S11.E02: Things Are Going Southampton

[Rap541]

24 minutes ago, Yours Truly said:

I don’t get why lu’s not allowed to mention that the stuff with her kids and her being so fresh out of the first rehab go round took a toll on her.

For me, its because she's presenting it as "the kids sued because they wanted a house in the Hamptons and thats why I fell apart". Basically it paints her as the victim and her kids as selfish greedy brats who drove their momma to drink, and now lets all pity Luann and make sure she's cuddled and coddled and everyone very sensitively treats her like a queen lest she be triggered.

When in reality, she did a shitty thing. She stole from her children. Thats *heartbreaking*. Luann doesn't deserve parties where she's catered to, she deserves a kick in the pants for her shitty behavior. And instead, she blames her children for her alcoholism, whose only crime appears to be not letting mama steal from them. 

If she's going to be mentioning the kids then she needs to stop presenting it as "Lil ole me wanted to move upstate but the kids really like the Hamptons, so they sued me and then I spiraled down back into the drink", and start being more honest if the real story is that she was a complete mess and the kids sued her to save her from herself. Right now she's presenting it as though she was victimized by her children when it apparently was the other way around - she was victimizing her children and they stepped in with the lawsuit to get her destructive behavior under control. 

[Chit Chat]

1 minute ago, Rap541 said:

For me, its because she's presenting it as "the kids sued because they wanted a house in the Hamptons and thats why I fell apart". Basically it paints her as the victim and her kids as selfish greedy brats who drove their momma to drink, and now lets all pity Luann and make sure she's cuddled and coddled and everyone very sensitively treats her like a queen lest she be triggered.

Amen!  I don't know of any Mom who would throw her kids under the bus like that.   The first rule of Mom Club is that you never, ever paint your kids in a bad light with other people, and especially not on TV.   You may discuss an issue with a close friend or relative, but you don't get a megaphone and broadcast how your child has let you down.  Sheesh, LuAnn!  

[Yours Truly]

I just think it’s not that deep. Shit was already crumbling the lawsuit hit her hard and it was finally time to go back to rehab. Those are the course of events. That’s end of story to me.. The POA is where my new interest lies. 

[Rap541]

Whereas, to be honest, I don't see anything all that fascinating in a POA for someone who was going into rehab. People get power of attorney all the time and people give power of attorney all the time. It can be rescinded, so it's not like Luann is still under Barbara's control. More than a week in a place that doesn't allow you any contact and you might *need* someone to have POA to get your bills paid. 

[Gem 10]

3 hours ago, Rap541 said:

For me, its because she's presenting it as "the kids sued because they wanted a house in the Hamptons and thats why I fell apart". Basically it paints her as the victim and her kids as selfish greedy brats who drove their momma to drink, and now lets all pity Luann and make sure she's cuddled and coddled and everyone very sensitively treats her like a queen lest she be triggered.

When in reality, she did a shitty thing. She stole from her children. Thats *heartbreaking*. Luann doesn't deserve parties where she's catered to, she deserves a kick in the pants for her shitty behavior. And instead, she blames her children for her alcoholism, whose only crime appears to be not letting mama steal from them. 

If she's going to be mentioning the kids then she needs to stop presenting it as "Lil ole me wanted to move upstate but the kids really like the Hamptons, so they sued me and then I spiraled down back into the drink", and start being more honest if the real story is that she was a complete mess and the kids sued her to save her from herself. Right now she's presenting it as though she was victimized by her children when it apparently was the other way around - she was victimizing her children and they stepped in with the lawsuit to get her destructive behavior under control. 

So now that she’s talking to Victoria, she’s going to bring her on stage too to generate more customers and money.  Slick.  Maybe Dorinda after Victoria.  That will really pile them in.  Maybe they’ll need Radio City.

[Gem 10]

2 minutes ago, Gem 10 said:

So now that she’s talking to Victoria, she’s going to bring her on stage too to generate more customers and money.  Slick.  Maybe Dorinda after Victoria.  That will really pile them in.  Maybe they’ll need Radio City.

Then, she’ll bring “Bob the Builder” (Barbara) and she will do a schick with a bulldozer.  The possibilities are endless, LMAO !    (No, I didn’t have any wine tonite).

