LibertarianSlut

This episode wasn’t quite the prettiest girl at the dance, but it wasn’t a dog either. Ronnie’s old drinking buddies had some funny commentary. Sonny’s landlord’s response to pretty much everything Emmett made me laugh. Emmett: “The next generation!” Landlord: “This ain’t Star Trek” Lena’s speech to Kev’s girlfriend’s dad and Douda was hilarious. I loved the cynicism of the words juxtaposed against the earnest patriotic music. Ken’s girlfriend’s father to Kev: “Were you trying to fuck my daughter?” Maisha’s mom opening the door to Papa and his dad and saying dryly, “I accept Jesus Christ as my savior.” Ha ha ha. Sure, much of the episode didn’t make sense, and there was a lot to be desired, but this show is so much better when it’s just funny. Not heartwarming—they get that all wrong—but wryly and sardonically funny. I thought the guy Jada was dating was completely right about Emmett and it was weird writing that Jada seemed to have completely reversed her earlier stance of telling Emmett she was moving and he was not coming with her, even if that meant Emmett would be homeless, and I chalk that up to shoddy writing. I liked Jada’s attitude so much better last season. Emmett is good for a laugh here or there, but he’s an irresponsible, manipulative asshole who will take a mile if he’s given a foot. Two episodes in a row he is willing to fuck up someone else’s business plan just because he felt like he was Emmett, and who is anyone to ask him to adhere to any kind of decorum or authority (last episode when Tiff asked him not to cause a stir at the dispensary and he did, and this episode when he brought his kid along to make a business pitch). Also, I feel bad for that guy Jada’s dating. First she freaks out that he is widowed and now she is letting her date with him get derailed because...there are some snacks and wrappers lying around the apartment? Run, don’t walk, hospital man. I also think it’s awfully convenient that Emmett only seems to have one child now, when last season he had three, with another on the way. Showtime’s other show Billions does the same thing—they just write out kids when they’re inconvenient to the narrative. I think it goes without saying that life doesn’t work that way...? Best episode of the season by far for me though. (I am grading on a very steep curve).

Thanks, that’s very kind. I am a lawyer, but it’s arguable whether I’m great. Better than some, I guess.

In addition to Lu, Dorinda was smoking inside BSM after Luann stormed out. I have a suspicion they may all be secret smokers, except for Ramona (and Bethenny and Aviva) who have been vocal about anti-smoking. I seem to remember almost every other Housewife on this franchise sneaking a drag here or there—Jules, Tinsley and Carole pop into my mind immediately. I’ll probably think of half a dozen more tonight at 3 am when I can’t sleep lol.

Yes. She also cheapens everything she torches.

Leah is such a child. She craves attention like one. Who gives a shit if Ramona isn’t talking to you, and if you do give a shit, grow up and talk to her like a person. Leah is a public figure who wrote a blog about her mental illness and it’s been hotly debated here whether she showed “her vagina” at the party. Her vulva was blurred. Why wouldn’t or shouldn’t anyone talk about either of those things? Leah is like Kelly Dodd over on OC—exposing her child to way too many personal adult issues that are none of her business. Luann, is English your first language? Sonja’s in the bag and this is like wrangling cats? Is “in the bag” like twice as drunk as “half in the bag”? Because I might agree with her there. Though I don’t think Sonja getting her hair done naked in a private home is comparable to humping at a birthday party of 50 when the guest of honor objects. I sort of detest Luann this season. She is a sneaky stirrer, she is not intelligent at all, and she just wants other people to fight so that they can keep this shit show going, but she’s not willing to get into it unless she’s completely wasted, like she was in the Berkshires. I think it’s time to demote her to friend of again. She’s not really pulling her weight. Ramona is not gifted in the art of argument. But she is good at bobbing and weaving when situations arise. I think the ability to ignore and walk away is one of the most powerful things in the world. Leah was itching for a fight, and she barely got one. No one needs to stop talking about Leah’s “pussy” if they don’t want to. She has this very entitled attitude that I notice amongst millennials (and I’m younger than her, so I feel like I can make generalizations about my own generation, and if others want to disagree, I’m totally cool with that) where she feels like she has some right to control the conversation and the words people speak. Bitch, have several seats. The only “right” you have in this environment is to keep people out of your physical space. She doesn’t get to control the narrative just because. I loathe people like her. Although, I guess I should feel bad for Leah. She is crazy, no one wants her pussy, and everyone is talking about it. I hope her sick ass gets the boot from this series more than anyone else. If she’s not actually on meds, perhaps she should get herself to a doctor. No one is able to sustain themselves in society like this. Whatever little voice in her head told her it was ok to begin drinking again after nine years needs to be quieted.

I can’t believe Ramona got her party at least partially comped, and still collected $100 off each guest for a gift. I don’t know if the words “tacky” or “gauche” cover that. Leah has such a persecution complex. She’s trying to throw Sonja under the bus as a reason why she shouldn’t be “in trouble” with Ramona “for dancing.” As if only one person can be wrong at once. Dorinda is just feeding into the complex by telling Leah that she has youth on her side. I’m close to Leah in age, and “youthful” is not a word I’d use to describe myself or Leah. Dorinda is just seeing things through her jealous lens. Just because Dorinda was jealous of Tinsley’s “youth” doesn’t mean Ramona feels that way about Leah. I think Occam’s Razor would say that Ramona was willing to sit down and talk to Sonja because Ramona has decades of history with Sonja. Sonja’s entire history with Ramona isn’t bogged down solely with drunken shenanigans. If Ramona’s relationship with Sonja began with Sonja throwing tiki torches across Ramona’s lawn, maybe she’d get different treatment too. Maybe Leah bounced from the salon so quickly because the convict thing hit a little too close to home. Maybe it was just the lighting of the store, or the display, but some of Sonja’s collection looked cute. It reminded me of that line the Kardashians had in Sears awhile back. Dorinda sober is...nice. I have to assume she was somewhat sober at Century21 and even when she first got to Cancun—she was acting like a good person, laughing and supporting Sonja and Ramona. But when that voice starts to slur, and those arms go a flyin’, head for open waters. The property in Mexico is probably overall the nicest one they’ve been to IMO. The place at which they stayed in Turks & Caicos looked like a fortress from the outside, and the place in St John was a bit too cold to me. This was just drop dead. Luann flirting with the staff. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I’m just glad we are spared from hearing about Luann’s fracking “sobriety” this year. Leah can’t think of a more vulgar term than “chubby pussy”? How about “desperate for dick” you pathetic wannabe? On one hand, Ramona is old and out of touch, and on the other, she is so in her feelings that she’s being Ignored by Ramona. As Heather DuBrow once said, “pick a lane.” Bitch.

