TheFinalRose

Photos today in the Daily Mail about G's surprise 40th birthday weekend trip to Chicago with her peeps. I bet when she was blindfolded and put on a plane she probably expected that they would be flying somewhere a little bit more exotic than back to Chicago. Anyway, Bill managed to thoughtfully work her two favorite accessories into the party theme: one, a Chanel handbag cake and Chanel insignia cakepops and two, a framed photo/reminder of that Duke kid, who doesn't look like he scored an invitation to the birthday weekend. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2720514/Giuliana-Rancics-40th-birthday-celebrations-start-early-husband-Bill-invites-pals-surprise-party-private-jet.html

Just for clarification in case anyone clicks on the above link Vicki's ebook may have briefly hit the top spot on a genre list on the first few days it was out, which is not that hard to do for someone like her who has Twitter followers but it is not the same thing as hitting number one on Amazon. Amazon has lots of lists within its store broken down by subject matter or category. Currently Vicki's book is ranked #36 in the Kindle store Business & Money > Personal Finance > Retirement Planning (which would have been the list that she hit number one on), but is now only at #76,000 (not #1) on Amazon for an ebook, and at #35,000 (not #1) in hardbacks. Vicki kind of whooped it up and made it sound bigger than it was/is but I don't ever see any book by Vicki Gunvalson topping the Amazon Bestseller chart, ever. For contrast The Widow's Guide is currently ranked at #3,616 for ebooks and #5,024 for hardcover on Amazon. Leggy Blonde is at #227,340 for ebooks and #478,000 in hardcover. So despite Aviva's effort, Carol is clearly winning in book sales, and she has better reviews as well.

Never got the Graham appeal either, despite Deanna prostrating herself over him on her season. Thank goodness for the guys in the editing booth. They must have been as bored with the first half of the show as I was getting, and then, voila! Magical Listening Racoon appears to comfort Clare. I hope he is a recurring character. I'm sorry but why does Sarah subject herself to competitive dating shows? At first I was not liking Lacy and then I ended up liking her. Well, at least I like her better than Andi Dorfman, but that's a low bar to get over.

Isn't there some kind of reality tv rubric that a new cast member must be on the show at least X amount of times before engaging in a physical altercation with another cast member because prior to that time viewers have not attached to new cast members and will tune out or FF through any of the ensuing drama? And if two new cast members enter into a physical altercation before the required amount of episodes then viewer apathy toward said drama not only doubles, but triples, causing total viewer disengagement? Noelle and Amber's violation of this reality tv standard have disqualified them from appearing on my tv for the remainder of this season. However, I am still committed to watching Juicy Joe's farewell tour, and Dinah, who I enjoy, so I imagine I will now be able to finish watching an entire episode in about eight minutes. And also, a sniper Rosie? Really? In the wake of Newtown what twisted adult thinks that is any kind of a joke anymore? I guess the next fight on RHONJ someone will pull out a gun. It's about the only thing that hasn't been tried yet.

I read The Widow's Guide and What Remains and I feel exactly the same. I think the five years she spent writing the Widow's Guide included one year writing and four years figuring out how to end the story. And then she gave up and ended with

Best part of the reunion was Sonja rambling on about her 40 employees and her wine in the can business offer. That whole spiel of hers is worth transcribing just for laughs.

OMG I was thinking the same thing only I thought they might have been in the studio audience. AWKWARD.

According to Chris Harrison's blog on EW.com they are seriously waffling on who will be the next Bachelor. Rumor has it that Arie is back in the mix, has even filmed promo shots. If so, I think it's a bad choice. Chris the farmer would be so fun and different, I cannot believe they think anyone can get excited over Arie anymore. Wonder why they are doing this?

I don't think Nick is a stalker. He wasn't a paid actor with lines to read, he really participated in the "journey" with his real self. As did Andi and Josh, but Andi and Josh were the winners here whose real selves are still participating in the journey that began on camera. I think because it was real to Nick he wanted a chance to speak with Andi after he had a chance to process his shock, five minutes and over dumping with camera crew and sound men in the room. It was real to Nick, and he just wanted to check back in with her. Was he naive? Yeah, considering you can't hand that kind of pathetic mopey heartbreak over to Fleiss and Co. and not expect them to run with it, especially in a season that was pretty ho hum. But the Men Tell All taping was only a few weeks ago, and Andi still refused to talk with Nick at that point, citing she wasn't ready? You would think that two months post Final Rose ceremony, and being so deliriously happy with Josh she would have been big enough to just meet with Nick for five minutes or whatever. IMO she used Nick, knew she used him, and wanted to minimize facing the fallout of her actions to her contractually obligated ten minutes of screen time with him on the After the Final Rose show.

