The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills - Reunion Part One

With Camille and Lisa on one couch and Kyle, Adrienne and Taylor on the other, part one of the three-part reunion of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” kicked off last night.  Kim Richards was not in attendance when the reunion was taped, but we saw previews of a private sit-down with host Andy Cohen to discuss rehab and why she went (“I’m an alcoholic”).   Kyle was asked about Kim, and the only thing she would say is that she was doing well.  She felt anything further was Kim’s story to tell.  The ladies all agreed that there had been something off with Kim all season, but they didn’t know quite what it was and glad she was getting help now. Andy kicked off this episode with the light and fluffy – talking about Adrienne and the dish soap on the chicken.  Camille and Brandi supposedly making out in Las Vegas (“We danced . . . there was no making out.  We didn’t swap spit or anything.)  Lisa and the noticeable difference in the shape of her backside this year.  A good two minutes were spent discussing Lisa’s “ba-donka-donk” booty and that she did not get any implants, chalking it up to the dresses she wears are a little tighter and maybe that’s what accenting it.  I say if your booty looks that good – show it off girl!  Questions about Lisa, Kevin Lee (the wedding planner) and was it really a million dollar wedding – none of course that Lisa would answer other than to say that it was not a million dollars, Pandora doesn’t know how much it costs so she is not discussing it, it was a joint vision between her and Pandora, and it was everything they dreamed of.  The snarky comments started with talk of the tiara Lisa wore.  Adrienne said “once a princess, always a princess” about Lisa and the chill was visible between the two of them.   

As if on cue, the next “segment” was about Lisa and Adrienne.  We saw a clip package from this season and you could see things that caused tension – the cooking class, the shoe comments, the bachelorette party in Las Vegas.  There were times during her “interviews” that Lisa made remarks in her sassy, British way that could be perceived as rude or disrespectful (I thought they were hilarious – but I wasn’t the object of those remarks).  Adrienne was clearly offended by the handling of Pandora’s bachelorette party (it wasn’t held at the Palms, but instead at Planet Hollywood).  Adrienne said that she was more upset that Lisa didn’t tell her about it before hand but she had to hear it from others.  Lisa said she didn’t have a hand in planning the party, and Pandora wanted it at Planet Hollywood.   This disagreement is all about ego – I thought it when we saw it happen and I still think it watching the reunion.  I enjoy Adrienne and I think she is a classy, upfront businesswoman.  But she needed to let this go.  The party wasn’t held there – end of story.  Does it really solve anything to be beating this in to the ground?  Adrienne was also upset about the “Maloof-Hoof” comments.  Lisa said she though it was funny (no one else did) and she somewhat apologized for it.  You could see that Lisa was getting exasperated at this point because it was starting to be a gang-up-on-Lisa fest and she was over it already.  It didn’t look like Adrienne was interested in accepting an apology or moving on from it.  Sounds like there’s more behind this than shoes . . . .

The pick apart Lisa-fest continued with Andy commenting that Lisa makes a lot of digs that she thinks are funny but no one else does and asks the women if there are other things that Lisa has said that bothers them.  Yikes!  Kyle jumped right in and started talking about how Lisa’s humor is condescending and can hurt people’s feelings.  Lisa, in an attempt to defend herself, reminded Kyle of hurtful things she had said, and Kyle said that it was a retaliation remark.  What is this, high school?  Why oh why do these amazing women continue to go down the path of “she said this about me so now I’m going to say this about her?”  There was a lot of conversation at this point about what it takes to be friends with Lisa – and Kyle’s comment to Taylor that “maybe Lisa preys on the weak”.  Kyle feels that in order to be friends with Lisa, you need to be a strong person and Taylor wasn’t that way for most of the season, which is why she and Lisa struggled.  Taylor chimed in at this point and said that as soon as she spoke up for herself with Lisa and was more forthcoming about her feelings, everything was fine between the two of them and she’s really been there for her.   Lisa genuinely seemed to listen to what Kyle had to say, and apologized to her for the comment that hurt her feelings, as well as apologized to Adrienne for the “Maloof-whatever that I won’t say again (Hoof)”.  Both Kyle and Adrienne were, in my opinion, a little snotty and continued to criticize Lisa for the WAY she was apologizing.   Clearly they had more to say and weren’t interested in an apology.   “Being in a friendship with you is like playing chess with Bobby Fisher, every move is so calculated.” said Kyle, implying that Lisa is manipulative.   Kyle said that she gets nervous about being honest with Lisa because she doesn’t want her to get angry with her.   Lisa, somewhat sarcastically at this point, implied that she was scared of her and didn’t want to get on her wrong side.  Kyle talks briefly about “game night” and how upset and hurt she was by what people said about her and her actions that night and how that’s not who she really is.  Lisa interrupted to say that Kyle was mean-spirited that night.  In the end, Kyle summed it up by saying that they all care about each other and they really are friends, but they have their moments.  Lisa said that if you put six people together on a journey they will, of course, have disagreements.  I didn’t feel like there was any sort of a resolution and I there is definitely more to come down this road.