Luann...never one to miss an opportunity to get her hair done for free.

If custody of Denise’s children was an issue and there was the potential that Eloise could be institutionalized because of the way Denise’s actions are rightfully or wrongfully being perceived on this show, the responsible option for Denise as a parent is to quit the show. Contracts are broken every day. The network would have to try to mitigate the breach. Denise is not in some type of unique bind that business and entertainment people of all sorts don’t face every day. Deals go bad all the time and people move on and sometimes that includes a loss of face and/or income. She’s famous—she’s on a soap, she does Hallmark movies, her husband claims to be employed—so it’s not like she’d wind up on food stamps or anything. Food stamps are a better option than having one’s children taken away anyway IMO. When people want to have their cake—be on reality TV—and eat it too—by complaining about their edit and listing the liberties they are losing when they volunteer to engage in high-profile, high-paying projects, I get annoyed. Walk away. Just walk away. It’s been done plenty of times on Bravo. At worst, she might have to move out of Malibu and move to Porter Ranch or something. Life is about trade-offs.

This is a little out of left field, but after Kyle told her bizarre sex story, Erika was cheering about the fact that she was an only child, and Lisa seconded that heartily. Didn’t Lisa have a sister who died of a drug overdose? That seemed a little...callous.

I don’t hate Kyle at all. The only time I hated her was season one, when she was queen of mean and ditzy. Something about her standing up and cheering for the Lakers at the Kings game that Adrienne flew them to privately did something to me. I was totally on Camille’s side season one. And that sort of stretched into season two when Kim hid Brandi’s crutches and Kyle did a talking head of “that’s the Kim I know!” Since then, I think she’s changed a lot, she’s become more vulnerable, she’s let us into her life. I like her kids. I liked her husband, until he apparently became a stoner, and I think Kyle is a warm person who has flaws. I just can’t deal with Kyle’s stories. Last season in Provence, remember she choked up about her “eating disorder” where she would sometimes swap out a V8 juice for a meal and she was down to only 99 lbs? Kyle is 5’2” or 5’3”. Weighing 99 lbs at that height in one’s early twenties doesn’t exactly set off alarm bells; it’s just being a skinny person. Similarly, with this story about sex, I know it was for a game, but it didn’t have a beginning, middle and end. A proper story, for me, is like, “the first time I had sex, my sister told my mom and we had to have a family meeting and I was so embarrassed and I was grounded for a month. I never saw the guy again, because my mom called his mom, and my mom never let me shut the door again until I was in college.” Kyle’s story was like, “the first time I had sex, there was a family meeting. And Kathy! And Kim!” Like, ok, where is the story there? I noticed something creepy about that story too—Kyle wouldn’t reveal her age when she was caught and at first I thought it was so it wouldn’t embarrass Mauricio, but then I realized she said that Kim saw the two of them having sex and pulled the covers off. Kim is four years older than Kyle. So, what’s the earliest Kyle would have been having sex? Fourteen? Fifteen? That means Kim would have been an adult who walked in on her teenage sister having sex and instead of shutting the door or telling their mom, she did something really abnormal and almost incestuous. I don’t think that was the best story. I’ll also call Kyle out anytime she displays bad behavior, just like I call each and every one of them out or there would be no point for me to watch the show. I do like Kyle though. Despite the bullshit, there’s something down to earth about her that I don’t recognize in, say, Erika. That’s ok if that’s an UO. I have many of those. As far as Denise telling the waiter she is allergic to garlic, and I said that annoyed me as a former server, it’s not the message that’s being conveyed; I said that in my original post. I don’t like the bitch, but I don’t think she should suffer an allergic reaction so that some waiter doesn’t have to write something down. My impression was that she was being condescending with the “sorry” and the smirk. I don’t like when people say they’re sorry for things that don’t need apologies, and it’s really not a big deal to have the cook take something out of the dish. Last season on RHOC, Braunwyn wanted a milk substitute for her coffee, which is fine—I don’t love milk in my coffee either—but she was so little-girly about it and hemming and hawing that it bothered me. Everyone just order like an adult to an adult. When I saw Denise do this, it reminded me of the time at the beginning of the season when she started dressing down the waiter for bringing her the wrong tequila in New York, and now I’m starting to see a pattern. It’s so easy to say, “this isn’t what I ordered. Please take it back and bring me the Patron” or whatever, instead of making it a big deal. And if the eating establishment messes up in any way that significantly impacts a dining experience, they should comp the meal or the drink. But you have to speak to a manager to get that. The only time I think one should get into it with the wait staff is when the staff is actually being rude. In what might be a tiny defense of Denise, when I was in Rome, the vast majority of the servers were middle-aged men, and a lot of them had a chip on their shoulder. I think it’s because the tipping system is different over there. Maybe she sensed passive-aggression from the waiter, and was serving it back. The only point I’m trying to make here is that I don’t care if Denise modifies her meal for any reason in the world. It’s just, ask like a person, not like an entitled prick. I never would have even noticed it if the New York/tequila thing hadn’t happened. I agree with some of this. I don’t think Brandi saying, “well at least I’m not doing crystal meth in the bathroom” made her a liar. She was implying that Kim was doing crystal meth in the bathroom, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she had been. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Mauricio had cheated on Kyle. I agree with you that Kyle can’t have it both ways and say on the one hand that Brandi is telling the truth about Denise, and on the other hand, Brandi was lying with regard to Kyle’s family repeatedly. That’s a good point. I was thinking about this last night, and I remember something totally different in the season nine war between Camille and Dorit. To my recollection—and I watched it when it aired, and right before this season aired—Camille’s house just burned down, so no one was going to be mean to her, and she came to the restaurant and repeatedly told them to bring any issues they had to her, and they did, and Camille retorted by saying that PK owes millions of dollars to a close friend of hers, Dorit denied it and was somewhat taken aback, but she didn’t shy away from the issue. I think they both knew it made for good TV. Denise was the one who shut it down, and I remember posting at the time that I found that very annoying, because who is she to control Camille or Dorit’s narratives? They have spoken about the lawsuits against PK, Tom and Mauricio at the season nine reunion. All three women had to answer for the rumors. That was when Kyle got very defensive and started making fun of the name or place of origin of the questioner, and it was a really bad look for her. Lisa has had Harry brought up on camera, and she decided to break a glass on a boat in Amsterdam. If the glass-breaking was that scary that no one dare utter his name five seasons later, then they are just a group of chickens, but I don’t think it’s Lisa’s job to survey the group about their opinion of her marriage; people should have the balls enough to bring it up on their own if they want to. Kyle has had to deal with the Mauricio cheating allegations in season four, and somehow got away from them, whether people believe it or not (and I don’t totally believe it, so she didn’t completely live that one down to this day). Denise is not a victim here. She can and should bring up all of these incidents and more if she wants to. I think that makes great TV. I’ve also said repeatedly that I love a fighter, and if she started fighting back, below the belt or not, I would, ironically, start to root for her. If people are actually making shit up about her whole cloth—which I don’t believe they are—make up shit about them whole cloth. In season two of Real Housewives of Melbourne (my favorite—when are you coming back, Melbourne??), Janet heard Gamble was saying some really mean shit about her that I believed was true, and Janet didn’t even bat an eye and said to Gamble, “I heard you’re doing heroin!” Good for her. No one signed up for The Real Saints of Beverly Hills, or The Real Martyrs of Malibu. Go big or go home. While it may not be the most trackable story to tell how these women’s husband’s are either in lawsuits or Canada or both, I have confidence that they can make hay of it if they want to. Lynn Curtin’s daughter getting the eviction notice on season five of Real Housewives of Orange County was great TV. So if Denise wants to keep pretending she’s on another show—a show that allows you to cut and keep things off air, perhaps the way her old reality show on E! allowed—she is going to keep getting stepped on. Everyone on this show had to take their licks to one extent or another. Kyle literally cornered Lisa in Mexico about her allegations about Kim being close to death. “The view” of Erika’s vulva was discussed for an entire season. Dorit had cocaine allegations made against her. Erika almost cold-clocked Teddi for saying she had “pretend amnesia.” Kyle is still smarting from the beating her reputation took for going to LVP’s house to say she didn’t believe her about the tabloids. The only one who hasn’t had the shit beaten out of them metaphorically is Garcelle, and maybe next season it’s her turn, or maybe she just gives off the vibe that she can’t be fucked with. But Denise has to learn to run with the big dogs. If someone accused me of sleeping with Brandi, on or off camera, I’d deny it once in a calm voice. I might laugh about it a little. If I had slept with her, and I didn’t want people to know, I wouldn’t talk about it, and if I didn’t think it was their business, I’d calmly say, “I’m not sure that’s any of your business.” If I was confronted once about whether I said people were cold hard bitches, etc, and I hadn’t said it, I’d state once that I hadn’t said it and I’d return to my meal. If I had said it, I’d cop to it and explain why in a no-nonsense matter. If they kept hocking me past the point that I thought it was pleasant, I would say, “you’re making this meal unpleasant for me and this is inappropriate.” I guarantee another fight would have broken out around the table in the time it took me to utter three or four sentences. Worst case scenario, I’d have to excuse myself from the table like Erika did in Provence and we’d resume the discussion at a cooler time. When Denise engages in all the fragility and the histrionics, she becomes her own worst enemy. She’s kind of reminding me of Tinsley on RHNYC—if you are a forty-something year old woman and you refuse to stand your ground against other women, then how can I be expected to stand behind you? If you fight, even if you’re wrong, I’ll pick up on that spirit and back you. I can’t back a person who returns to the well of women who are hazing them time and time again without a game plan or a cogent defense.