[hoodooznoodooz]

On 3/15/2019 at 8:43 PM, HunterHunted said:

Luann had actually been talking about selling the house, moving, and a new place for quite some time. The Count surprised Luann and decided to come and spend the Fourth of July with Luann and the kids. I imagine that was when Alex and the kids tried their last ditch effort to talk her out of selling. It didn't work; so they filed.

I also suspect she had the POA with Barbara because she was afraid that Alex and kids might try to have her declared as incompetent, stop the sale, and get access to her finances. Remember she got $8 million for the first house; there was no mortgage when Alex signed his interest over to her. She paid $2.43 million for the current house. She owed the trust $4 million plus 4 years of interest. She theoretically pocketed $5.57 million and it should be found in her investments and accounts. During the July 4th discussion, it should have been easy for her to tell them that she'd turn over XYZ investments and accounts to the kids. But what if she can't account for that $5 million? What if she's been using what she netted from the sale to supplement her income and improve her standard of living this entire time? I'm sure she has some of it invested and in a number of accounts, but it's possibly far less than it should be. This could explain why she was frantic about needing $6 million because she can't explain where any of that money is or should be.

On 3/15/2019 at 9:33 PM, smores said:

I think it's probably likely that she's been supplementing her income.  There have been rumors over the years, and I want to say there were a bunch of blind items over the last couple of years that one of the housewives who seemed to have a lot of money was living on borrowed time and her house of cards was about to fall apart.  Luann downsized her house, but otherwise didn't really change much about her life once she and the count split, and while I'm sure he was doing the heavy lifting when it came to the kids and their school, I don't know that she made enough from the show to actually live the way she was.  Especially when she got downgraded to friend of for a year.  

On another note, I went googling to see if I could find the blind items and got completely distracted when I came across this:

https://allaboutthetea.com/2019/02/10/luann-de-lesseps-violates-probation/

So, it appears that Miss Life Changes hasn't exactly been totally onboard and cooperative, despite her storyline.

I think there's a decent chance that either Theresa or Nene would draw a crowd if they did something similar.  I can't stand either one, to be honest.  I quit watching NJ when they held it for Tre to get out of the pokey, and I'm really close to dropping Atl, but each housewife gets her own cult followers.  I like some people, but not blindly, I like Bethenny, for example, and find her amusing.  She does do things that I think are wrong and I say it when it happens.  I'm a big fan of Erika's on BH, but this season, I am not liking her behavior at all.  Still, there are people who are ride or die for each ho, and they'll show up if they do a thing, no matter what. 

Man, I cannot express how much this enrages me. The idea that Lu has been using her daughter and son’s money to enhance her own life. And then freaks out when they call her on it. What “mother” does something like this? Disgusting.

Edited March 18, 2019 by hoodooznoodooz

[ButterQueen]

On 3/15/2019 at 3:56 PM, backhometome said:

I've always liked Ramonas hamptons house. Glad she got in the divorce. 

I wonder if she bought Mario out, and is it paid for.  She kept the apartment too.

[biakbiak]

3 minutes ago, ButterQueen said:

I wonder if she bought Mario out, and is it paid for.  She kept the apartment too.

Not sure the exact agreement but she has stated several times on the show and off that she gave him cash so she got the real estate. 

[ButterQueen]

I wonder since they started filming early, if there will be no Christmas in the Bezerkshires this season.  I see Dorinda has a Halloween party.  I’ll be so sad to miss a Christmas episode.

17 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

Not sure the exact agreement but she has stated several times on the show and off that she gave him cash so she got the real estate. 

I just don’t see Ramona having that much cash.

[ButterQueen]

Dear Dorinda,

The ponytail...just NO!!

Mooches,

BQ

[Rap541]

5 hours ago, ButterQueen said:

I just don’t see Ramona having that much cash.

She did have her own business for a good long while. And she didn't marry Mario for money. Her tagline used to be "I find making my own money an aphrodisiac" or something like that. It's entirely possible she did buy the Hamptons house before she married Mario. Crazy eyed, weird bland taste aside, I think underneath the trappings, Ramona is pretty good with managing money

[Linann Wall]

Did anyone else notice Dorinda telling the tennis pro he looked familiar? He looked like Jason!