Next up, the “Anything Goes in Beverly Hills” segment and a clip recap of things like Lisa’s fabulous white ski bunny outfit, Dana’s $25,000 sunglasses, bottles of the most expensive champagne in the world and edible gold dust at Adrienne’s party, camels and belly-dancers at Pandora’s engagement party, and the full spa that Adrienne had built inside of her home.   “This may be normal in Beverly Hills, but everybody else here thinks we’re nuts!”  That’s an understatement, Kyle!  Adrienne said that the entire spa was a couple of hundred thousand dollars (at $30,000 for a single facial machine I’m sure it added up quickly!).  Camille was asked about the nannies and homes shown on last season and how things were divided in the divorce.  She and Kelsey are still working out the details of the settlement; they sold the Hamptons house, but had not yet sold the Colorado or Hawaii homes.  The ladies were asked what was the most expensive dress any of them owned - Lisa said she has a Valentino that she paid something like 30,000 Euros (which is almost $40,000 today).  Purchased before the recession of course.  WOW, I’d love to see a picture of that!  Camille’s most expensive dress was maybe $12,000.  A viewed asked a question about the $25,000 sunglasses and Lisa and Kyle both agreed that they knew no one that would spend that kind of money on sunglasses.  However, if they did they certainly wouldn’t talk about it.  It’s the unspoken rule of Beverly Hills – you don’t talk about money.

Andy next moved on to Taylor and started by asking how she and Kennedy were doing.  She said that it is a day-to-day process for both of them and not all days are good.  Taylor has a lot of flashbacks that she wishes she could stop but can’t.  It’s all a part of her healing process.  She and Kennedy are both still seeing Dr. Sophy, and he checks on them every day.  At this point, it has been about six months since Russell died.  The ladies were all shocked when they found out – TMZ called Lisa at 6am and told her and she thought it was a lie.  Andy asked them if they thought the show should have aired or not.  Taylor had no opinion; the show was the farthest thing from her mind at that point.  Adrienne felt that the show should air to spread the message of domestic violence and suicide.  Camille thought that the show should not have aired because she was worried about Russell’s children, despite Andy asking her if it had anything to do with her being the one who “outed” the abuse on camera.  Much conversation was had with Taylor about why she would do a reality show being in an abusive marriage.  She felt that at some point, the cameras would either provide her protection from the abuse or force them in to a divorce.  Taylor was very emotional talking about all of this, but held herself together pretty well.   When asked why she thought Russell would agree to participate in the show, she said that although she loved him very much and she misses him terribly, he had a strange personality and was a narcissist, which is maybe why he wanted the attention.  Taylor feels that without the show, she’s been told from experts that typically situations similar to hers end up murder-suicide.  Adrienne felt that the show saved her life.   They showed a clip package of Taylor falling apart and replaying all of the worst parts of the season for her.  It’s clear that she was in a lot of pain.  For Taylor, it’s scary for her to watch herself like that – pushed to the edge.  Lisa is very emotional watching Taylor like that.