Color me unfazed at Kyle’s story about being called out the first time she had sex. I wasn’t even sure what the point was, except to get a mention of Kathy and Kim in there. Too much Kim! I was glad Kyle called out Dorit’s ridiculous glam in a fun way. I think this show would be fine without someone to pile on. It might be sort of boring, but they have their moments. I also liked Kyle calling out Dorit ordering at the restaurant in Italian when the waiter was speaking English. I thought the way Denise ordered was obnoxious. “I’m allergic to garlic. Sorry.” <smirk> It reminded me of the first episode of the season when they were in New York, someone asked Denise a question about Charlie that she didn’t like, and she started yelling at the waiter for bringing the wrong tequila. I’ve been a server. There’s a very polite way to send something back or convey an allergy. That was not this. I loved seeing how much everyone spent. It was very low for people who want us to believe they have enough money to fly glam squads around the globe with them. I didn’t think Teddi did anything wrong at the Fendi store by being civil to Denise, but otherwise ignoring her. I noticed she didn’t even talk shit about Denise in her talking head; the producer had to prompt her with a question about whether she was “subconsciously” ignoring Denise, which was a dumb question. It was pretty obvious Teddi was conscious that she was doing this. She just didn’t feel like being fake. Even if the stuff Brandi said wasn’t true, Teddi doesn’t have to be fake to Denise. She’s like six months pregnant and she was on her phone. No one has to drop everything to talk to Denise about fur the way that Denise hasn’t dropped everything to talk to her co-stars or even attend their events in the past. Maybe, in Teddi’s mind, Teddi is “Teddi Fucking Mellencamp Arroyave” the way Denise is “Denise Fucking Richards.” Did that ever occur to Denise? That you can’t just be obnoxious and not have at least some of the population write off your bullshit? These two have filmed exactly two scenes one-on-one in the past two seasons—shopping in a store after the fire, agreeing that Camille was “off” and the brief make-up scene last episode at Kyle’s house that didn’t really get anywhere. They’re not friends. They’re barely acquaintances, and that’s exactly how Teddi treated Denise. It’s better than calling someone a “shit fucking stirrer.” That was nice that Garcelle was able to apologize to Sutton and everyone was able to move on. It was weird that Sutton brought it up in front of the whole table, but whatever. Garcelle is not too shy to be shady in an acceptance speech for an award, so I doubt she was fazed. Wow, everyone—including the producers—breaking the fourth wall! Denise must have pissed off production something fierce for them to go back to a clip at Bravo con to evidence that Denise is lying. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that before! Denise doesn’t come off very convincing to me when she says “I’m telling you, there’s no truth to that,” Teddi says, “so you already know what it is?” And Denise replies, “To nothing! There is no truth to anything!” She’s starting to sound like Aaron “cancer is your friend” Phypers. I don’t believe Denise. Sutton heard it too, and she doesn’t even know Brandi. Nothing happened...yet Denise’s defense is that “Aaron was there.” So her defense is that Aaron was there for nothing? Good one. Teddi was 100% right that this is what Denise is being paid to do and it’s out of bounds to yell “Bravo, Bravo, Bravo” when she wants to stop the conversation. Bravo to Bravo for airing it anyway. Otherwise it feels like Denise is...cheating. I really hope Denise was sincere in her implication that she’ll leave the show if Bravo aired that scene. Kyle was being so rude to Dorit, and I would have been annoyed if I were Dorit too. Dorit was trying to say it’s hard on Teddi, however, things at this moment are really hard on Denise, and Kyle cut her off at the knees to only let her get out the part about Teddi, which made it look like Dorit was part of the pile-on, when Dorit was actually trying to come to Denise’s aid, and somehow Kyle wound up taking credit for pointing out that Denise was vulnerable. That was really not cool of Kyle. If I were Dorit, I would be fucking pissed at Kyle for that. I actually hope someone makes Kyle cry, because she’s been pulling this nice girl who throws rocks and hides her hands bullshit all season.

