Part two of the Real Housewives Of New York is upon us, and it’s time for the hostility between Bethenny Frankel and Carole Radziwill to be paraded across the stage with epic ferocity. It’s the end of an era, folks. And watching last night’s reunion also signaled the end of Carole’s giving of any f**ks when it comes to Andy Cohen and the show.
We pick up with Dorinda Medley defending her drunken slurring and JOVANI! heckling, which she claims was just a nice show of support for the business Luann De Lesseps refused to promote. Also, Dorinda maintains that she was not drunk when screaming at Luann in Colombia about “not having a mugshot!” Mmmkay. No one (not even Ramona Singer) believes a word of this. But Dorinda says she’s seeing a therapist now, which is helping her move through her pain. Will she stop drinking though? The answer is a definitive NO.
Dorinda thinks Luann was – and is – in the wrong for calling her out in Colombia, and she’s still not over it. Since Luann isn’t there to defend herself, Bethenny becomes the Countess’s mouthpiece, explaining how hard it was for Luann to come straight outta rehab and try to act as if everything was normal – especially on a boozy cast trip. Affronted at Bethenny’s concern, which she thinks is fake, Dorinda sarcastically reminds everyone that SHE has been the better friend to Luann – drunk or sober.
When Sonja Morgan tries to jump into the argument, Carole immediately shuts her down. “You shouldn’t talk about anyone being drunk,” she chides. Dorinda piles on, which causes Sonja to remind her, “I don’t get drunk and insult my friends’ vaginas!” Um, no, I guess she does not. Two points to Sonja, then? #EZPAssCallBack
Calming down, Dorinda tells Andy she loves Luann, and can’t reconcile what happened this season with their decade-plus friendship. She also can’t reconcile with the fact that Tinsley Mortimer’s sorta boyfriend, Scott, was invited to her cabaret show but John wasn’t. Andy wonders why Dorinda thought it was okay to HECKLE Luann at her own show? Dorinda just shrugs. She believes that her friendship with Luann will eventually heal. (Like, for example, right in time for season 11 contract signing? Hmm…)
Just in case we all forgot, Tinsley is still actually breathing on one of these couches. Yes, it’s time to wander back through her non-storyline of moving into bigger penthouses, crying over frozen eggs, trying on wedding dresses without actually being engaged, and ultimately getting broken up with once again. All together now: Pooooor Tinsley!
Tinsley admits that Scott sees other people when they’re “on a break,” but she’s okay with it – and she thinks Scott is still “the one.” Hahahahaha. She’s also okay with being the most boring RHONY cast member on this stage, apparently. At least she got a haircut out of the deal, which she’s desperately hoping will sustain her dramatic arc for another season’s worth of scenes. This. Is. Pathetic. I like Tinsley, by the way, but in a cast of powerhouse women like this, the comparison of her boring ass to them is laughable.
Without Luann here to reflect on the season she basically carried on her shoulders, we are left to watch her highlights reel roll and contemplate the insane drama that came from her life basically imploding. Bethenny shares the story of Luann’s intervention, which came on the heels of Luann being sued by her ex-husband and kids. Apparently, Bethenny set Luann up with Dennis Shields (who has since passed away, sadly) to get legal advice. But Luann agreed that it was really rehab that she needed again, after having gone on a bender following the lawsuit news.
Andy asks what everyone thought of Luann’s mental and emotional state coming into season 10, fresh on the heels of her quickie marriage to and divorce from Tom D’Agostino. Ramona saw Luann’s increased drinking right away, and her recent drinking was noticeable by most everyone who saw her too. Sonja seems surprised that Luann relapsed though, given her former commitment to sobriety. But Luann’s ego got inflated as her star began to rise via the cabaret shows, which did nothing to help her sobriety.
Bethenny saw a new vulnerability in Luann this year, and Dorinda agrees. “She’s like a sweet kid who needs love,” says Bethenny, who thinks Luann really began to unravel when her marriage to the Count fell apart, followed by living alone in the Hamptons while hearing about the Count’s “shenanigans” all over the world. At least everyone seems to be on the same page about supporting Lu now, which is probably the only point they’ll agree on all night. Oh wait – they also all agree Ramona is a giant asshole for reaching out to Tom over the holidays to beg for an invitation to his party. HA.
