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In fairness, the bride in the episode you are referencing wanted a huge ballgown with lots of bling. Those dresses cost money because the materials themselves are expensive. I agree that the English version does have more modest price points but the dresses themselves resemble dresses which are shown in the US show at that price point - e.g. they don't generally have a lot of bling nor are they huge ballgowns nor do they have a lot of intricate construction. Don't get me wrong - I think it is insane to spend $10,000 or more on a dress unless one is truly wealthy. But I also think it is insane for non-wealthy people to spend $20,000 or $30,000 on a wedding which is the average amount and I know lots of middle class people who have forked out that amount for their wedding - or more. That kind of money goes a long way in terms of a down payment on a house versus feeding 100 people chicken with a side of overcooked veggies.

I think Kandi trusts no one but herself in terms of her finances. I can't imagine that she hasn't set up air tight trusts for her three children with some bequest to Todd within the parameters of the prenup that she insisted on. I doubt that Mama Joyce is left much except a trust where she has the income for as long as she lives because it doesn't make estate planning sense to live an old person a large sum of money when the actual intent is to make sure the old person has enough to live on until she dies. I also wouldn't be surprised if Kayla isn't treated in the same manner as as the three other children. Stepchildren aren't generally bequeathed the same amounts as the testator's children - it's not as if she has any legal relationship with Kandi. I don't think, for example, that step parents have any legal obligation of support even for minor children. In other words, child support for a minor is determined by the salary and assets of the parent and not measured by the step parent however wealthy they might be. Kandi might leave some money to Kayla but doubtful whether she would divide her estate into fourths and distribute equally among all the children.

I completely agree with Doodlebug's post. They essentially evaluated everything they saw in terms of how it met the needs of their family and were thrilled by all the kitchens even if they weren't the trendy white or gray Shaker with quartz. The wife didn't bitch about the small master bath with ONE sink - she was just thrilled to have her own bathroom space that didn't need to be shared. I wanted to add that even an unfinished basement made a lot of sense for the family as it could be easily used - even unfinished - as spillover living space. I grew up in Brooklyn in a two family house so the actual living space for my family was small even though my parents owned the whole house. My grandmother lived in the other unit so there was a bit more flexibility in terms of having guests over but that's neither here nor there. My parents finished off the basement. It wasn't done in an expensive manner as essentially they put up the ubiquitous wood panels; put some kind of drop ceilings with tiles and vinyl tiles on the floor. Furnished it with discarded furniture. And installed a very rudimentary bathroom - toilet, small prefab shower and sink. Done. And yet it served as a play area for the kids. And when my brother needed more privacy, it became both his bedroom and his "teen cave".

I happened to catch this show and watched two episodes. All I could think is how it contributed to the delusional idea that one can make money by renovating a home for resale. Having just finished a gut remodel, the costs for the scope of work they are doing is laughable and bears no semblance to reality unless one has significant DIY skills or one is essentially a GC like the sisters and is providing a lot of the work and material at costs. The reality is that the people selling the homes would do far better selling the homes as is because there would have been no "profit" if a civilian was renovating at actual cost for the projects.

Yet somehow people like Gretchen and Slade slither on with no visible means of support. They are still in the house so presumably the $25,000 they owed was paid. They were able to afford fertility treatments which are out of reach for many people who actually "work" for a living. She was gifted with a "push present" which was theoretically worth $10,000 - could be fake - who knows. I find it astounding that anyone actually has enough interest in ANY of these dolts to actively follow them in any way - and that includes people like the Kardashians as well as obscure leeches like the Rossi's. However people evidently do and that translates into income and promotional goodies for them in some way. If there is anything of interest in their lives - even the occasional interesting thing on SM like the Twitter interchange between Emily and VIcki - it becomes part of the wider internet news exchange anyway. Rossi's baby shower was completely comped by various vendors as each vendor was spelled out in various ways on her social media platforms.

