The Real Housewives of NYC

Last night was a double header of guilty-pleasure TV viewing at my house.

First we watched American Idol and Dave mentioned, like he does every single time we watch this show, how much he can’t stand Ryan Seacrest, especially his voice. Dave doesn’t like anything about Ryan and thinks he’s really short.

I don’t have a problem with Ryan but I loathe Paula Abdul and I kept yelling at the TV screen for her to “just quit talking!“ I hate her floaty, breathy, spaced out commentary and wish she’d stop drinking her pre-show vodka martini with a splash of valium. Her non-sensical communication style drives me absolutely nuts but I’ll admit my yelling at Paula, via the TV screen, is starting to get a little out of hand.

Possibly I should mention that my grandma (displaced former owner of the Buick Skylark) used to make disparaging comments to Vanna White every night at 6:30 during Wheel of Fortune so perhaps my problem is hereditary.

After American Idol, we put the offspring to bed and watched The Real Housewives of New York City attention whore their way through another episode.

And lest you think I‘m a total hypocrite, I‘d like to address a few things: A) I realize attention whoring on a reality show isn‘t that different from attention whoring on a blog (100 more things about me, anyone?).

B) I never said I was the classiest housewife in the universe.

C) If there was a possibility of a Real Housewives of Dallas County spin-off I’d camp overnight outside wherever the casting call was being held so I would be first in line to audition. Being paid to drink wine on camera and come up with snarky stuff to say about the other housewives would sorta be like me hitting the mother lode.

Last night’s episode opened with Jill planning an apartment “face lift” with her “gay husband” Brad because “you should re-do your apartment every seven years“ (Brad should not be confused with Jill’s non-gay, and kinda creepy, husband Bobby who reminds me of a crime boss with his slicked-back hair and beady eyes).

I had my own gay boyfriend my freshman year of college and thanks to my lack of a reliable gaydar, I mistakenly thought he was going to be my heterosexual boyfriend.

We’d watch TV under the covers in my dorm room bed, we exchanged Christmas gifts, and we saw the movie “White Nights” starring Mikhail Baryshnikov together. I thought we might make out someday but I finally got my head out of my ass sophomore year and realized we both liked boys.

Next on the Real Housewives were Alex and Simon discussing their Brooklyn town home renovation with an architect. They told him they wanted something other than granite because granite was “so five years ago.“ They also mentioned they might like a neon green oven. Alex told the architect she’d like built in bookshelves so Francois and Johan could grab a book by Dickens or Shakespeare whenever they felt like it.

Then, we see a shot of Alex and Simon lounging in their ten foot by three foot Wal-Mart wading pool, lamenting the fact that poor New York apartment dwellers don’t have the backyard luxuries they do. I guess Alex forgot that a lot of the poor New York apartment dwellers got the hell out of the city and are actually enjoying the beautiful swimming pools at their Hampton’s houses.

LuAnn (AKA Countess deLesseps) and Bethenny meet for lunch and LuAnn asks Bethenny if she‘ll help cook for the Hope Lodge charity event for the American Cancer Society. Bethenny agrees and, on the night of the dinner, joins LuAnn and Ramona, who has also agreed to help.

Before Ramona arrived, Bethenny told LuAnn about Social Life magazine doing a photo spread on her and selecting her to be on the cover. LuAnn, a former model, stated that the photographs would be “re-touched” which hurt Bethenny’s feelings.

While the three of them prepare dinner, Ramona gives Bethenny unsolicited dating advice and tells her to “date a bunch of men, see what you like.” LuAnn does not care for this advice and feels dating several men will give Bethenny a bad reputation.

Ramona fires back, “What do you know, you got married to a man twice your age.”

Me-ow!

The countess came unglued. She responded that Alec (AKA Count deLesseps), was fifteen years older than her and she married him when she was twenty-seven. She asked Ramona if she though Alec was an “old man” and Ramona said she thought he looked like one.

Just my two cents but I think the Countess is a wee bit defensive about their age difference because Alec does look quite a bit older than she does. If I were LuAnn, I’d be more worried about the fact that she’s the Count’s fourth wife but that’s just me.

LuAnn retaliated by telling Ramona that her husband Mario was a handsome guy but he was no spring chicken either. I think Mario’s biggest concern should be figuring out how to convince his pit bull-on- wheels wife Ramona to keep her totally tactless pie-hole shut.

Bethenny asks LuAnn to lunch and tries to explain how her feelings were hurt when LuAnn made the statement about Bethenny’s photographs needing to be re-touched. LuAnn accused Bethenny of being ultra-sensitive and Bethenny never gets the apology she is seeking.

Personally, the Countess is starting to bug me. She wrote a book on etiquette and now she thinks she can correct everyone else‘s manners even though her own are often atrocious.

So far, The Real Housewives of NYC has not disappointed. There’s just as much drama as The Real Housewives of OC but the NYC housewives have more face-to-face confrontations whereas OC is more passive-aggressive, at least until the reunion show when they all went ballistic on each other.

I think the double-header of American Idol and The Real Housewives of New York make for a relaxing Tuesday night. It’s nice to watch something that entertains you and doesn’t require you to think.

Dave and I watch Lost on Wednesday nights. That show gives us enough to think about for days.