Enough of the niceties! Let’s get back to clawing each other’s eyes out! Moving on to the Bethenny/Carole breakup, we watch their trillion arguments play back, still left to wonder WTF actually happened?!? Was it really about Adam? Was it about Carole thinking Bethenny turned into a “mean girl?” Was it Bethenny feeling Carole pull away and becoming jealous of her budding friendship with Tinsley? Was it about that goddamned ridiculous Red Scarf Guy?
Bottom line: It was about all of this and more. And at this point, both women have watched the drama unfold on camera and in the blogs. (But let’s relive the nightmare anyway, shall we?) After not seeing each other all summer, Bethenny says she felt left out of Carole’s life. Despite this, Carole says she was stunned by Bethenny’s comments about Adam, who became the catalyst to keep the friendship at arm’s length. “I wanted us to go back to normal,” says Carole, “but I don’t think Bethenny ever did.” Umm, WHAT? Given what we saw this season, I’m gonna go ahead and call BS on that comment.
Calling Bethenny dismissive and condescending, Carole says she finally just gave up on the relationship. After a series of tit-for-tats about who texted whom what, evidence is procured. Carole pulls out her reading glasses – so we know this is serious – and proceeds to read all of Bethenny’s texts over Christmas, which she thinks proves how “extra” Bethenny was being to her. While Bethenny rifles through her own evidence of printed out emails (OMG, why is this happening?!?), she argues that Carole cut her off without warning over nothing. And she bashed her the whole season.
Carole can’t believe what she’s hearing, arguing that it was Bethenny who bashed her! Andy pipes up (armed with a montage of constant Beth/Carole jabs at one another all season) to point out that they pretty much equally bashed each other all year.” Are you going to continue to bully me, or am I going to be able to speak?” yells Carole when Bethenny goes full court press on her, demanding “evidence” of these insults. Reading a list of wrongdoings from her phone, an exasperated Carole finally just sums it up: “What she does is creates this false narrative about me, it’s completely false, it’s all lies.”
The pinnacle of all the insults is Bethenny’s age-shaming, which she started in the Berkshires and lasted through Colombia. True dat. Carole wonders why Bethenny kept harping on calling her out on trying to act “young” when she’s always been proud of her age. Bethenny has no real answers, so she turns it around, reminding Carole of the horrible things she said about her, especially in her blogs.
When Andy quotes one of Carole’s biting blogs, Bethenny asks when Carole got her medical degree? Because she’s been diagnosing her for months now. “You said ON CAMERA that I didn’t have a career,” Carole fights back, returning to the real issue. “Is this what you call female empowerment?” Carole simply sees her blogs as a clap back to the vitriol she heard Bethenny spewing in her interviews. Short of whipping out their resumes and medical records right here and now to decide who’s the more successful and mentally stable human being, these two chicks are done. There’s nowhere to go from here, and everyone at this reunion knows it.
But it’s Andy who gets clued in to Carole’s imminent departure from the franchise when he again reminds her, “You both bashed each other on the show.” Because it doesn’t even take a millisecond for Carole to some STRAIGHT AT ANDY, guns blazing, with her reply. “Shut up, Andy. You’re so full of sh*t!” she barks. “Are you kidding me? What – are you afraid of her too?”
Mouth agape, Andy just stares at Carole, then sarcastically replies, “Yeah, I’m afraid of her too,” rolling his eyes. Oh snap! Andy didn’t know he was going to be in the hot seat for once – and, wow, he sure doesn’t look happy about it.
TELL US: HAVE WE FIGURED OUT WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN CAROLE AND BETHENNY YET? WILL THE WOMEN ACTUALLY BE SUPPORTIVE OF LUANN ONCE SHE GETS OUT OF REHAB AGAIN? WAS CAROLE COMING FOR ANDY BECAUSE SHE KNEW SHE WAS DONE WITH THE SHOW?
Photo By: Charles Sykes/Bravo