[FozzyBear]

3 hours ago, Rap541 said:

She did have her own business for a good long while. And she didn't marry Mario for money. Her tagline used to be "I find making my own money an aphrodisiac" or something like that. It's entirely possible she did buy the Hamptons house before she married Mario. Crazy eyed, weird bland taste aside, I think underneath the trappings, Ramona is pretty good with managing money

I think Ramona is crazy as they come and I’d trust her about as far as I can throw her, but I agree. I think she’s probably good with money. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s actually the wealthiest of the RHNYC. Either her or Bethany in any case. Brokest? Luanne or Sonjia?

Hmm now this has me thinking. When RHONY is the richest? I’m going to guess(current cast):

Bethanny

Ramona

Dorinda

Tibsley

Sonjia

Luanne

Edited March 17, 2019 by FozzyBear

[CharlizeCat]

Luann needs to get together with Teddi from BH to be Luann's accountability coach! /sarcasm  (I wish Andy would do more long-term crossovers.) 

I don't mind Barbara so far. It's hard to tell after only two episodes. I do agree that she is desperately in need of a makeover. Yeah, send in the "Fab Five."

Co-signing everything about Luann needing to take responsibility for her own sobriety/recovery.  In a rational world, she should/would have excused herself from going to the clambake. That would have put her out of danger of being tempted to drink and avoid "trigger" people.  It wasn't like she was a Barbara's house guest and couldn't avoid it.  It makes me stabby when people use their own recovery struggles to play victim and try to manipulate others. Own it (TM) Lisa "Rinner" and take responsibility for keeping yourself out of potentially dangerous situations right now.

It's pretty easy to become a DPOA. I did it (both financial and medical) for one of my brothers and my late father. My brother was going into physical therapy/rehab and while my dad was of sound mind at the time, but going into a nursing home. It just made things a lot easier for him. My brother is fine now, so the DPOA for him is null and void; it goes without saying with my dad as he passed a few years ago. (It's all good. It was his time to go.)

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 3/16/2019 at 7:41 AM, Sterling said:

While I agree re:  Barbara's clothing/hair/rough exterior choices, she does seem like a genuine, nice person.  She's had Botox and fillers, but unfortunately, it just doesn't look good.  Once the stylist gods get a hold of her, maybe she'll bring it. 

I hope they can teach her that "spatula" doesn't rhyme with "bachelor."  I don't cook, either, but that doesn't mean I don't know English.

[walnutqueen]

30 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I hope they can teach her that "spatula" doesn't rhyme with "bachelor."  I don't cook, either, but that doesn't mean I don't know English.

Well, there goes that limerick.

[HunterHunted]

I went into more detail over on Reddit. When you really look into the time frames and her 11th hour scramble for $6 million, you can't really come to any other conclusion than "the money is gone" especially because she had like 30 days to respond to the complaint, which meant she had to find at least $4 million plus interest nearly immediately.

I realized that she bought the current house in 2013. 2013 was also when she split from Jacques. They had been together for 4 years and I'm sure he was paying for most of their trips and nights out. Luann has never really scaled back on any of that. Perhaps that's why she was weirdly frantic to marry Tom; she might have finally realized how much her social life was costing her.

Edited March 18, 2019 by HunterHunted

[smores]

2 minutes ago, HunterHunted said:

I went into more detail over on Reddit. When you really look into the time frames and her 11th hour scramble for $6 million, you can't really come any other conclusion than "the money is gone" especially  because she had 

I realized that she bought the current house in 2013. 2013 was also when she split from Jacques. They had been together for 4 years and I'm sure he was paying for most of their trips and nights out. Luann has never really scaled back on any of that. Perhaps that's why she was weirdly frantic to marry Tom; she might have finally realized how much her social life was costing her.

Oh! I'm nosy, do you have a link please?

[hoodooznoodooz]

Speaking of manic, I thought Barbara seemed a little manic. 

And she also mispronounced wainscoting.

[HunterHunted]

5 hours ago, smores said:

Oh! I'm nosy, do you have a link please?

It sounded like mania to me, but if you do a bit ...

She bought the current house in 2013. She also sp...

[Higgins]

I like Ramona. 