Andy next wanted to discuss the Tea Party.  Camille felt Taylor goaded her into telling her secrets because she kept harping on “everyone needs to be honest here”.  Camille asked if she wanted her to be honest and Taylor nodded her head so Camille said it.   Taylor’s response is that she didn’t realize Camille was going to be honest about a private conversation they had prior to filming.  Camille was very upset that Taylor categorized it “private” since she had told all of the women already and that she was specifically singled out as “the one” that said it in front of the cameras.  Everyone knew but it was confusing for the other ladies – because she would tell them about the abuse, and then it would get better and she would want everyone to like Russell again and they just couldn’t.  None of the women ever witnessed the abuse first hand but Lisa saw an awful text from Russell to Taylor.  She said it was very aggressive, with lots of swearing and name-calling and not something that a man who loves his wife writes.  Andy briefly mentioned Taylor’s book (to be spoken about in depth later), but commented that she said after Russell’s suicide, she missed the control and abuse.  Taylor explained that she is so used to having someone there to tell her what to do all the time.  Now she is able to make all of her own decisions now, it’s difficult and she is learning how to do it.  Camille said when you are constantly being criticized for things over and over again; you just don’t know what to do anymore.  Taylor said the emotion abuse was so severe some days that she would say  “Just hit me so we can get this over with” because she knew that would end it.   With regard to the email that Russell sent to Camille, some of the ladies felt that Taylor knew about it (Brandi had seen Russell and this is what he had told her).  Taylor didn’t know the contents of the email – she and Russell weren’t speaking when it was sent out (which was the night of Pandora’s bachelorette party in Las Vegas – which Taylor attended with Lisa). Camille felt that Taylor had gone home from the tea party and told Russell what happened in order for her to get the email in the first place.  She doesn’t seem to hold a grudge with Taylor regarding the email, and feels that it seems like the email was the tipping point for her to make a change.

More pot stirring from Andy Cohen regarding Bernie (Adrienne’s chef) and his negative feelings toward Lisa.  Is this Round Three of the Lisa-BashFest? Another clip package with Bernie making snarky comments about Lisa, Giggy drinking from a water goblet at the dinner table, and Bernie arriving at the opening of SUR, being kissy-kissy with Lisa and she not knowing who he was.  For someone who had such rude things to say about her, he sure seemed two-faced at SUR!  Not once do you see Lisa actually make a negative comment or be rude to Bernie.  Lisa was very insulted and offended that Adrienne allowed someone who worked for her to publicly trash one of her friends   She would never let someone work for her that behaved that way.  Once Adrienne spoke, we discover that she herself had never heard Lisa say anything either – it was all second and third hand information!  Then Lisa brought up that Bernie sold a story to the tabloids about Lisa coming to a Christmas party at Adrienne’s and supposedly walking in the door and screaming that all of the food was gone.  I’m not taking sides here, but in two years have we ever head Lisa even raise her voice?  Screaming doesn’t seem to be her style.  Adrienne was very defensive of Bernie, and then accused Lisa of selling stories to Radar Online.  Oh My Gosh!!!!  This was the argument of the night!!  Lisa was adamant (even swearing on her life and the life of her children) that she had never received money for any conversation that she had ever had with Radar Online.  Adrienne didn’t believe her – again basing her opinion from rumor and second hand information.  Lisa is absolutely furious, explaining that there are many prominent people and stories in her restaurants every day, they are never in the press, and “it’s such a f-ing insult” to say that to a friend.   She is so offended by that, it’s such a character assassination and such a low blow that she has lost respect for this entire situation.  The ladies were SHOCKED that the F word came out of the normally serene and classy Lisa (did you see Kyle’s eyes get big?).  From the looks of things, Adrienne realized that she pushed this one way too far, and apologized.  I’m not sure that Lisa will move on too easily from that.

57 minutes in to a 60-minute show, we finally get to see Brandi (sitting on the couch with Lisa and Camille).  A little catch up on what she’s been up to since filming ended (she had a ceremony but not a wedding on NYE to her best friend – not legal!) and they jumped right in.  Andy commented that she and Camille immediately bonded over being wronged by famous men and how both of them are supposedly co-parenting while not speaking to either of their ex’s (Brandi only speaks to her ex-husbands assistant).  However, she says her kids are great and unaffected by it all.  I’m not sure how that is possible, but they are her children so I will take her word for it.  And I was happy to hear Brandi say neither she nor Eddie say anything negative about each other in front of the children and they put the kids first.  That’s how it should be (although saying stuff on camera might not be the greatest idea either since they will be able to watch it one day – just my thought!)  Brandi started to talk about how she felt very out of place at the charity event where she first met all of the ladies - they just looked at her like she was a joke and they were going to mistreat her and talk about her behind her back (which they did).  It looked like it was finally going to get interesting and then – episode over!!

Tune in next week for Part 2 of the Reunion – finger pointing, accusations about bullying, name-calling, lies, and slams about the book are just a preview of what’s to come!  

If you or someone you know needs help, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at  www.thehotline.org or 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at  www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255). 


Photo Credit:  BravoTV