This sounds so interesting. I'm wondering if they have acquaintances in common where names and numbers were exchanged in the club. Didn't Andi say last night that she and Josh live five minutes apart, or was I hearing things, suffering from "omg I can't believe Nick said that" aftershock. Josh does not look like the kind of guy who would need to go on the Bachelorette and purposely miss his brother's NFL day unless he knew for sure there was a good reason to. Hmm, also, maybe Andi acted so into Nick, and she really singled him out for special alone time, roses on the dates in front of everyone etc., to deflect from her plan to end up with Josh at the end no matter what. Maybe she picked Nick specifically and only because he was the opposite of Josh. Hence her monologue the whole season of why she didn't know why she and Nick got along or why she picked him.

I'm thinking in the past the winner doesn't watch what goes on before hand, so yeah, I don't think Josh heard the Andi/Nick showdown.

Chris Harrison is peeing his pants, he is loving this so much.

Nick for the win. Josh is probably back stage with steam coming out of his nostrils.

Yeah, that was cold. I never liked her that much as the Bachelorette, but that really brought her down in my eyes. She deserves that loud, chaotic, sweaty guy that she choose. I just think she is going to get super annoyed with Josh...he's just on all the time and obnoxious.

Ugh. I couldn't even look at the proposal because I dislike Josh so much. I think Nick handed his dumping pretty well...his unenthusiastic half-hug to Andi at the door was awesome.

If she does pick Josh, and then when they do break up, Andi will cite her own version of Princess Diana's famous quote "there were three of us in that marriage" only she won't be referring to Camilla Parker Bowles, but to baseball.

Just no to the blonde. Not a good look on her, especially with that spray tan or whatever made her skin that orangey-brown. On a more positive note, she looks beautiful in the photo posted above of her with the brown wavy hair--she should go back to that look. And seriously, have an ice cream cone or two this summer G, you can afford it.

I know this is probably too much to ask but I really wish Bravo had not shown the leg on the floor in previews. Can you just imagine how awesome it would have been for us viewers to not know what was coming, and then to see Aviva put her fake leg on the table, and then go one step further and toss it? Such a fun moment spoiled for us by Bravo's giving it all away too soon. They could have found a way to tease the episode without showing the main event. I still laughed when it happened, but it could have been better. It was probably so awesome for the shlubs that were there. Me neither. What was that part of her speech where her aura was not at its best when she bought the townhouse on 72 Street? Didn't Old Man Morgan buy that pile of bricks?

The season was so boring and the drama so manufactured that this show was a snooze. Too much time on the Andrew/Marquel/JJ incident, but I totally laughed when they showed the footage of Andrew leaning over and whispering to JJ. Thing is, I need to see that Andrew didn't say something to JJ after every rose, sort of a running commentary on the proceedings, before that one clip means anything. Meanwhile I spent the whole night wondering why Marquel had a chocolate chip cookie on his lapel. I'm with those who can't see the charm of Marcus. He looks so deflated and wounded ALL THE TIME. Plus he's no fun. As for Chris, oh man, he is just chomping at the bit to be the Bachelor. He knows he has it in the bag and whoopee! LIfe on the farm is never going to be the same for him. I can just see the wheels in his head spinning with delight. That letter given to Andi at the end was weird. One, she wasn't in any of the outfits that we saw her in during the previews for next week's episode. She was clearly in some kind of studio setting in a room with the word PRIVATE on the door that Chris had full access to and not on location in the Dominican Republic. I'm betting it was filmed half an hour before the Men Tell All and we will never see it referred to again. They are so starved for any intrigue in this season that they are faking it big time.

When Teresa and Joe were sitting in front of their massive marble fireplace on Christmas night doing the "woe is me" act all I could see were the very elaborate window treatments on either side of the fireplace and figured those must be the $60,000 worth of window treatments Teresa bought when they were bankrupt. Those were floor to ceiling windows with yards of silk and that sheer balloon treatment underneath on at least two windows, maybe there were even more in the room that the camera didn't capture. Just the fabric alone then the labor and the hardware and the installation..yup, there's her 60 grand. Nice shot Bravo! Was slightly surprised that Teresa didn't even put bows on her kids' Christmas gifts, seeing it was going to be filmed and all. You don't have to put bows on all of them but a 2.99 bag of bows from Walgreens spread around would look nicer.

In my opinion part of the cast member contract is to let the viewer into their lives, and that includes homes. Heather isn't such a hot catch as a cast member that she should get to avoid showing us where she lives. We rarely see her and Jonathon and the kids together as a family; I do remember last year a scene where they all went out to eat together and the kids behaved horribly. I wonder if she shut that kind of filming down after that night not wanting her kids to be the next hamburger stabbers like Alex and Simon's kids. I know Heather did film with them at the beach for this season but that was outdoors and kid friendly.