[Giselle]

4 hours ago, Higgins said:

I like Ramona. 

There are things I like about each one of them and things I just can't stand, but also there are good and bad things that I'm willing to give them a pass on because it's entertaining.

[Dirtybubble]

17 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I hope they can teach her that "spatula" doesn't rhyme with "bachelor."  I don't cook, either, but that doesn't mean I don't know English.

Ok so I wasn't hearing things.  I watched this episode twice and both times I could have sworn she mispronounced spatula.  Grrrr... that drives me crazy.  I'm sorry but the poor English coupled with the awful wardrobe/makeup just makes me think she's a reject from RHONJ.  

Oh and kudos to whoever is calling her Bob the Builder! HAHAHA!  I was wondering why she was handing out tool kits as gifts so I Googled her and turns out she owns a construction company.  Enh IDK, it just seems like she's trying waaaay tooooo hard to get her apple. 

Edited March 18, 2019 by Dirtybubble

[LibertarianSlut]

For everyone who has patiently corrected my errors about the time line of things, I thank you.  I can remember the first few seasons of any franchise chapter and verse, but things start to get muddy when we approach seasons in the double-digits, so there's that.

Also, what is with Luann talking about Ramona speaking poorly of Luann at last season's reunion?  Luann?  I was your biggest supporter with Tom, and if we're going further back in time, with your struggle between Carole and Adam.  I thought those other bitches were jealous, and good for you for getting your happy on.  That said, I believe Ramona 100% when she named names and party hosts at whose parties at which you got out of control this past year.  It would be too easy to fact-check if it were false.  Ramona is telling the truth. A stopped clock is right twice a day.  Stop bringing up the specific incidents (twice now) if you can't refute them.  

If you are angry at Ramona for telling the truth and breaking Girl Code, write a fucking song about it and put it in your cabaret act.  But Ramona is telling the truth.  She's a little too stupid to lie.  

Edited March 18, 2019 by LibertarianSlut
Carole, not Caroline, duh

[gritz]

On 3/13/2019 at 9:26 PM, StevieRocks said:

Man, these zoo apes get more stupid every year with their moronic tag-lines.

Yes, so lame. Although, Beth's is kind of fitting, since word on the street is that the crew and cast call her "Yolanda" behind her back.

Is Tinsley having been a nationally ranked tennis player brand new information?

On 3/14/2019 at 11:50 AM, funnygirl said:

From what I've seen so far, I like her. Not everyone has to be super bougie to be a RH. 

Barbara seems okay. I don't get the comments that she belongs on RHoNJ, since she's not a felon or a prostitution whore, and none of the Jersey broads would be caught dead wearing a tucked-in polo shirt and Levi's. Her monochromatic look makes me itchy, though. She looks like a thumb.

On 3/14/2019 at 11:29 PM, LucindaWalsh said:

I am sure that somehow, someway, Dennis was involved in Luann's house issues and I think that is why the lawsuit was brought about. I distinctly remember BF throwing out "I hooked Luann up with Dennis for help with her finances" during the last reunion. I think she wanted the others to ooooh and ahhhh over her comment but it wound up being a toss away line. There is something fishing going on with all the BF/Dennis stuff and I think more things would have come out if he hadn't overdosed. 

Ooh, nice dot-connecting. There was a shadiness about Dennis, and Beth said he was also her business partner, so you might be onto something.

On 3/15/2019 at 9:44 PM, JD5166 said:

I mentioned it before, I think that swim instructor was an escort....who has a pool that literally can’t swim at all? 

And, who needs tennis lessons after years of owning a tennis court?

The instructors are obviously props brought in to get Ramona's cooch juices flowing. I guess Beautique ain't doing the trick anymore.

[lil sweetpea]

On 3/14/2019 at 1:11 AM, film noire said:

Also (likely party of one!) Luann can shove her sniggers about somebody quoting Tyler Perry right up her ass. Tyler Perry spent his childhood being beaten (and mind-gamed) by his father, was molested by four adults (the first molestation at age 5) and attempted suicide as a teen...and still found a way to forgive.  Of course, I realize NONE of that compares to what Luann suffered (those terrible awful no-good children pushing her off the wagon - including the paddy wagon - because they weren't willing to let their mother steal from them.  The whorror! The whorror!) 