I am not sure how much control they have over the dress a bride selects because the women participating in the show who are not celebrities are actually purchasing a dress and so their final selection is based on what they want within their budget limit. A few years ago there was an exceptionally lovely Lazaro dress that was very simple except for a lovely detail at the waist and I believe it was most popular in blush. It was selected and/or tried on by a lot of brides that season. The dress that has popped up quite frequently is pretty specific as it is quite elegant and not that expensive. It seems to be flattering and appealing to a wide range of brides as the Lazaro one also was - and the Lazaro dress was also in the same fairly accessible price point. If you are going to Kleinfelds you are not realistically going in with a budget of $1500 or less.

In fairness, it was the BRIDE who was causing the uproar because she felt she couldn't visualize herself in a dress unless it fit. There have been loads of brides who buy dresses that don't close - very often there is a piece of white satin inserted in the back. I think the show has had enough larger women on who left with dresses they loved so that the plus size market bride would have no qualms about finding something at Kleinfelds. I think Kleinfelds seems to present itself as a good place for a plus size woman to shop at. They have never always been very respectful and showcased their finding women of every size beautiful and dressable. I would think it scarier to go to other bridal shops where I wouldn't be sure of the kind of reception I would get and what kind of selection there might be. Somewhat off topic, but there was a popup shop in NY that was selling exclusively for plus size brides. They were carrying more indy lines than Kleinfeld

Women aren't in the hospital for very long after giving birth. In my experience, only family visit the hospital. It's somewhat of an intrusion on the family unless there are really extenuating circumstances in terms of why a friend is there. Hospital rooms are small and obviously the family thought there was something off in her being there as well as how she was interacting with the family and the baby.

It illustrates why it is somewhat the luck of the draw in terms of the competence and diligence of the detectives on the case. In retrospect, many of the detectives I have seen in true crime shows would have checked out the boyfriend's background as a matter of course. Obviously the detectives on the case did a half assed job and took at face value his demeanor. It couldn't have been anyone except the boyfriend. How did they miss the fact that certain windows were not on her surveillance videos - this would seem to be an obvious thing to check as it is not the first time when a body was dropped out of a window rather than carried. In fact, it seems as though dropping a body out a window in the dead of night is easier than shlepping an adult women around. I also don't think one can discount the factor of her not being a blonde twenty year old Caucasian woman. THAT scenario would probably have caused greater detecting energy.

Yesterday I was served an ad for a train on one of the OC forums. They serve ads based on key words in a webpage

Ryan Vieth - Tamra's spawn gave some kind of instagram interview to his "fans" and evidently someone was paying him for his appearances. I thought they only paid the housewives but maybe there were special deals for adult children. Who knew that he had fans? https://realityblurb.com/2020/02/02/rhocs-ryan-vieth-shares-surprising-update-on-his-relationship-with-simon-barney-reacts-to-mom-tamra-judges-exit-from-the-show/ As for Tamra’s exit from RHOC, Ryan explained why he is happy about Tamra’s decision before admitting to having suspicions about the show’s potentially impending cancelation. After being asked about his mom’s most iconic moment, Ryan said he hasn’t watched the show in years. “To be honest I haven’t watched a single episode in many many years. It was never really my thing, I just liked the easy money,” he shared. Then, he spoke of his mother’s future without the show and the show’s future without his mother. “I’m glad it’s done and over with. And from what I hear my mom is on to bigger and better things. The show is very toxic and I don’t see it lasting very much longer,” he shared.

Tamra denied Wendy Williams' claim that she was "only" offered $20,000 per episode for 3 episodes total - e.g. $60,000. Tamra said you should add a 0 to that - e.g. $200,000 per episode for a total of $600,000 I would suspect Tamra is lying because it would make no sense to offer her a substantial sum to be in three episodes? What for - if she was worth that amount in their opinion, they could have had her for as many episodes as they wanted. Unlikely that it was true but if she actually turned down $600,000 for next season, she is a bigger idiot than one could dream because beyond the base salary, there are so many other financial incentives to continue to be featured on the show - all aside from the fame whore narcissism of course.

