glowbug

While I’m open to a prequel series so long as D&D are not touching the project in any way and GRRM is involved, I have zero interest in a sequel series. D&D and the writers destroyed all of the characters from the original series with that last season. Even if they go further into the future and follow completely different characters that were not yet born during the original series, the events of the last season of GoT will have still happened in their world and I still won’t want to watch.

I’d add Teresa Guidice’s table flip dinner in season 1 of RHoNJ where she calls Danielle a prostitution whore. That put RHoNJ on the map and transcended the Housewife fandom at the time.

Crystal has a right to feel however she wants about what Sutton said and use whatever words she wants to use. I wouldn’t have used the word dark to describe the multiracial pool party story but I did find it very cringeworthy and moderately problematic. What I take issue with, and what I think Crystal needs to apologize for and be contrite about, is that she mentioned it at all while claiming to be friends with Sutton, especially after having discussed the issue privately and been given an apology, which Crystal says she believes to be sincere and has accepted. That behavior is what reflects poorly on her character. That isn’t something you do to a friend. It’s maybe something you do to an enemy. Saying that someone said something dark and then refusing to say what it was is shady and manipulative (either don’t mention it at all or say what was specifically said) but not worse than most housewife behavior. For me, it’s the fact that she’s stabbing Sutton in the back and being defensive and self righteous about it that is the problem.

Bryn is at that age where the healthy thing to do is to distance yourself from your parents, particularly when it comes to mothers and daughters. If Bethenny is telling the truth and Bryn won’t give her space then that is a sign of real dysfunction, not a sweet relationship. I’m getting shades of the unhealthy dynamic between Big Kathy and her daughters, Kathy, Kim, and Kyle. Bryn is lucky she doesn’t have a sibling for Bethenny to play her against. Although black and white thinking is often associated with Borderline Personality, it’s also a feature of Narcissistic Personality as well. They just don’t see people in shades of gray. You’re either the best person ever or the worst person ever and you can go back and forth depending on the circumstances.

Dorit: The only place I feel safe is my home. (Note: The place where she was held at gunpoint.) Also Dorit: Every time my kids open the door to my bedroom (in her own home) I feel panic. Most people who experience a home invasion robbery describe themselves as not feeling safe in their own homes. Even in the case of theft (when the person isn't present during the burglary), like Kyle, people often feel unsafe in their own homes. I know we aren't supposed to question someone's reaction to trauma but the more I hear and see from Dorit the less I believe it actually happened.

Anyone else watch the preview for next episode where Erika has the audacity to question whether Tom’s clients really weren’t paid? She is just so despicable. Dorit and Kyle, of course, just make shocked facial expressions and clarify whether she’s saying that the clients could be lying without actually challenging her. Rinna looks shocked and then backs her up by agreeing that anyone can say anything in a lawsuit. Garcelle is the only one that says no way and then further points out how ludicrous Erika is being in her confessional. Everyone in this conversation is awful except Garcelle.

I thought I was the only one. She looks more like Melania if you look at them all side by side (though really she doesn’t look like either) but every time I see her I think of Ivana. I think it’s the way she carries herself and the things she says. She and Ivana have a very similar vibe.

Maybe Sutton didn't purchase the entire table, however, I think the evidence most strongly suggests that Sutton did pay for Lisa and Harry's seats, which was the important part of Sutton's original point that Lisa is a hypocrite. I wonder about Sutton purchasing the entire table because it doesn't make sense that she would have to pay for Lisa and Harry separately if the table was paid for, and when Lisa filmed the table there did appear to be one or two people sitting there that weren't with their group. In order to believe that Sutton didn't purchase Lisa and Harry's tickets you have to believe that she cancelled their tickets the same day she purchased them or the day after (the day of the event), which I don't even think is possible. Further, I don't think she ever intended not to pay for Lisa and Harry because the foundation representative told Harry's publicist that the event was sold out on 2/22 and they would have to find tickets from someone who had already purchased a table/seats. If Sutton truly only had the four seats reserved for her and the other three guests, all three of whom were at her table as shown in Lisa's video, then how did she end up purchasing two additional tickets the following day (2/23) when the event was sold out? Also, if you believe that Lisa and Harry got their tickets through IMDB, how did they end up sitting at Sutton's table and not at the IMDB table? The explanation that makes the most sense based on the evidence (assuming none of it is forged) is that Sutton didn't end up purchasing the entire table but she did purchase six seats, including Lisa and Harry's. There was some confusion two days before the event between Sutton, the foundation, and Lisa/Harry/Harry's publicist, but it was straightened out by the following day when Sutton has an email confirmation of her paying for Lisa and Harry. The publicist clearly did reach out to IMDB because Lisa and Harry did do the IMDB live show, but it looks like IMDB didn't have seats for them or maybe they found out Sutton had purchased their tickets and told IMDB they didn't need them, but still decided to do the IMDB show because you know Lisa does not give up any chance for extra screen time.