I haven't read the rest of the thread, but you're not alone! I recently saw Tyler Perry speak about leadership, and he is an amazing human being.

[politichick]

6 minutes ago, lil sweetpea said:

I haven't read the rest of the thread, but you're not alone! I recently saw Tyler Perry speak about leadership, and he is an amazing human being.

I don't think they were questioning Tyler Perry's wisdom, it's that it was just such a random source, and they expected the quote to be from someone like Ghandi. Like me, they also may not have been aware of all he's been through. I didn't know any of that until last week. If someone is unaware of all that he's been through, but have seen ads for the crazy movies, yes, they will be surprised. Some of them may have been aware but were still surprised that he was the source.

[Dirtybubble]

25 minutes ago, politichick said:

I don't think they were questioning Tyler Perry's wisdom, it's that it was just such a random source, and they expected the quote to be from someone like Ghandi. Like me, they also may not have been aware of all he's been through. I didn't know any of that until last week. If someone is unaware of all that he's been through, but have seen ads for the crazy movies, yes, they will be surprised. Some of them may have been aware but were still surprised that he was the source.

As far as the Tyler Perry quote goes I have to side eye the producers, all this just seems so convenient since the last Madea movie just premiered around the time this episode aired.  IDK call me cynical but my gut is telling me that the big wigs with the show had some sort of advertising deal with "Madea's Family Funeral".  It just seems way too random for Dorinda to pull this out of thin air.  Nothing is random in Reality TV world.....

[Rap541]

Well, I certainly don't think the RHONY ladies fit the profile of the typical Madea fan, but honestly it didn't feel like a product placement.

[HunterHunted]

On 3/14/2019 at 10:29 PM, LucindaWalsh said:

I am sure that somehow, someway, Dennis was involved in Luann's house issues and I think that is why the lawsuit was brought about. I distinctly remember BF throwing out "I hooked Luann up with Dennis for help with her finances" during the last reunion. I think she wanted the others to ooooh and ahhhh over her comment but it wound up being a toss away line.

2 hours ago, gritz said:

Ooh, nice dot-connecting. There was a shadiness about Dennis, and Beth said he was also her business partner, so you might be onto something

Luann got sued because she hadn't lived up to her obligations. When Alexandre showed up for the July 4th holiday to reason with her and couldn't get through, that was the exact moment that Alex knew to direct his attorneys to draft the complaint. The complaint mentions that the day before they filed, they tried talking to her again to no avail. 

To a certain extent, I can understand having Lu talk to Dennis because his business fronted money to people to sue mostly the government, but they also charged insane interest if you won your lawsuit. Dennis had access to a fair amount of capital and some understanding of the legal system. Clearly, he didn't give or loan Luann any money. And the fact that Lu mentioned that she was trying to get a $6 million loan from a bank, but no one would lend her any money tells me she's pretty broke and her only real asset is the house. She ended up taking the house of the market and adding the kids' names to the title, which suggests that the money is gone and she's pretty broke, relatively speaking.

Dennis' involvement was almost certainly on the back end after Luann was sued. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if Dennis advised her to go back to rehab to make serving notice more difficult and allow Luann to ask for a 30 day delay because everyone is assuming that she'll be in rehab for another 28 days. He probably advised her to grant Barb the POA so that Alex or the kids wouldn't have the ability to deal with her expenses and finances while Luann was in rehab. All of the stuff that Luann did that seemed kind of shady after she got sued, that was probably Dennis' advice.

2 hours ago, gritz said:

I guess Beautique ain't doing the trick anymore.

It isn't  because Beautique is closed.

[Almost 3000]

On ‎3‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 8:28 PM, Double A said:

The costumes - that's very Dorinda.

I'm also remembering a scene with Dorinda and Carole. Dorinda made her do the body balloon pop game and mentioned how much she loved the English country games people played and wanted to do them at this house party too.  I think the games are reminiscent of her good times with her first husband. There's such a sadness in her and I think she's never gotten over that life.

[65mickey]

On 3/17/2019 at 12:42 PM, Linann Wall said:

Did anyone else notice Dorinda telling the tennis pro he looked familiar? He looked like Jason!