I didn't interpret it that they would be completely relying on having a specific amount each month - just that they were estimating that they could reasonably expect a certain amount in rentals to offset the costs of the property. They were both attorneys with no children so I do't think they were living hand to mouth. Obviously having a second home one doesn't rent is indicative of greater wealth but purchasing a rental home that is a reasonably certain rental is a rational economic choice. Perhaps if they lived closer to the vacation home, they wouldn't want to rent it because they could easily be there every weekend. But they live in Kentucky which is more of a shlep. I would assume that the actual cost after figuring in net impact of tax savings on a property one rents is pretty low plus you have potential appreciation of the property so it is an investment as well.

It is altogether bizarre that Dateline left out all the salient details regarding how the cops were able to track Maygan down so quickly. Instead they concentrated almost entirely it seemed on interviews with the girlfriends who were quite repetitive. FWIW, it was extremely easy for the police to make the connection - she had beens spotted at Heidi's apartment complex by a woman who identified her in a photo. When the police asked her where she had given birth she told them she couldn't remember. Her boyfriend who she was still living with (it was his house) said he had never seen her stomach during the pregnancy - and so on.

I watch too many of these as I DVR and then use them to fall asleep 😴 I have seen several where it is suspicious because there is no activity on the phone when a person normally is actively texting all the time. 😆 So leaving phone on and home with no activity is not enough. I think there was one where they had to break an alibi where the guy knew enough to attempt to fake activity in the computer

But then they get you because your cell is turned off during the murder hours 😂 Leaving the body in front of your house is obviously not the work of a criminal mastermind but I would imagine it would have unraveled for her one way or another as they seemed to have solved it relatively quickly. Nit like some of these would go on for months or years

Some of these Below D Grade ex-reality stars seem to hang on without visible means of support. Gretchen and Slade seem to be living the relatively good life without having worked real jobs. She still has about 650,000 Twitter followers and 874,000 insta followers years after being booted from RHOC. Those eyeballs translate into reasonably good compensation and any time a product is featured in one of her posts, she is paid.

Thank god a high percentage of criminals are stupid or there would be more unsolved murders. Although no doubt there are lots of crimes that remain unsolved or undetected because even in this age of high tech forensics, some criminals are caught because of insanely lucky circumstances (or unlucky depending on your viewpoint). I thought they had mentioned that they pinged her cell phone to Heidi's apartment complex when she had said she was elsewhere. There are some murders which seem to have been solved because the murderer dropped the car off somewhere and then there might be evidence showing you dropping off the car. I remember a case where one of the pieces of evidence was because the woman used her extra points card for a relatively small purchase which proved that she had been in the parking lot at the time the car was dropped off. Or other cases, in which various surveillance cameras - even those belong to private residences - are able to trace movements. Or the murderer uses a cab to get home). I don't quite understand how someone is stupid enough (forget about evil) to think they can get away with murdering their spouse - extra points for stupidity when there is a large insurance policy for someone with little earning capacity.

I think Melissa has a very good idea of how much these women actually have in terms of real assets except for Jennifer. Why would you think her children aren’t going to inherit the assets she and her husband have accumulated. She is exactly the kind of wealthy person who sets up trusts but structure# them so that her kids aren’t wastrels. The kids will have funds for education and other necessary expenses but the money will provide enriching experiences like travel. My wealthy friends have all raised kids like this. The kids are provided with money for education and don’t have to worry about the most lucrative careers but they are all expected to be productive. They don’t get the bulk of the money until they are 35 when they are assumed to be responsible but the parents let the, have money if they wanted to buy a house and of course they have some amount of income from their trusts so they have it easier in terms if nit having to struggle as much as their contemporaries. It is actually somewhat of an unfair advantage because a lot of careers aren’t well paid especially at the beginning and so affluent kids can afford to work in these very desirable career fields because they aren’t depending on a paycheck alone for food and shelter.