Kristen confirmed that she was invited to Stassi’s wedding but she and her boyfriend had another wedding to go to on the same weekend in Hawaii. I think they had already told the other couple they would go to their wedding.

I’m not at all convinced Harry and Lisa are opposites. He had a messy divorce from his first wife, Laura Johnson. She accused him of some pretty nasty behavior. If any of what she said was true, it explains how he could be married to Lisa Rinna.

I think it’s clear that Sutton did pay for Lisa and Harry’s tickets. She has the email confirmation plus they were sitting at her table. Her email confirmation is dated after the email from Harry’s publicist where he’s trying to find them tickets. Harry and Lisa did do the IMDB live show but they weren’t at the IMDB table so thirsty Rinna probably ended up doing that anyway because she loves being on camera. Notice she has no follow up email saying that the publicist secured the tickets through IMDB. It looks like there was some sort of miscommunication/mixup but the most likely scenario based on the evidence is that Sutton did end up paying for them and it’s likely she had those seats reserved before 2/22 because on 2/22 the coordinator for Elton John’s charity said there were no more seats.

The emails that Lisa Rinna posted were from February 22nd and Sutton's email confirming her payment for Lisa and Harry's tickets was on February 23rd so Sutton ended up paying for Lisa and Harry's seats. Maybe there was a misunderstanding beforehand but it got straightened out. In the video Lisa posted of the event, she and Harry were sitting at the same table as Sutton and her friends and there doesn't seem to be any ill will between them.

The first thing I thought when I saw Stassi’s rehearsal dinner pictures was that she looks emaciated. Stassi isn’t someone who stays thin naturally (we saw her gain a lot of weight after season 2) and that tendency only gets worse with age and typically gets worse after having kids. It makes me wonder if she’s back on Adderall.

Technically, what happened to Dorit was not just a burglary but a robbery. The distinction matters if you’re looking at solve rates. The solve rate for robbery is close to 30%, more than double that of burglaries. In case anyone is curious, robbery is when you take someone’s possessions by force. Theft is when you take someone’s possessions, which are not in their immediate presence. Burglary is entering a place with the intent to steal even if you don’t actually take anything. So what happened to Dorit was both burglary and robbery but the most serious offense was robbery.

As predicted, Stassi’s book is off the best seller’s list a week later. Also, Stassi’s book was only on the best seller’s list due to bulk orders. Publishers and authors sometimes buy their way onto the NYT best seller’s list by purchasing large quantities of a book to get it on the list. Here is a good article on the history and practice. https://bookriot.com/buying-books-onto-the-bestseller-list/amp/

I’m surprised given last year’s ratings. It makes me worried they’re going to bring Stassi back. There has to be some reason they think the rating will be better than last season. :\

But how many people leave their alarm systems off when they're going out of town, especially for more than a night or two, even if they've never been burglarized before? That's when people are most consistent about turning their alarm systems on. We're to believe that the burglars thought no one was home so even if Dorit routinely leaves the alarm system off when she's home and the burglars somehow know this, they didn't actually believe anyone was home so they should have been behaving as though they expected the alarm to be on. I also don't understand why they would make her phone easily accessible once they were done. It would have been stupid for them to take it with them due to tracking capabilities but making it easy for her to call the authorities was just as stupid. They could have turned it off and thrown it into the bushes or the gutter or the outside trash bin or whatever. What makes the situation so suspicious is not that any of the questionable things brought up previously have happened, it's that all of them happened. I don't think questioning someone about a burglary is equivalent to questioning someone about sexual assault, though. Victims of a sexual assault are routinely not believed and are shamed for being victims when they are believed, whereas this is not the case with burglary or most other crimes. There's no real danger of victims of burglary not sharing their stories, at least not in the same way as victims of sexual assault. And because people who make allegations of sexual assault are treated so viciously by society and the media and other power structures, there's very little incentive to lie about it, whereas claiming to be a victim of burglary has little downside, and insurance fraud, if you can get away with it, has a huge monetary benefit so there is an incentive to lie. I'm not convinced either way in Dorit's case, stranger things have happened, but I don't think it's crazy to question her story when there are so many things that don't make sense. Kyle was burglarized and I don't know anyone that questions whether or not that was staged, even among those of us who don't particularly like her, because she and Mauricio never gave us reason to question them.