I’m already tired of Dorit speaking Italian. I have been liking her this season, but her glam is utterly ridiculous. She made Erika look tame by comparison. Actually, Erika looked great on the first night. The second day she looked like a combination of a condom, the Michelin Man, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Is one of Erika’s enemies paying Mikey to do this to her? I think Rome is a fine place, but it’s not that far off the beaten path. I’ve even been there, and I’ve never been to Canada. Some of them were acting like rubes. There’s something disingenuous about Dorit freaking out about it and Kyle saying, “I can’t believe we’re in Rome,” when Kyle goes to Europe all the time, she’s been to Dubai, and they’ve both been to Hong Kong. And that’s just based on what we’ve seen firsthand. Why are they giving us so much Kyle, like it’s Kyle Goes To Rome? Isn’t this Lisa’s trip? When I realized that Erika was sincere in her belief that she had been a Spanish boy in a past life, my only question was whether she had also saved a nation like Shannon Beador.

This is exactly how I feel. IF one believes her story—and I believe a good portion of it—Brandi still hasn’t cheated on anyone. To “cheat,” one needs to be in a game with an agreed-upon set of rules in the first place. If I walked around the poker table at The Bellagio and flashed a signal to one player that another player was holding an ace ten suited and just walked away, I’d be an asshole, not a cheater, because I wasn’t in the game. If a woman walks by someone’s husband and flashes her tits, she’s not a cheater either. She’s not in the game. I’d call her something else, like a weirdo or an asshole, but she’s not a cheater, because she didn’t cheat, simply put. If one wants to make the argument that Brandi is a cheater, as in, she is cheating society (of which she is a part, by virtue of the social compact), running around, wreaking havoc on people’s lives for at least the last eight years, I’d be willing to hear that, but that hasn’t been advanced. And, again, I think we generally tend to call those people assholes. Or psychopaths. Or genocidal dictators. And I’ve just gotta add, because I just re-watched VPR, Scheana 100% knew that Eddie was married. She told Brandi that Eddie bought her diamonds and when asked why she would divulge these details to Brandi, she said it was because she didn’t want Brandi “to think was just some Tuesday night floozy.” I just wrote about it in March or April in the VanderPump Rules Past Seasons thread. It may be semantics, but it’s not “just” semantics. Words have definitions for a reason, and I think we need to be precise in our language for the sake of communicating properly. What would be the point of having so many words with precise definitions if one could just be traded out for another? “Liar” and “cheater” are not synonymous, and if someone asserts that someone is both, I would need them to explain to me why the person was both a liar and a cheater. One is not a proxy for another or there goes the language.

It happened during season 8, when some of the Shahs were flying to Phoenix to see Destiney do something that required no talent. So, definitely post-TWOP, but they were so short on the details on the actual episode at the time this happened that I don’t believe what they say to Andy after the fact, when he’s trying to gin them up. I’m chalking it up to a nontroversy unless a disinterested party verifies otherwise. Ha, I would like nothing more than to share interesting details, but as I posted at the time, the message was lost in the medium of Tommy’s shouting and inability to control his impulses. Tommy was screaming stuff you already touched on in these threads this season, Rahul, like the fact that Adam & Reza will never split, because Adam has so much dirt on Reza, like hiding his assets so that Reza could file BK and commit fraud and I thought, “this is good, but not good enough that I’m going to sit here and feel like Tommy is verbally abusing my face and ears. I’ll catch this at the real reunion if he takes a Xanax.” Joke’s on me, though, because the reunion films months later, Tommy has disappeared into the ether like Lieutenant Colonel Markinson in A Few Good Men, and no one has word one to say about the backstory, because Andy and Reza are acting in cahoots as Colonel Nathan Jessup, ordering a cone of silence (ok, I’m mixing pop culture references there, but something very strange happened at Bravo, there was a cover-up, and it makes me frustrated that we can’t get a healthy dose of reality on a reality show). There’s time to go back and rehash a five year old bank robbery allegation against MJ, but we can’t talk about Reza’s bankruptcy filing (unless I missed it in another fit of shouting?). Fuck you Bravo, we’re smarter than this.