And as posted above, many viewers would not be aware of the back story and so it is offering some kind of protection against people making fun of someone who seems to be a bit different. I don't begrudge Jackie explaining the back story as it is a pretty common family dynamic that a child with special needs overwhelms the parents and provides a family situation in which the "normal" kid is overlooked so long as they don't seem to be crying out for attention. And often the "normal" kid will go to great lengths to avoid bothering the parents. This doesn't mean the kid is overtly neglected but just that there isn't as much emotional parenting because the parents are using it all for the kid with special needs. Most people watching the show are casual viewers - they assume this and caption even people who are on the show repeatedly in terms of who they are and relationship to the others. Even on forums like this one - which is self selecting in terms of those having more interest than the majority of viewers - I am sometimes surprised by the naivete sometimes exhibited in posts. For example, there are posts in which people actually believe that X Housewife "hosted" a trip somewhere and don't realize that every single location is determined by producers and paid for by production.

Does anyone have a reasonable explanation of what kind of prenup Juicy had Tre sign? I am all in favor of prenups but my experience is they are entered into by older people who have accumulated assets or whose career is established or who have expectations of inherited wealth so a need for clarity. I truly have never heard of a prenup between two young people who probably didn't have a pot to pee in when married. I would assume Juicy was, at best, some kind of construction worker at the time. There wasn't any property at that time - the home which was acquired AFTER marriage was not even a nice suburban tract home and certainly the Guidices didn't have assets that were going to be passed on to Juicy.

Octopus needs to be braised at a low simmer for several hours before it is finished in whatever way you intend. Why he felt a need to cook at that hour, who needs. I know that lots of older people wake up very early so he could have been up for awhile and it is relatively late in the day for him.

You have to present original documentations for any situation in which proof of identity is required. Not that I have visited anyone in ICE lockup, but I have had to prove my identity officially for other things and it needs to be the original.

I'm not even understanding parties for kids in which adults attend - unless it is some kind of rite of passage party like a Quinceañera, Bar or Bas Mitzvah or maybe a particularly lavish Sweet 16. My BFF and I would attend parties but that was because we helped each other with the logistics and not because we were "guests". But even for those types of rite of passage parties, the adults attending are friends of the parents and not the kids - i.e. I attend my friends' important party just as I might attend my friend's kid's wedding but I wouldn't attend a party in which my kid is a friend of the kid.

While it is ironic that Melissa was making the very valid point of how short sighted it is to blow all one's money on crap, the other housewives were stupid for not understanding the point she was making. None of the other housewives are wealthy in the sense of having assets. They currently have salaries and the live lifestyles in which they spend their salaries. Jennifer's husband might be making a high salary as a plastic surgeon but it's still a salary that is limited by the hours and procedures he can perform. Jackie inherited significant wealth and her husband is a partner in a hedge fund. Their money is MAKING money for them versus using it all to purchase expensive stuff. Cars and clothing and furniture aren't investments. Nine hundred sunglasses aren't investments :-). All of Jackie's children will inherit significant trust funds. Not that having a trust fund is the only barometer of success as there are plenty of screwed up trust fund kids. However, based on how she is actually parenting her children, they seem to be headed for productive lives. I have a friend like Jackie - the family is worth mega-millions but they live very quiet lives and most people would not suspect they are anything other than upper middle class professionals. The kids were all expected to do well at school and weren't spoiled by lavish material stuff. And the horror - birthday parties were pizza, cake and kids' types of games. Once we organized a scavenger hunt when they were in their tweens. Jennifer is besides her self with jealously because she had thought she established herself as the "rich" one in the pecking order. She is projecting the "smirk" onto Jackie because she used to be able to feel superior to the "poor" woman.