Something in my gut tells me I should be deeply embarrassed about this, but I’m having a difficult time concentrating on my thesis because there’s a Real Housewives of NYC marathon on Bravo right at this very moment. The Real Housewives has become a guilty pleasure of mine that I’m no longer all that guilty about. Last year it was Degrassi: The Next Generation, however, I’ve tired of the Canadian teen angst and now the rubbernecking beauty of the Real Housewives has drawn me in, you know, like a terrible train accident. I can’t look away. I’ve never witnessed such unadultered crap. I love it.
First of all, I’m not sure if any of the NYC Housewives qualify as “housewives”. Two are unmarried. All of them work outside the home in one capacity or another. And, they don’t do housework–that’s what their “housekeepers” are for. But, nonetheless they circulate in a magnificent world of parties, fashion, and socialite bitchiness. Oh how I love it. They don’t even try to hide their snobbery. For example, Bethenny and the Countess Lu Ann de Lesseps lunch at a Hamptons restaurant and complain about how touristy it has become, “and not the right kind of tourists.”
The Countess, is by far my favorite in terms of snobbery. She never feels bad about being privileged, prices on dresses, “don’t matter so much,” as she tells her daughter on a shopping trip when her daughter asks, “how much is that?” The Countess is a maven of manners. Nothing was more hilarious than watching her teach inner city girls in Brooklyn about manners and self-esteem. To see their eyes collectively glaze over filled my heart with more glee than the prospect of being set free in Michael Kors to buy whatever my heart desires.
Oh, and the time Jill gave an interview to the BBC and tried with all her might to express her feelings on the economy was also quite entertaining. The interviewer looked absolutely bemused and I thought that was just absolutely fabulous, especially when he says to her, “It’s hard to see crisis around here.” Jill then lectures on spending less than you have, which of course is easy for her. Did I mention how much I love this show!
