the housekeeper is doing it or they are sending them out for pickup and the needs are different. A hood thst doesn’t vent to the op exterior is a much more significant issue because any time you cook, you will be dealing with smoke, odors and effluent.

So at the end - was Morales doing a suicide by cop when he aimed his weapon because obviously with three cops aiming at him, he was going to die. If it wasn't suicide by cop, why did he suddenly decide to take out Bell?

I found the houseboat episode to be completely bonkers. I can't imagine raising a child in a houseboat. What about when the child reaches toddler stage and it is potentially dangerous in the same way that having a pool in the backyard would be. I have always lived in a city so I understand wanting the benefits of a metropolitan area but at some point you commute. My parents moved from their Manhattan apartment to Brooklyn when they had children - and that was when Brooklyn was NOT a hip place to live. It was essentially suburban life - single family homes - tree lined streets where kids could played outside like you would in most suburban neighborhoods and everyone owned a car because it made life easier - it is far easier to take a subway into Manhattan from the outer boroughs than it is to get from one place in Brooklyn to another neighborhood. As others have posted, they have not invested money in a home. They have essentially bought a boat which is a depreciating asset which requires a good amount of very specialized upkeep. Why wouldn't they just do what most people do and find a child friendly rental within their budget. I can't imagine actually living with a child in that boat - children come with all kinds of paraphernalia that takes up lots of space.

You don't have to come from extremely wealthy families to get help with down payments. Many people I know had help from parents who were just middle class type of people who didn't live beyond their means. Grandparents die and it's not unusual for there to be money bequeathed. Some parents will give kids a choice of funding a wedding or a down payment or parents are pretty sure that they will have money to leave their kids so they are going to give them that sum for a down instead of waiting until they die and inherit it. You don't have to have millions or be in the top 1% to have assets you have to help your children with a down payment.

You are correct as asking price - and even negotiated "final" price doesn't really impact the appraisal. A house can be appraised for lower than the purchase price in which case the parties might not be able to complete the deal or the seller will have to lower the price. Often the listing price is set at deliberately artificially low price in markets where bidding wars are common. This is sometimes done because it will get a listing into the From To category at a certain amount which will draw in potential buyers. So a property might be listed at $795,.000 because if you list for $825,000 you might lose buyers who might be willing to go up if they really liked a place. And appraisals are really somewhat of an art rather than a science - or so my friends who are real estate agents have told me. An appraiser isn't going to completely falsify an appraisal but there are ways to make a property appraise higher. A bad impression even if there is nothing objectively wrong with the property could lead to a lower appraisal. And not to go to far astray, there was a recent case when a black woman had her white friend pretend to be the seller at an appraisal and it came in for significantly higher than when she was seen as the owner of the property.

Actually having just remodeled, $40,000 for a bathroom is NOT an outlandish amount if one is upgrading from builder grade finishes. Obviously you can remodel a bathroom for less money but bathrooms are expensive - but these aren't the ones that are sold at Home Depot :-). A tiled walk in shower can run about $10,000 or even more depending on what tile you choose - and that is just for the waterproofing, framing, tiles and installation of tiles. Throw in elegant shower fixtures which can be $2000 when plumbed and a frameless shower enclosure with an upgraded finish like Showerguard. Then there is mirrors, sconces, lighting, floors, counters, custom vanities and much of the work needs to be done with highly skilled plumbers, electricians and tile setters or you are taking risks. I actually find that most of the people on HH underestimate the cost of the "projects" when they discuss painting cabinets (as an example) as no big deal. Properly painting cabinets is quite expensive if done by a professional because it is not just slapping paint on but they need to be properly prepared and primed and done in a room with a controlled dust free environment or else you get an amateur job with streaks, blobs that will crack and chip in a short period of time.