The dissonance between how dramatic, hopped up, and desirorous these people are to get their stories out and how little I care about them is staggering. Who gives a shit about Naked Jenga anymore? I can’t understand it and I don’t care about it. I realized that one of the reasons Destiney looks so much better now than she did during the season is because she looks like she lost 20-30 lbs. She was annoying as hell with the hand-waving and Andy-juning in the beginning and I still can’t stand her. I believe Destiney that MJ didn’t want to do diddly squat until her contract was signed. I believe Reza that she and Tommy had a People exclusive about the baby. I am now confident there would have been cameras/co-stars at the hospital when MJ was giving birth if she’d wanted them there. MJ doing her hair in a mirror while the reunion was shooting was very arrogant. I had to agree with GG when she told MJ to hurry up when she spoke. It was also so obnoxious that MJ kept getting up and leaving every two seconds. Her pay should have been docked each and every time. I don’t really care about the content anymore. Reza and MJ are both disgusting people. Whoever is managing to keep their cool at the moment is the person whose side I’m on. MJ and her screaming over people and Reza’s wobbly voice are horrendous in equal measure. They both have this very non endearing habit of pounding one fist into another to make a point. Every time either of them do that, I have this Pavlovian response to discount the words coming out of their mouths. I can’t stand either of them. Anytime anyone is groveling for sympathy, I have none for them. I feel like they were both doing that. MJ referencing Reza having body odor once during the season was what I called Advanced Reality Show at the time. The second time she did it—at the reunion, telling him to get more cats—had the reverse effect. It made me think perhaps MJ is so preoccupied by body odor because she suffers from it. The best part of this reunion by far was the flashback to the season two reunion. Were they serious with that retrospective though? It’s not a Shahs series recap; it’s supposed to be a time to discuss the season that’s past. If they can’t fill 86 minutes with the season at hand, this shouldn’t have aired. What’s ironic is that so much more info was spilled during the WWHL episode that aired after the finale (which I mistakenly thought was the reunion) than the reunion itself. Vida, but no Tommy? He was so conspicuous in his absence. Is someone on a very convenient voluntary 72 hour hold in the nervous hospital? It looked like that’s what he was coming to at his last WWHL episode. I mentioned in another thread that I’m looking to weed Bravo shows out of my life. If this comes back, I’m not at all sure I’ll watch it. I simply don’t care about them. I wish Nema the best with his funny looking/cute dog. Lol at them thinking this viewer gives a shit if MJ and Reza find hope for their friendship “four weeks later.” Aggressive yawn. Peace out losers (this motley crew, not my peeps here)!

I completely agree. I think Bravo should make the women agree to a modified sort of gag order on social media and other outfits until the episodes air. I’ve felt that way ever since season two of RHNJ began, Teresa was on WWHL, and all she had the capacity to do was bash Danielle the entire time. I was like, “well, there goes the season for me. I already know they don’t mend their friendship.” I think Bravo allows this because it brings in $$$, but it ruins the narrative. Other shows manage to keep things under wraps. We never know who the masked singer is until they reveal themselves even though that has a live studio audience, right? A cease and desist is not a lawsuit; it’s just a letter from a lawyer, requesting that someone cease and desist such and such behavior. So even if they’re not allowed to sue each other, I’ve seen cease and desists on Housewives shows (that was Tamra of RHOC tossing the C&D at Jeana and throwing wine on her season 6 to which you’re referring) and other reality TV shows. They don’t mean much of anything. I have never believed there is a blanket prohibition against lawsuits on these shows, as is commonly believed. Some things cannot be contracted around. I’m never going to believe that, if Kyle murdered Teddi, Teddi’s family would be estopped from bringing a wrongful death suit against Kyle because they were on the same TV show. Even if that was in the contract, a court could strike it down as unconscionable. They do it fairly regularly with arbitration clauses of contracts...Having said that, do you know where I could see the link to HW “rules”? I’d be very curious to read it. I think we agree about some things. I said in my post that Denise used to be gorgeous—back in her prime. Not just pretty, or cute, or beautiful, but, IMO, I think she actually used to be gorgeous. All I am saying is that I find no evidence that she is currently gorgeous. The only standout feature I think she retains is her hair. I don’t find anything else about her attractive in the current era. Erika is 49 too, and I think she’s beautiful. I don’t think Erika was a beauty when she was younger, based on the pictures they show, so she and Denise are like opposites to me in that regard. If Denise’s lines are easily fixable, then if she wants to fix them, she might be gorgeous again, but if she doesn’t fix them, then she looks haggard to me. All of these current RHBH are older than Denise, save Teddi and Dorit. And I think they are all prettier than her. Kyle is probably second least gorgeous to me, and two years ago, when Kyle was Denise’s age, I think she looked a hell of a lot better than Denise does now. (Let’s just hope Kyle is in a building year...) I just don’t see beauty in Denise now, in the current day, or in 2018. And trust me, I want to see as many gorgeous women in their forties and fifties as possible, so that I can look at them as inspiration! Even if Denise was in her fifties and not her forties, I still would never look at her and think “gorgeous.” There are plenty of women who are in their fifties who are currently gorgeous. I am thinking Jennifer Lopez, Cindy Crawford, Halle Berry. Denise couldn’t hold a candle to any of them looks-wise IMO, but for some reason she seems to think she can. The best example I can think of is Isabella Rossellini, 68 years of age. I find her gorgeous today. Denise doesn’t look completely fake to me (she doesn’t look completely natural either), but from my perspective, she’s a cute woman, perhaps sexy, attractive, not beautiful, not gorgeous. To my eyes. It’s not like I need Denise not to be gorgeous just because I don’t like her either. I think Tamra on RHOC is gorgeous (another woman who is in her fifties), and she behaves terribly. With Denise, I just don’t see it for the life of me. I just don’t get her “beauty”—I think a lot of it is based on the past, not what she currently looks like, much like Pamela Anderson, but maybe it’s not for me to get. If Aaron thinks she’s hot, God bless them both. I hope they go to a strip club, where they both can enjoy a strip steak, drink lots of tequila that they love, go back to Aaron’s DNA studio and have lots of sex, like they used to brag about last season, and maybe...leave the show?