Something was really off about Dorit and PK and the break-in. It might just be that the scenes were filmed much later or because Dorit is so inauthentic and histrionic that she can't have completely genuine reactions to very real trauma (I've known people like that) but whatever was going on it felt icky and wrong. If the timeline was as the show presented it, I just can't imagine anyone leaving their kids with an assistant to go film a reality show. I could fathom someone leaving their kids with a very trusted individual (a relative or a longtime nanny/babysitter) to process privately with a therapist or close friends/relatives, but it was just so strange that she would leave them for what is essentially work, and not work that is a distraction from the event (something I could also understand) but one that forces her to relive it and talk about it and perform. And it was doubly weird that PK would agree to go directly to a party and have his reunion with Dorit filmed all before even seeing his kids. I feel like the only explanation is that these scenes were filmed much later or that the break in wasn't real. (Side note: I also would totally understand a person living in poverty, working just to survive, being forced to go back to their minimum wage or less than minimum wage job less than 24 hours after a trauma because they have no sick/vacation time and literally can't afford to miss work, but that's not Dorit or PK no matter how underwater they are financially.) As for the reactions to the break-in from the rest of the cast, I found Rinna, Kyle, and Sutton all to be problematic and narcissistic. Sutton for dismissing the incident very callously when she isn't expressing any skepticism about it being real, and, if the timeline is to be believed, doesn't have enough reason to dismiss it with any certainty. It showed a pathological self absorption, not uncommon in the housewives franchises, that she didn't even realize she had to pretend to care. Dare I say Erika-esque though Dorit's situation, as awful as it was, was no where near as awful as some of the people who Tom and Erika stole from. Then there was Kyle who kept crying hysterically, which made Dorit's break-in all about her. She kept talking about her own feelings too. Also narcissistic. Then there's Rinna who, IMO, very clearly was most concerned about her image and how it would look if she threw Harry a birthday party after Dorit experienced a home invasion. I'm not saying there was no genuine concern but it was clear that wasn't her first priority. Again, as with some of Sutton's questionable behavior last year regarding Crystal, I'm willing to move on IF she apologizes, which she has so far, because she is the only one who is unequivocal in her criticism of Erika and unequivocal in her refusal to put up with her lies. Sutton is an imperfect foil to Erika but so far she's the best one we have and that means a lot. Garcelle may get there but for now she's still willing to be friendly with Erika and isn't willing to go as far as Sutton in standing up to Erika to her face, and I have little doubt Crystal has the nerve to fully go against Erika ever.

Stassi's book was number 8 on the Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous best seller's list. All of the books on there are Non-Fiction books so I'm not sure why there's a separate category for that sort of non-fiction. I think of Stassi's book as more of a memoir so I don't think that was the correct list for it. Not sure how it would have ranked (if it would have ranked at all) on the general Non-Fiction lists, either Combined Print and Ebook or Hardcover. Her book isn't going to last on the best sellers list because it's the kind of book where anyone who wants to read it (pre-existing fans—no one who doesn't already know who she is will be interested) will pre-order or purchase it in the few weeks and then it will quickly drop off, especially when the publicity for it dies down. Atomic Habits, which is the number one best seller on Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous list, and has been on the list for a long time, is the kind of book that can grow its readership over time and maintain its best seller status.

I know. It's probably going to be on the best sellers list. It's selling more copies than another book in its category on Amazon that was #3 on the combined hardcover and ebook category and that was #5 on the non-fiction hardcover list last week. I can't believe anyone wants to hear what she has to say. Just another sign that our society is doomed.

