HOT CELEBRITIES: TV critic appraises 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills'

Bravo will air a special episode of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" that addresses Russell Armstrong's suicide.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• "Housewives" returned to Bravo Monday night, less than a month after the suicide of Russell Armstrong
• The show started with the Housewives, minus Taylor, meeting at Adrienne Maloof's home
• An onscreen message informed us that the show had been recorded prior to Russell's death

One of the most-anticipated season premieres of the fall, as well as the most unfortunate, "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" returned to Bravo Monday night, less than a month after the suicide of Russell Armstrong, the estranged husband of "Housewives" castmate Taylor Armstrong.
His death provoked a good deal of debate among viewers, and possibly panic over at Bravo. And here we had the outcome.
The show started with the Housewives, minus Taylor, meeting at Adrienne Maloof's home and discussing the death, which they generally attributed to financial problems. It was like a salon of Victorian gentlewomen trying to allude to a scandal without having to rattle their teacups violently. (An actual photo of Russell might have helped.)
"I had too much information to want to connect with him," said Lisa, rather credibly. Kyle Richards cried, "I think a lot of us feel some guilt about not seeing this coming," then concluded: "Life goes on. It has to."
And "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" goes on, too. It has to.
An onscreen message informed us that the show had been recorded prior to Russell's death. But as Bravo had already announced, the show was re-edited after his death.
A different version of the premiere was sent out to critics earlier this summer. The changes weren't drastic. Gone from the hour -- which focused on an oddly composed dinner of macaroni, salad greens and champagne that Adrienne threw for the Housewives -- was a segment that had Taylor and friends in a sexy lingerie shop, discussing her relationship with Russell and saying she hoped to re-spark some intimacy between them.
Also snipped were some thoughtless comments by Lisa Vanderpump and her husband Ken about what they thought was Taylor's ability to manufacture emotions.
In general, the cameras were more sensitive about not dwelling on Taylor's tautly miserable face --- the right decision, certainly -- although she still came across with a sort of Cate Blanchett intensity.
None of this resolves the new season's basic problem. "Housewives" is a confection, not a documentary project. It can incorporate a range of dramatic problems -- including Camille Grammer's divorce -- but Russell Armstrong's off-camera, post-filming, pre-season suicide remains like a storm system swirling above all these preposterously outfitted frenemies kissing and undercutting each other in the California sun.
If there is ever to be rain, and there will be, it will be controlled like a sprinkler system. And so, while a champagne that goes for $2,200 a bottle is served to dinner guests, and a tiny dog named Jiggy laps water from gold-leaf glassware, you watch and wonder what footage has gone missing, what footage has been added, how the recipe has been and will be adjusted to keep you entertained.

'Real Housewives' star Jacqueline Laurita: 'Teresa is scum'

Monday October 3, 2011

"OK, so I'm losing it," Jacqueline Laurita tweeted Saturday.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Two previously friendly cast mates are now coming to verbal blows
• "She knew. She plotted it," Jacqueline Laurita said
• Laurita, meanwhile, claims to be stepping back from the drama

In true late-season "Real Housewives" fashion, the gloves have come off.
As the third season of the "Real Housewives of New Jersey" winds down -- amid word that Jacqueline Laurita quit the show and did not attend the finale taping -- two previously friendly cast mates are now coming to blows.
Verbal blows, that is. When rumors surfaced that Melissa Gorga once worked as a stripper, Jacqueline began implying on her Twitter that Melissa's sister-in-law, Teresa Giudice, was behind the buzz.
"Teresa told me that 'rumor' about Melissa when she first started the show," Laurita Tweeted Saturday. "She wanted her out then. She knew. She plotted it. She played dumb on camera and even defended Melissa."
And in a separate Tweet: "Teresa is scum!"
No response yet from Giudice, but as for the alleged stripper in the mix, she took to her website to refute the rumor.
"We are filming season 4 so there is not too much I can confirm, but there is one thing that I would like to clarify ...the accusation that I was once a dancer at a strip club," Gorga writes. "This is 100% NOT TRUE. I did bartend fro a few weeks at a bikini bar while I was in college. My outfit was a tank top, shorts and sneakers. SORRY, no bubbies there."
"The reason I am so adamant about clearing this up is because people are making false accusations solely to hurt me and my family," she continues. "Someone desperately wants to knock me down and prove that I have something to hide, but then tries to cover it up by putting the blame on production."
Laurita, meanwhile, claims to be stepping back from the drama.
"OK, so I'm losing it," she Tweeted Saturday. "This is what all this negativity I'm surrounded w/does 2me. I'm taking deepbreaths&gettingcontrolofmyself."