Yeah, Sonja spent half the episode trying to prove that these are her friends, not Ramona’s, as if friends are monogamous. It was appalling. If these people are so dear to you, Sonj, they will be happy to celebrate your birthday party with you in two weeks, no? If Sonja doesn’t have the money to host something on this scale (although Dorinda contends it was comped, so there’s that), if they were really Sonja’s friends, and they were at Sonja’s baby shower 19 years ago (which she seemed to think is evidence of sincerity as opposed to longevity), then surely they will be happy to host a birthday party for Sonja in her honor or meet her on a bench in Central Park—everyone brings their own brown bag lunch—since, you know, they’re Sonja’s friends, not Ramona’s. Is it somehow Ramona’s fault that Sonja pissed away seven million dollars and is getting kicked out of bars after singing Hello Dolly? Why don’t we just pin the JKF murder on Ramona? Maybe Jimmy Hoffa’s body is in her backyard in Southampton. Sonja is so jealous of Ramona it isn’t even funny. Here we have a scene of Ramona having dinner at an intimate Italian restaurant with her successful daughter and her ex-husband whom she loves platonically. The staff know them so well that they remember Ramona going into labor. Sonja...her daughter’s never been on the show, even though she’s reached the age of majority, and her ex-husband won’t even let the show use his likeness. It’s not just Sonja. Let’s look at Ramona being happy and gracious with her sister, laughing, getting along, marveling at the licorice stand at Ramona’s party. This is a different type of relationship then Leah and her sister, who basically told her, “mom doesn’t like you, and she thinks you’re starting to look fake.” They are attacking a woman who is happy and vulnerable. They want her weak and vulnerable, like Sonja is. I have to say, Dorinda was the best behaved out of all of the losers. I think she was genuinely worried about Sonja. Sonja attacked Ramona for showing her guests a purse she got as a gift at her own party, said she should exchange it, and that it’s ugly, and Dorinda said that was going too far. Elyse also checked Dorinda when they were starting some rumor that Ramona dared to put a picture of herself up on social media for her birthday and how big is her ego and Elyse explained that someone else took the picture or something. Those were the only two acts of kindness I’ve seen the whole episode. Where I’m from, we don’t tend to bash people on their birthday, even if they are so audacious as to throw themselves a very nice party to which we’ve been extended an invitation. Sonja did not have to show up to this event. I don’t believe she has missed one event since shooting began 15 episodes ago. If she didn’t want to be there, she could have texted the producers she had a migraine. She didn’t have to go to this, just like no one had to go to Joe Farrell’s party (which they insulted to the moon, but didn’t want to leave). Stop fucking taking things from people and being pigs about it, ladies. Be gracious and grateful. And then, since this is a TV show, if you want to get in a passive-aggressive dig, go for it. Or get drunk, but don’t have a group-hump that one of Ramona’s friends tries to break up before Ramona can even arrive on the scene, because it isn’t appropriate. If they can’t refrain from disgusting behavior for themselves, they should do it for their kids. Just a few seasons ago, Luann got outed by Heather for having a man in her room, and all she could say was, “can you imagine if Noel had seen that! Heather, how could you do that—what if Noel had seen that?!?” Well...what about Noel now? Was he just a convenient part of the narrative to make Heather look like the bad guy, or does Luann care how she’s portrayed for her son? I do think Ramona sort of ignored Leah after she had taken her on as a buddy/savior in the beginning of the episode. That is something obnoxious that Ramona does that I won’t defend or pretend I didn’t notice. But here is the thing—who cares? Who is that insecure? Not to say the name, because it’s like invoking Beetlejuice, but I couldn’t imagine Bethenny showing up to Ramona’s party and giving a shit that Ramona invited 50 women and didn’t greet her with open arms when she first arrived. I really don’t see Bethenny hatching an evil plan to get drunk and dance dirty in order to get one over on Ramona. I could see her getting a drink, talking to people, having her own good time, leaving super early, and maybe, if the behavior repeated, calling Ramona on it at a later time, probably inappropriately, probably in front of the wrong people, but not in such a monstrous way as to ruin her birthday. When your behavior looks calculated and immature compared to this, then, Houston, we have a problem: And, to use a Bethenny-ism, Ramona can’t win for losing. Last year she kept her birthday party off the show, and that was no good. This year, she televises it, and she’s treated like a modern day Marie Antoinette at Versailles. Apparently the only way you can win on this show is to be such a miserable son of a bitch so that everyone can worry about you and forget their problems in the process.

This was how I saw it too. I re-watched (yes, I’m a masochist) and if one believes Leah that she was wearing a nude bodysuit, the dress still went up, and she was still rubbing her private area. Masturbation can be accomplished through underwear. Hell, if you believe the movie Fear (which is more credible to me than Leah), a woman can achieve orgasm while wearing jeans. All in all, I think Ramona handled it much better than anyone would be expected to handle it. Hell, in my opinion, Ramona handled Leah pantomiming masturbation at her birthday party better than Leah handles a seafood platter at a Halloween party, but to each his own.