Unfortunately, it looks like the rumors about Lisa turning on Erika are untrue. New sources are saying she escorted Erika out when the other women were “piling up” on Erika. How very disappointing. If anyone deserves the Rinna treatment it’s Erika. https://www.realitytea.com/2022/02/14/lisa-rinna-did-not-cause-shut-down/

I just finished watching both season one and season 2 of Cheer. I loved season 1 and had mixed feelings about season 2. The fame and everything that came with it as well as COVID took something away from the second season. Also, the stakes seemed lower because they weren’t showing any injuries, and there didn’t seem to be any substitutions needed because of injured teammates. Anyone know why there was such a stark contrast from the first season? I’m guessing they decided not to show that side of cheerleading after the backlash the coaches received, which is a shame because I think that sort of thing needs to be showcased and called out so that hopefully there can be changes made. It also seemed that the show brought in cheerleaders of a higher caliber so perhaps there were less catastrophic injuries for that reason but there was clearly an editorial decision made as well to gloss over the injuries.

I’m not watching this season and everything everyone has written here convinces me that I’m making the right decision but to be fair to the current cast, this show has been going down hill for a while now, and it’s not clear that Stassi and Jax would be so compelling now that they’re married with kids. One reason I decided not to watch this season was because I have zero interest in seeing any of these people procreate. It’s antithetical to the premise of the show and they are so clearly unfit to be parents. I’d also argue the show peaked during seasons 2/3 and has been declining ever since. Stassi wasn’t even in season 3 (arguably the best season though it’s a toss up with season 2) and I’d argue Kristen and Jax were the reason season 2 was so compelling. Even with Stassi, Jax, and Kristen, last season was barely watchable though. I think the show had run it’s course anyway.

I want to be clear that I’m not saying they didn’t have other reasons for disliking LVP or even Denise. LVP was absolutely manipulative and didn’t like to get her hands dirty. She cared about her image more than her friendships. Don’t even get me started on how unbearable she was to watch on Vanderpump Rules to the point where she was ruining her own spin-off. I am no LVP fan. I found her entertaining on RHoBH some seasons but others she only looked good in comparison to others. I’m not sure what their issues were with Denise but perhaps she did some stuff behind the scenes we don’t know about. But Erika has done way worse things than LVP and Denise ever did. It’s not just the widows and orphans. She’s very clearly lying to these women, which is something they complained bitterly about with LVP and Denise. She lashes out at people in very vicious ways too. They’ve all had major issues with Dorit as well. I don’t think they like her very much. Rinna has been awful to almost everyone on the show at some point, including Kyle’s sister. But being disliked or a terrible person or a liar or annoying or whatever doesn’t seem to determine whether these ladies put up with someone or try to take them down. The difference I see is whether or not they’re jealous of the person or not.

I just hate the lack of accountability, even from “own it” Rinna and accountable Teddi. LVP is manipulative but she wasn’t holding a gun to their heads and they both played victims on the show. I think the only similarity between LVP and Denise is that Rinna, Kyle, and Erika were jealous of them and that’s why they were targeted. Now they also may have had issues outside of the jealousy (I’m absolutely sure of it in LVP’s case) but what determines whether someone is a target on this show is the other women’s jealousy. They are always jealous of the fan favorite which is what LVP and Denise were. They were jealous of LVP’s spin-off, which Kyle and Rinna in particular coveted, and I think Erika was jealous that LVP was more popular with the gay community than she was. With Denise, they were also jealous of her career and fame outside the show. The reason that Rinna and Kyle don’t hold Erika accountable is because they aren’t jealous of her. She’s almost universally hated, and now she’s relatively poor. She makes them feel superior so they are nice to her and they want to keep her around. She may also know where the bodies are buried. I think Dorit and Teddi have different reasons for their participation in the gang ups. Dorit was angry that LVP outted her for not returning the dog and it ending up in a shelter. With Denise, Dorit was in an unholy alliance with the other members of Fox Force Five (a survival tactic) so she didn’t defend her or take on the other women, but she didn’t fully participate in the attacks either because I don’t think she had a problem with Denise. Teddi engaged in the pile ons in part because of her loyalty to Kyle (they did become really good friends) and in LVP’s case she didn’t like being manipulated. Teddi is also pretty thin skinned so Denise’s supposed bad mouthing of her also contributed to her attacks on Denise but also (in part shown by her own comments in this book) she’s gullible and she isn’t too bright so I think Kyle, Rinna, Erika, and Brandi all manipulated her. That’s my read on the situation anyway.