Catfights Reunion

After a crazy, yet, wonderfully entertaining season of the Real Housewives of New York City, the catfights returned on BRAVO for the traditional reunion episode. Let me just say that the ladies did not disappoint.

Since the show ended there has been divoce, break-ups over e-mail, dates with A-Rod, and a claim of a Rhianna/Chris Brown incident in reverse reenacted by one of the housewives.

After sixteen years of marriage to Count Alexandre, Countess Luann DeLesseps got an e-mail from the Count asking for a divorce. Since then, the Count has, allegedly, been dating an Egyptian princess.

Model, turned author, Kelly Bensimon was caught in a lovers spat where she, allegedly, physically assaulted one of her ex-boyfriends. She tearfully denied the claims and said "the grass isn't always greener on the other side [of fame]."

Housewife, Bethenny Frankel, has got it all. Her book has been on the New York Times best-seller list since it came out and she has also been happily dating several eligible bachelors.

The other housewives have had thei ups and downs too, but what I really tuned in for was the catfights. After a record-breaking seven-hour reunion tapiing, BRAVO had to turn the reunion episode into TWO reunion episodes. It doesn't get much better than this!

Dirty Jersey Housewives

Writing about my reality television passion, The Real Housewives of New York City is sadly coming to an end on Tuesday when the housewives meet for a re-cap of the season. Fortunately, it will be a two part re-cap that will continue into Thursday, because apparently there is too much drama for just one-hour.

After the first part of the re-cap a new group of housewives will be added to the BRAVO family: the ladies from New Jersey. After a one hour preview of the new season, I’m not so sure if “ladies” would be the right term to describe them.

Three of the New Jersey housewives are related through marriage, and the most outgoing of the three, Caroline, claims that “before she knows somebody, [she] does not like them. I would say she is the bitchiest, but enter stage right her younger sister Dina, a woman who says, “If you think I’m a bitch, then bring it on!”

And the mother of the year award goes to mommy of three of the cutest, yet brattiest girls this side of the turnpike, Teresa. Claiming her husband is “juicy,” Teresa takes her girls shopping at least a couple of times a week and usually buys them whatever their hearts desire. When she hesitated in the preview, her daughter, who looks to be about five years old, said she would rip her hair out.

Although they sound entertaining, I haven’t even gotten to the dirtiest Jersey-est housewife of them all: Danielle. Living in a mansion spending her days tanning by her pool and working out in her own personal gym, she looks for pity by saying that her divorce settlement has still not come in. Two words: boo hoo! One thing she doesn’t have to worry about is love though: she will soon be going on a blind date with a man twenty years younger than her whose phone sex has driven her crazy.

What great role models! I almost don’t even want to give these women the ratings, but I don’t think I will be able to resist. This should get interesting!

The REAL Housewives???

If you’ve ever read my blog before, you know that I am obsessed with Bravo’s series The Real Housewives of New York City, as well as The Real Housewives of Orange County. I get my drama fix from watching these women have it out on national television rather than fill my life with drama.

But lets be honest, or in the words of Bravo, REAL! Some of these women’s favorite pastimes involve cosmetic surgery. I’m going to let the New York housewives off the hook for now even though they have indulged in some botox among other improvements.

But the Orange County ladies have as much of a problem as Joan Rivers. The face lifts, the boob jobs, the nips and tucks, and lets not forget their monthly treatments of botox here, there, and pretty much everywhere.

The video snippet that introduces each housewife at the beginning of each episode showed former Orange County housewife, Tammi, getting lip injections. That’s the first impression of every show when they think of Tammi. And it would be a crime to not mention Lauri’s facial surgeries which have taken over her actual face, which you can see from her before and after pictures.

Bottom line, they are actual housewives, but on a physical appearance level, real they are not!

Project Runway vs. The Fashion Show

So I’ve seen movies with very similar themes; for example, Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride…they’re both about a romantically troubled woman who eventually gets swept off her feet by a successful businessman, and they live happily ever after.

And coincidentally, both movies are starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere and are directed by Garry Marshall. I have recently come across two reality television shows that are almost indistinguishable…and they both happen to be on the same network: Bravo.

After five seasons of watching Heidi Klum say auf wiedersehen and Tim Gunn’s encouraging words, “make it work” on the hit fashion designing show, Project Runway, I experienced déjà vu during the commercial break of another one of my favorite Bravo reality shows, The Real Housewives of New York City.

Designer, Isaac Mizrahi and singer from the late, great girl-group, Destiny’s Child, Kelly Rowland are hosting The Fashion Show, which features 15 up-and-coming designers who want to make a name for themselves in the fashion world who compete for a cash prize and recognition in “the biz.”

Call me crazy, but The Fashion Show sounds like a less interesting version of Project Runway. And let’s take a look at the judge’s panel, shall we. Project Runway has runway model, Heidi Klum, editor-in-chief for Elle magazine, Nina Garcia, and fashion designer, Michael Kors. The “experts” judging The Fashion Show include a world renowned fashion designer, Mizrahi, but I’m confused as to where singer/songwriter Kelly Rowland comes in to play as a fashionista.

I’m going to remain loyal to Project Runway and just wait for the next season to come out instead of tuning in to the wannabe clone that is The Fashion Show.

The Real Catfights Obsession

Drama, drama, drama. That’s what reality television is based on, and it’s what viewers find most appealing. Let’s face it, if reality shows didn’t have full-on brawls, catfights, and backstabbing, they would not be as entertaining.

The Real Housewives of New York City has been my reality television show obsession since last year’s first season. Sure the Orange County Housewives were entertaining with their constant drinking, their spoiling of the brattiest children on television, not to mention their botox, lip injections resembling duck bills and plastic surgery in general.

Not to say that the Real Housewives of New York don’t partake in those activities, but there is one thing that the New Yorkers to that makes them stand apart from the ladies of Orange County: they skip the bitching behind the back, and go straight to the source of the problem- usually, the other Housewives and usually in public.

The group of type A, high-maintenance personalities features a typical Jewish, Long Island princess, a prim and proper Countess, a no-holds-bar business woman who wants to be like her pre-teen daughter, a mother with devilishly wild children and a pretentious husband, and, my personal favorite, a chef turned author who built herself from the ground up and has one-liners that could go on forever.

I am the type of person who likes to keep a minimal amount of negative drama in my life. But to get my fix, I tune in every week on Tuesdays at 10 to BRAVO to see the madness unfold.

The best part is that new viewers can catch up easily with hours of reruns before the week’s new episode. Or, if you are an avid watcher like me, you can just tune in to the reruns for hours of entertainment.