That's what I thought as soon as I saw him!

[Giselle]

17 hours ago, Rap541 said:

Well, I certainly don't think the RHONY ladies fit the profile of the typical Madea fan, but honestly it didn't feel like a product placement.

Madea has got nothing on Tito!

[HunterHunted]

16 hours ago, Almost 3000 said:

I'm also remembering a scene with Dorinda and Carole. Dorinda made her do the body balloon pop game and mentioned how much she loved the English country games people played and wanted to do them at this house party too.  I think the games are reminiscent of her good times with her first husband. There's such a sadness in her and I think she's never gotten over that life.

Second husband. Richard was her second husband. Her first husband was Ralph Lynch; he's Hannah's father. Dorinda's terrible marriage to Ralph Lynch inspired a Sex and the City episode (The Awful Truth). She was married to Ralph when she lived in England.

Edited March 19, 2019 by HunterHunted

[SuprSuprElevated]

Ra-moaner The Reason-er

[ladle]

This episode was tedious as shit but I was literally (yes, *literally*, Bethenny) LOLing at Luann’s dry reading of the quote from Tyler Perry. 

[Gam2]

I’m watching Tins driving Sonja out to the Hamptons. Is that woman really that stupid or is that her “persona” to fill her place on this show? Isn’t she 44 years old now? She can’t drive but IS driving out to the Hamptons in a car her “boyfriend” sent to her from Chicago? Oh, please. When I was 44 years old, I was married, had two children, had lived all over the world, cooked, cleaned, drove for years, taken care of my children by myself while my husband was overseas in the military, etc. This woman is pathetic. 

[chewycandy]

On 3/20/2019 at 6:44 PM, Gam2 said:

I’m watching Tins driving Sonja out to the Hamptons. Is that woman really that stupid or is that her “persona” to fill her place on this show? Isn’t she 44 years old now? She can’t drive but IS driving out to the Hamptons in a car her “boyfriend” sent to her from Chicago? Oh, please. When I was 44 years old, I was married, had two children, had lived all over the world, cooked, cleaned, drove for years, taken care of my children by myself while my husband was overseas in the military, etc. This woman is pathetic. 

That’s your experience. Tins has a different one. It doesn’t make her pathetic. 

[breezy424]

Tinsley knows how to drive.  She said she hasn't driven in a few years.

[Sun-Bun]

On 3/20/2019 at 6:44 PM, Gam2 said:

I’m watching Tins driving Sonja out to the Hamptons. Is that woman really that stupid or is that her “persona” to fill her place on this show? Isn’t she 44 years old now? She can’t drive but IS driving out to the Hamptons in a car her “boyfriend” sent to her from Chicago? Oh, please. When I was 44 years old, I was married, had two children, had lived all over the world, cooked, cleaned, drove for years, taken care of my children by myself while my husband was overseas in the military, etc. This woman is pathetic. 

That seems like an awfully cruel and unfair assessment of Tinsley. True, she has a girlishly immature and carefree vibe about her at times, but that’s likely just due to her lifestyle change/choices in recent years. She was born into a wealthy old money family and never really had to struggle; she was groomed and raised to be a typical Manhattan socialite housewife and mother. She was also married at age 22 for 8 years to a prominent fellow old money socialite who worked in finance, plus she has a BA in art history from Columbia, not to mention her years working in PR and with Vogue before she became a big star socialite with all kinds of high profile contracts initially.

I think her divorce and subsequent banishment from that Manhattan social scene after her abusive relationship scandal really did a number on her and stunted her emotionally. She married her high school sweetheart, after all.

At the very least, Tins seems like a very kind, well-mannered and thoughtful lady who obviously is lost without a man by her side. It must be tough to have come of age thinking you were destined to be married and raising a family with a fellow high society guy, only to somehow be left trying to desperately scramble for another chance at that lifestyle by your early 40’s. I have a deep soft spot for Tins and don’t think she’s half the bimbo people may think she is.