I love how jealous these women are of Ramona. Elyse saying, “mark my words, she’s telling everyone to wear black and she’ll probably wear a different color” and Leah nods sagely as if Ramona didn’t already tell Leah that Ramona is wearing red. It’s her party; who gives a shit if she asks her guests to wear black? If she was asking them to wear neon beige, now that would be obnoxious. But it’s New York and it’s black. Not a tall order. No wonder Luann only invited Dorinda to her wedding. Everyone else probably would have shown up in white. Why do they get so jealous? Sonja is probably most jealous of all. She wanted to get invited to the last birthday party just so she could turn it down? Sure, Jan. The only thing I’m jealous about with regards to any of these women is that none of them have to work a full-time job. I don’t begrudge them that though; I’m just jealous and I wish I could get paid to hobnob. I thought Ramona looked really cute and fab in that pink (not red) dress with the high pony. Very eighties, but so what? It feels like she’s winking at us, not that she thinks this is what is selling out at Saks. That makes it even better. And not for nothing, she looked 20 years younger than her chronological age. I would have a hard time believing Ramona was old enough to be Leah’s mother based on this episode. I don’t think Leah was mad that Ramona was ignoring her, I think Leah felt insecure around the blonde, tight-faced UES women whom she described earlier in the episode as belonging “at a MAGA rally.” I think those women—and I have to love the editors for counting out the friends—could probably talk circles around Leah, and some of them are probably wealthy enough to buy and sell Leah’s entire apartment building. She has nothing in common with them, so she can’t mingle, so she did the slutty version of taking her toys and going home. Dorinda walking around in the dress with the giant tits in her own apartment was funny. Sonja stuffed like a sausage into a non-black dress was not. Luann wearing maroon, which is a close cousin to red, was not funny. I thought Luann looked like an ass greeting Ramona while Ramona was greeting Carole Alt. “The brunettes,” as Luann called them, both tall and gorgeous, except one was dressed appropriately and the other feels invisible if she doesn’t get to walk into a restaurant in front of her friends so that men notice her first. Leah coming into the party basically wearing the dress that Dorinda wore in her apartment was not that funny, nor did it have its intended effect, as Ramona didn’t even “give a shit” until Leah wouldn’t stop aggressively humping with three other guests after being asked to stop repeatedly. Dorinda and Elyse were the only ones dressed appropriately. And they looked elegant and beautiful. Too bad their actions sucked. I love that Ramona doesn’t let them faze her until they go way, way, way too far. She saw Sonja in her very ill-fitting dress in the wrong color at her party and wrapped her in a warm hug, and she was gracious about Dorinda interrupting her speech to talk about a dildo in front of her daughter. It reminds me of the way that Sonja and Dorinda bum-rushed Ramona at a cocktail party in her home earlier in the season with a dress, Sonja insisting that she got Ramona the size large, because Ramona can’t fit into a medium, and Ramona just said, “oh, you should have brought the extra-large.” I realize admire that unflappability, especially when everyone around her is constantly losing their shit at the slightest provocation (“she said I was drunk!!”). Why do these women let houses let them get so far off the rails? Luann, Dorinda and Sonja—who were all teetering, let’s be honest—all let houses cause their undoing. I haven’t seen that on any other franchise or heard it in life. Sonja is especially an ungrateful bitch. I just re-watched the entire series and I completely forgot that Ramona gave Sonja two surprise birthday parties on film. Apparently Sonja forgot too. Leah, Luann, Dorinda and Elyse took the dancing all up on each other too far. That wasn’t party-fun, that was lascivious. Leah was clearly not wearing underwear and there was a point that she put her hand on her vulva, so that it either looked like she was rubbing her clit, or she was actually rubbing it, and that’s too far for a birthday party. I wouldn’t care if she was doing it in some club on 12th Avenue. Time and place, dear. Luann at least had the decency to look embarrassed. Ramona didn’t even break up the dancing in a school marmish way, I noticed. She gave Leah an out by telling her she had a run in her stockings, but saying that makes Ramona a terrible person I guess. In what world? In the World of The Terminally Insecure. Sonja stomping on the glass with a glazed look in her eye...look, in another place and time, it could be performance art, sort of like Bethenny feeding an ice cream sandwich to a clown at art basel, which I thought was awesome. I’m into that sort of thing. Just not at the birthday party of a good friend who was not enjoying it. And what the fuck was with Sonja cursing Ramona out about her purses? It’s so ugly. I have never witnessed such a blatant display of jealousy in my entire life, including on TV. I was almost with Ramona when she said she was going to quit the show when they wouldn’t shut down production, but that would give the twat waffles way too much satisfaction to run off an OG. I want her to stay until she’s 75, so that she can have 12 more birthday parties that make these Dumpster fire people feel inferior.

OMG, Sonja talked about getting laid at the Wharton School and then got kicked out of a Philadelphia bar and it’s in the press and doesn’t her daughter go to UPenn!?! Bitch, get to rehab. Dorinda will probably even offer to drive you.

It’s ironic that Luann is advocating for people who were incarcerated. She spent the better part of two seasons beating the justice system, violating probation and being allowed to repeatedly dodge incarceration for no good reason that I can ascertain. So she spent a few hours in the Palm Beach clink with frozen mustard on a balogna sandwich? Cry me a river. I did notice that Luann articulated her actions that were criminal in front of the group. I don’t know whether that was edited out, but it didn’t seem like the rest of the group was taking accountability for their crimes. I am not sure how I feel about bringing previously incarcerated women to the spa. Doesn’t it depend on what they did? I would have to review each and every file before bringing someone to a spa for rehabilitation. If you murdered someone, or cut someone’s face with a knife, I don’t think you are deserving of a pedicure. That’s just me. Mario was smart for moving down to Florida. Ramona has said she might move there and she loves it there. The demographics would really suit her if she wants to meet a man who is her age, with children Avery’s age, as she’s said in the past. The numbers don’t lie—Manhattan has a dearth of single straight men. I’m in my thirties and if I felt I had to meet a man ASAP, as Ramona seems to, I would most definitely leave Manhattan. The house always wins in NYC, save for Staten Island. Leah looked like a rough 37 at the bathhouse. I blame HDTV for having to view her spotted chest for a prolonged period of time. The second I looked at her, I remembered Sonja saying she had saggy titties in the beginning of the season. The entire chest area was so blighted. Leah’s sister Sarah looked fab by way of comparison, and she is flat-chested. She was just wearing a much more flattering bathing suit. I think Leah is really feeling herself by being around women so much older than her. She’s not the natural beauty that she seems to think she is. I think she’s very insecure. The insecurity, coupled with the crazy, is why she can’t get a man. Rob is a smart man for keeping his distance. Pita Chip is watching this, probably eating pita chips and laughing his ass off at the bullet he dodged.