The final fight was such almost a textbook (or video equivalent) example of how people completely miscommunicate and then escalate an argument based on erroneous perception of what was said. Whether Ramona is or isn't being hypocritical about Leah is irrelevant. Personally I find Leah to be completely vulgar and wish she would disappear completely as she brings nothing. However, the point that Luann was making was that she and Ramona had CATHOLIC upbringings including I would imagine attendance at a parochial school. This occurred at a particular time given and so they were absolutely brought up where that kind of explicit crude language wasn't spoken at events. Eboni then just misunderstood the specificity of Catholic upbringing to mean that it was a matter of "class" and "education" and people without education or class talked like that. Luanne then became offended since Eboni was using "educated" in a very specific way - e.g. that she had the most *academic* education of all of the women. Luanne might lack academic education but given her background she is a fairly erudite sophisticated woman and she is "educated" in the broad sense of the word albeit not having formal academic credentials. In terms of the argument - again putting aside Ramona being or not being a hypocrite for various reasons - my personal experience is that "polite" people don't generally talk like Leah does in social settings such as dinner parties. I travel in fairly progressive non-religious non-prudish circles and I have never encountered anyone behaving like Leah. Women talk about intimate matters with their friends to share experiences or they might jokingly refer to something sexual in a larger gathering in passing but I have never attended a dinner party where someone talked about sucking ass or repeatedly talked about the size of dicks.

I saw they picked up something at the end - didn't know exactly what it was. But how exactly did they know she was located in that desolate area to even search for a buried body. In my experience - which is limited to true crime shows :-) - bodies buried in desolate locations turn up fortuitously when a dog starts sniffing. There was verbal mention of making sure her phone was turned off but I didn't see that happening in the car. For some reason, I thought some of the deep undercover agents had GPS tracker chips inserted - of course now all they need is a COVID vaccine and the police can have Bill Gates locate the undercover person LOL

The original L&O (the mothership) was created by Wolf at a time when there was a very weak syndication market for one hour dramas. It was intended that it could be split into two half hour shows when it was sold into syndication. It is also a reason why there was almost no back story or "human interest" for the original as it also made it theoretically easier to sell to the syndication market. Wolf also had a fairly ruthless attitude towards actors and was more willing than other shows to replace people as necessary. The later shows really have come full circle in terms of being serialized as well as having back stories for most of the leads. Small point but one of the police who discovered Gina's body said that she left bread crumbs which presumably meant that in some way they were able to track her when it became clear that her not calling in was serious. I don't know what the bread crumbs were though as they didn't make that explicit.

As was posted above, Beverly Hills is a free public school and many people move into Beverly Hills specifically because of that since private tuition for 12 years adds up. It is one of the differences between Beverly Hills within the city limits and Beverly Hills Post Office. The area below Wilshire is filled with apartments and relatively modest homes. When Beverly Hills was built, it was a very planned community. The worker bees lived in housing below Wilshire. The professional class lived in the homes between Santa Monica and Sunset and those homes actually become bigger as one goes further north. The homes above Sunset were for the really wealthy. At this point any real estate in Los Angeles especially the highly desirable West Side is so expensive that even the areas below Wilshire are very expensive. Many people will scrimp in order to afford a Beverly Hills apartment specifically for the free excellent schools. Reza and Mercedes were not raised in great wealth. No one works as a salesperson in a department store like MJ's mother if they have other income streams. Reza and MJ were living in relatively modest apartments in the first seasons. I don't think they owned their condos. They spent a lot of money on flashy clothing but honestly I think that they bought a lot of "high quality" replicas from China. It may or may not be surprising but there are mirror image replicas which are purchased by many people in Los Angeles and I assume elsewhere but I am very familiar with the Los Angeles replica distribution :-). Almost every designer is available and virtually indistinguishable when being worn from the authentic. There is so much replica Gucci, Fendi and Chanel because it is so recognizable. The more discreet designers like Chloe are also available but that isn't the Shah's taste. And of course bags, belts, jewelry are all available in mirror image quality. Some of the stuff isn't cheap - but it is still less expensive to buy a crocodile Hermes Birkin for $700 versus $30,000. I have a multimillionaire friend and she is a huge purchaser of the stuff. Asa's parents were poor. The house she had in the first seasons was purchased by her previous lover - not sure if they were married but she got to keep it when the broke up. However she wasn't actually living in it but was renting it out during the first seasons. It wasn't until she got some of the Shah money that she moved back in. And of course at some point she would have been supported by Jermaine. Mike's parents appear to be relatively well off but I don't get the feeling that they are rolling in wealth. Both of his brothers are professionals and Mike is really the only neer do well in the family. He was living relatively modestly in the initial seasons. He had made a lot of money during the real estate boom in Vegas - but who wasn't during the boom - and then lost it. As far as I can tell of the original Shahs only GG was completely supported by her parents in fairly nice style. At this point like the other Shahs she makes a good salary from the Shah plus all the other promotional opportunities.