[KungFuBunny]

2 hours ago, Sun-Bun said:

That seems like an awfully cruel and unfair assessment of Tinsley. True, she has a girlishly immature and carefree vibe about her at times, but that’s likely just due to her lifestyle change/choices in recent years. She was born into a wealthy old money family and never really had to struggle; she was groomed and raised to be a typical Manhattan socialite housewife and mother. She was also married at age 22 for 8 years to a prominent fellow old money socialite who worked in finance, plus she has a BA in art history from Columbia, not to mention her years working in PR and with Vogue before she became a big star socialite with all kinds of high profile contracts initially.

I think her divorce and subsequent banishment from that Manhattan social scene after her abusive relationship scandal really did a number on her and stunted her emotionally. She married her high school sweetheart, after all.

At the very least, Tins seems like a very kind, well-mannered and thoughtful lady who obviously is lost without a man by her side. It must be tough to have come of age thinking you were destined to be married and raising a family with a fellow high society guy, only to somehow be left trying to desperately scramble for another chance at that lifestyle by your early 40’s. I have a deep soft spot for Tins and don’t think she’s half the bimbo people may think she is.

Regarding Tinsley saying she hasn't driven in 5 years.

This is something I remember from the plea agreement. They agreed her record would be wiped clean and the case would not go to trial if she agreed to a few things. One was to stay away from 2 of his residences and the other was that she couldn't have any kind of violation - the deadline was 12/31/2016. A traffic ticket would have jeopardized her - they (the ex;s family) would have gone forward with a trial. I would think she didn't drive in 2016 on the advice of her counsel.

There was also a report of a domestic issue with Tinsley and the ex - where he was outside of her mother's car (a range rover Tinsley was using) Tinsley was in the car and Nico was vandalizing her car while she sat in it. I think he scratched it up and broke the windshield and the wipers while she freaked out inside the car. There was probably some lingering trauma from that.

I do think it was stupid for her to drive to the Hamptons in such an expensive car. Especially if she hadn't driven in 5 years and the drive isn't a short drive on local roads in the suburbs. It's a long drive on busy highways with lots of traffic. Plus you've got the incontinent passenger and I'm not talking about Marley the dog.

[LemonSoda]

It's not unusual for someone to not drive for so many years. I have never needed to until recently. I didn't learn until I was almost 30. Everywhere I have lived had great public transport and keeping a car would've been more expense than necessary. I remember the shock to discover that renting a parking space in Manhattan would cost half of what my rent was at the time. I only learned because an Auntie Mame type friend gave me a gift certificate for driving lessons because she felt it was a necessary life skill everyone should have. After the lessons, earning my license, except for a few times renting cars for trips to the Hamptons or to use on vacations I went a decade without driving again. Of course cars have changed a lot since then. They all have GPS, bells and whistles now. I was insecure about not driving for so long I took a few lessons again to get my confidence back. Given Tinsley's wealth,except for her time in Florida she's probably relied on car services most of her adult life. 

I too have a soft spot for Tinsley. Sure she's girlish, immature, stunted, gives too much of her energy to men. But she's well mannered, kind, self depricating,funny, knows how to converse without making it all about herself. She's much more intelligent than she shows. Shes great at reading other women like with the caviar situation. She's not cruel or constantly tearing others down. That kind of fluffy balance is needed on a show with so many strong personalities. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by LemonSoda
iPad typos

[diadochokinesis]

On 3/14/2019 at 5:34 PM, smores said:

The POA thing has me asking quite a few questions.  It's difficult enough to have your own relative declared incompetent, I can't fathom that you could easily do it to a friend, let alone have it not become public, or do it quickly.  Did Luann sign it over willingly?  They made it sound like this was all a pretty quick thing, that they were going behind her and cleaning up after her in a fairly short period of time, so I just don't know how this happened unless Luann did it willingly, in which case, why? Was it another way to skirt her responsibilities?

It is very easy to get a POA when both parties agree. I have had one for my husband off and on for over 10 years. He travels a lot for work and so I need one to take care of anything that isn’t in my name. I’ve bought and sold cars, sold a house, etc with POAs. You don’t have to be declared incompetent to have a POA. They are actually extremely common in certain circles (people taking care of aging parents, military, etc). 

[Gam2]

My husband was in the military for 20 years. I had his POA for all 20 year. It was necessary as we couldn’t depend on his being at home when we needed to execute a document, sell a car, etc. It’s also a matter of trust. We knew people who violated that trust and POA to their sorrow.