I totally agree that Dorit is having a beautiful season. Forty-three (and apparently 44, as she looked the best I’ve ever seen her on WWHL last night) really agreed with her. She is aging downward. I think she’s significantly more attractive now than she was when she joined the show. She’s lost weight, probably since she is not a brand new mom anymore. Her hair looks better when it’s short. I noticed that she had such a high, tight ass in her leggings at Erika’s Shoe Dazzle party. And I don’t have a problem with the Barbie look—large fake breasts on a thin woman. It beats the hell out of a lot of the alternatives. I have to disagree that Denise is currently gorgeous though. I don’t think her co-stars have anything to envy about her general looks and figure. I think she used to be gorgeous, and she aged atrociously. Although whatever she’s doing this year seems to be working better than last year, her resting face is a hard, angry frown. I noticed how deep it was when she was shot in profile when she first began speaking to Erika, at Shoe Dazzle, before there was anything to get upset about. Unless she’s in the perfect lighting of a talking head, the skin on her face looks like it’s falling and melting to me. She looks like Goldie Hawn. And I don’t think Goldie Hawn looks bad, but she’s about 30 years older than Denise. I think Denise has pretty hair, and if you strip away the hair, she looks very aged. The perma-frown of last night was actually deeper than this, but this was the closest I could find on the Internet: I think the biggest problem with Potomac is that Bravo holds onto the footage for so long that the show becomes completely irrelevant, and therefore, boring. Last season was close to a year old, and I’m sure this season will be far older, as it was originally slated to air in May. That brings all kinds of problems, like Monique’s storyline last season was being pregnant and Ashley’s storyline was “will she or won’t she be able to get pregnant” when, in real time, Monique and Ashley had already had healthy babies, rendering it redundant for me to watch. Also, the only one who really has money is Monique. I used to like Potomac because of the epic reunions, but last season was boring, and the reunion was also boring, so I don’t have much confidence that this season will be good. I was also left disgusted by the pile-up. It made this thing with Denise looks like a pep rally. One of the reasons I loathe Andy Cohen is because he picks winners and losers, and there’s no place for that on reality TV IMO. I’ll watch, of course, because I’m Bravo’s bitch, but if any of these shows get worse, I’ll quit them, something I thought I’d never be able to do, but then again, I didn’t know just how deep into the gutter these shows could get. I made the decision to quit Atlanta after an abysmal season, and I have no intention watching any new Bravo shows. I never felt better about myself than when I saw that some VanderPups show had been given the green light, and I realized I just wasn’t going to watch it and get (any further) bogged down in Bravo’s fake bullshit. You know it’s bad when you’re hoping that coronavirus will prevent the shows from filming so that you won’t have to use willpower not to watch them. I am actually relieved that there are no signs that Dallas is coming back. Maybe I need a support group. Looks like it’s done wonders for Kim! 🤥

I can’t believe the show actually expects us to believe that Teddi, Kyle and Rinna—who were In LAX together and allegedly on the same flight to Rome—waited until they were in country to tell Lisa what Denise said/did. That’s the biggest fiction perpetuated on the entire episode. After Camille’s wedding, did they even make it out of their hotel driveway in Hawaii before bashing her People magazine article?

I object to Brandi getting handed such a large presence on the show for form’s sake, but if she is going on to deliver news to some cast members (Kyle and Teddi) about another cast member (Denise), at least it’s relevant to the plot of these “real housewives.” Why did we get so much of the info in the talking heads though? That seemed suspicious. It also felt like it took a whole episode for Brandi to get the story out. Brandi’s reaction to the fact that people were talking about sex in front of Denise’s children (“their father is Charlie Sheen”) wasn’t appropriate, but she was the first one on the show to have that reaction, just for the record. Other women commented that the girls’ father is Charlie Sheen as part of a larger discussion that Denise talked about Charlie’s Thanksgiving hooker on TV, as well as her husband’s penis, as well as her coercing him into getting a hand job from an old lady. Brandi was the first person to make a direct connection that certain kids should be immune to certain situations just by virtue of who their father is, and I feel like that point gets overlooked. I believe Brandi is telling the truth about Denise. The story just rang true to me, and I don’t remember any lies Brandi has ever told. I don’t care that she said it on TV either. I think you run the risk of it all coming out—sex, lies, lawsuits and videotape—when you put yourself in the public eye, as Denise has done. I just want the other cast members to get the same treatment. If this is what it takes for the season to finally get started, this is positive turn of events as far as I’m concerned. And I am concerned. Because all we got this episode was two seconds of two parties, a dog in a wig, and a story from the town drunk, (albeit likely true). It has got to get better than this.

I didn’t mind the conversation between Garcelle and Sutton for some reason. I don’t mind Garcelle earning her paycheck and asking Sutton where she got her money and whether she lost her virginity to her husband. And Sutton did something that is never done that I absolutely love—she said where she got her money, but when asked to talk about her virginity, she very simply and very kindly said she was not going to answer that question. It is not rocket science, and it is so elegant!! So many of these women—across the franchises—lie through their teeth over and over. When confronted with the truth, their defense is that they didn’t want to talk about it on camera, or that it isn’t our business. That’s not a defense to lying! You can just say “I don’t feel like discussing that.” Looking at you, Gretchen, season seven of RHOC, when you flat-out denied having had your lips done until Alexis called you out at the reunion and you had to admit it! And you, Melissa Gorga, for denying you had rhinoplasty for a bunch of seasons, and you Bethenny Frankel for lying about having breast implants and saying you just got a lift for years!! Not that this is a big issue for me or anything!! 😖 “Amelia Grey” is a model, yet I find Alexia Umansky significantly more attractive than she is. No contest. I’m pretty sure Lisa had financial help from her parents until she was successful. I remember reading her life story somewhere, and she was pretty pampered growing up. I’m bored of Brandi and Kim suddenly coming around the way I complained last week about Camille suddenly being a factor. You’ve got seven women plus a friend. Make them air their real stories or recast. I feel like it breaks some unspoken reality TV rule when we start following the stories of women who are not in the opening credits because....they don’t want to tell them for some reason? I’d rather the show just be honest and fire Kyle, Dorit and Erika mid-season and put Brandi, Camille and Kim back into the opening and put out a statement that the former three women weren’t giving reality on reality TV. And I don’t even have a strong dislike for Kyle, Dorit and Erika! I just don’t want this to continue to be a show about nothing with no guiding principles. Why don’t they call each out anymore? What happened to “you’re lying, you’re sick and you’re an alcoholic” and “you stole my goddamn house”?