HA HA - not defending Goodwin's managerial skills as she obviously lets a whole lot of shenanigans proceed. The whole thing about Maggie and her daughter are suspect. But I still was amused that Will seemed a bit surprised that there would be consequences. If he didn't think there would be repercussions, why would he protect Natalie at all? As I had posted upthread, the ramifications for the study itself are far worse if he is the one that breaches protocol since he was in control of the study whereas Natalie went rogue and stole medication and therefore everything about the study wasn't suspect. I don't really know what his acting chops are. However, I do find that many actors call it in or perhaps are less skillful. Most of them retain their own characteristics and so they are completely recognizable even in other roles because they are essentially just themselves reading lines and emoting a bit. I was just discussing how amazing Patricia Arquette is in The Act. I had seen her on The Medium and she was virtually unrecognizable in terms of the character she created - not just in terms of the physical attributes but in her actual essence. This was similarly true of Kate Winslet's current rule in Mare.

Interesting analysis. Of course, it is hard to remember which of the shenanigans Goodwin was aware of but of course she is an enabler. In terms of the nuanced response in Goodwin's office, I am not sure the writers are nuanced enough to have that in their "notes" for the actor in the script in terms of how they want the character to be reacting. And at the end - for whatever reason - Will defends his decision to Nat as there being no other option. Of course that could be viewed as fake bravado. Of course there is the possibility that the actor inserts his or her *deeper* read into the role. I am not sure that the actor portraying Will is that cerebral in terms of his acting chops or does he just essentially call it in given the mediocrity of the show itself.

It might be moot because my understanding is that they are designed with super good ventilation systems which would be difficult to replicate in a multi-family residence since ventilation is not as easily done as in a single family home. Also the rule regarding not permitting two kitchens almost always arises when two separate units are being combined and therefore in order to get a C of O (permit) you have to cap the plumbing and combine the kitchens. If someone is living in a private residence and they want to add a stove and sink somewhere in their home as a spice kitchen, they could probably go ahead and do it on because no one would be the wiser and it could be theoretically removed fairly easily if necessary. Also the issue of kosher kitchens is pretty non-existent for most kosher households because they aren't interested in two separate kitchens. They are interested in a kitchen which has separate appliances and work spaces. There are so many large kitchens even in non-kosher homes now which have two sinks, two ovens, ample counters; two refrigerators etc. But they would be considered to be one kitchen.

I realize that Will has acted unethically and rashly on numerous occasions - some of which were known to Godwin. But my surprise was that he seemed to be surprised that he was fired. Any employee who compromised a test would have to be fired because the hospital would be unable to participate in any other tests which is a detriment on so many levels. It is hard to even bring in many high level doctors unless they have the ability to bring in outside research funding. And of course, that someone would compromise a study is completely outside the realm of appropriate behavior - it is one of the sacred tenets of science that studies not be compromised and that those running the studies can be trusted to at least not go outside the parameters of the guidelines for the applicable study.

Given what Marc Jacob's lifestyle was, I would be almost sure that the larger living room and small "non-kitchen" would have been Jacob's want. A large luxurious kitchen is very expensive so a GC would have been more likely to have pushed a large kitchen versus just making the formal living room larger. The large kitchen in the formal space wouldn't have suited his lifestyle as well as having a kitchen where he probably informally gathered. For the most part any meals or food in the formal section would either have been catered or by the private chef. Not that I think Jacobs or his husband would be cooking up a storm downstairs. But even the downstairs kitchen was not particularly large or particularly lavish or decorative. It just existed in order to be able to have food prepared in proximity to the outdoor space Also, neither kitchen was particularly "beautiful" and it didn't appear that Jacobs cared that much about them versus the meticulous detail on the rest of the finishes in the house. The downstairs kitchen was not the stuff of dreams for even the standard middle class HH :-).

Yes you are right which is why I loved that Marc renovated exactly as it suited his wants and needs and didn’t give a nanosecond of thought to whether it would impact resale value. It fit his needs but probably almost no one else in the market for a town house. 🤫😂😂