I tune into the HoWives shows because I love seeing people's real lives, their homes and their family relationships. I don't want to see average, I want to be entertained by peeking inside their homes, or laugh at their dysfunctional family relationships, So that's how I judge the cast members. So in that case, I can't stand Jill. I was so glad she was dumped. I never found her funny, or entertaining, nor was anything about her life aspirational to me. She was just a sales woman in a store who married an older richer man who was not interesting or attractive. Her apartment--blah. Her dog, not so cute (and I am a dog person through and through). I didn't find her fabulous crowd very fabulous--she seemed very downmarket as far as the upper east side society ladies go. I would never have watched this show for just Jill and Bawby, so bringing her back would probably lose me. I would rather see Alex and Simon come back because their attempts to climb up the social ladder without having money, looks or some kind of talent were laugable. It was obvious to everyone except them that they would never have what it takes to impress the social group they wanted to be part of. So I always enjoyed their scenes for their high comic value. Bethheny was okay, I remembered her from The Apprentice but she again didn't have anything aspirational in her life either. Now LuAnne seemed to be more of the type of upper east side/Hamptons scene that I found interesting. I think Ramona is used up and if you notice she doesn't have any fabulous friends or connections of her own, and if she does she doesn't include them on the show. Carole is a great addition in so far as the type of lifestyle that someone in Manhattan would lead but do we really see much of her real life? I liked seeing the scene with her editor, (even if it was faked), or scenes in her apartment, which is so different from how most of us live. I find Kristin interesting because she represents a certain demographic of young wife with babies....that's a difficult stage of life and I like seeing how someone manages that in NYC. Aviva is just the worst....an ugly human all around and of course her father is rehensible (tm Simon of the OC). As for Heather, she never films inside of her house (vacation house doesn't count) so I feel as if she's not going all in on this show either. She doesn't have anything aspirational in my mind either, so she can go. As for Sonja, I don't find her antics entertaining. Can't believe she is a mother of a teenage daughter and she presents herself like that. Plus every scene with Sonja seems faked. If I were recasting I would keep Carole and LuAnne and dump the rest and bring back Alex and Simon. Find someone who works in the glamour fields of NYC: publishing or theater or fashion or finance that has a lot of money and is bored with their lives. Andy definitely went way off course with this show when there is so much rich potential in NYC.

I skipped this show last season because I honestly could not stand watching Jacqueline or Ashley or those Manzos or those Wakiiles or that Rosie. But I always liked Dina and I am all in for what I am hoping is the last and final television appearance (beyond news footage) of Joe Guidice and Co. And, besides, only on Bravo do we get such classic lines as: "I don't know what I did with my...oh, that little f****ing kid took my shawl." Classic. So all the Guidice cousins gathered to pose for a photo that Joe could take with him to prison and then on the boat back to Italy. That was thoughtful. Funny how one person in the photo has their head blurred, must have a professional reputation to uphold, I guess. I do think it is sad for Joe to have lost his father too young. Other than that, put me in the camp eager to see Teresa and Joe get their just desserts. With that big family I'm thinking the girls will be well cared for, and might actually benefit from the time away from the constant cameras and their delusional parents. Poor Gia. This must be so confusing to her with her parents acting like the power of positive thinking will make it all go away.

Chris impressed me with the way he handled his sudden exit, too. I loved how he was actually was listening to Andi and not just waiting for her to stop talking so he could do a Cody-styled rant of "how much you are going to love me the more you know me." He's 32 years old and acted like it. I did think he looked crestfallen when he saw which way Andi was going. I don't really like the way Andi semi-yells at her rejected suitors ... her "I can't do that to you" emotions are a little over the top. Doesn't she at least mentally prepare herself for what it is going to take to let a guy go? I truly wish Chris had said, "It's okay." Ha. I thought Nick's storybook was cute with its "magical love flowers" but who in production goofed and told him to give it to her on the Final 3 date? The Final 2 date is when such lame mementos of their time together are traditionally exchanged. What will Nick do next week when Josh is presenting Andi with a signed baseball from his minor league team to win her heart and Nick has used up all his good ideas? I find Josh hard to look at. His teeth are too white and he looks like the template of a muscular bad guy that Disney animators look at for inspiration when they are drawing up their cartoon villains.

They are magnets. I'm so glad you brought that up because it was bugging the heck out of me too. The only way I can account for it is that maybe from one camera angle the rose is too in her face, so they tell her to "stand just so and put the rose right there" but when that position is filmed from the side she looks like she is just holding the rose up in the air like an idiot. It's probably the production people who are making her pose with the rose the way she does but it looks really really stupid.