Mea Culpa

So first scene (after the Season 1 recap) and we’re straight into the drama. I love it how Jill says in this scene “Simon said exactly this” and then goes onto say “he said something like ‘I know how to read people like Jill, She’s from Long Island and it shows!’” You hear me say how she went totally off tangent when she was ‘hitting us back.' And what you didn’t hear me say was she should have gone like for like and had a go at me for being from Australia. But no she went for the jugular and made much more of a situation than really was warranted that occurred at the 3rd party (closed) after last year’s A-List Awards. I do love the irony in this scene though as Jill was with Bethenny (who was egging her on) and wasn’t it Bethenny who was the one throughout Season 1 who continually seemed to drink too much!

For the record the article from New York Magazine can be seen here.  When Alex mentions that she thinks Jill is jealous, it’s because between the end of Season 1 airing and Season 2 starting there was definite competition among the housewives (and me!) as to who was getting the most column inches in the press; hopefully for the right reasons and not in the snarky gossip columns. I remember Jill questioning us both as to how we had arranged the article, whether our PR person had got it for us and so on and so on. We are all nothing if not hypercompetitive, and if we weren’t I don’t think any of us would have been invited back by Bravo for Season 2.

We then cut to Ramona showing the Cindy Adam’s column to Avery, and I wonder if that will be the only time this season Ramona will come off as being a little nice to me! (You’ll have to watch what happens!)

This segment is followed by a random but lovely scene of Alex reading to Johan and me to Francois. This snippet surprised me in that about the only times you saw Francois last season just happened to be when he was acting up, so to see our two normal boys being read to by two normal parents was very much a departure from how we were shown last season. It mightn’t have been one of the most dramatic scenes but it was one of the most natural, normal and real scenes of us as a family.

Next we cut to Jill & Bethenny who happened to meet the owner of the house we rented for the July 4th weekend. Now viewers might have found it hard to believe that that was a coincidence but I can assure it was. As Alex is quoted in this episode, the Hamptons, like NYC, is really just a small place!

Anyway, as we pulled up to the house we too were a little shocked by its external appearance, however never one to judge a book by its cover, we were happily relieved to get inside to see that internally it was just like the photos we’d seen prior to renting it. Inside, while full of every tchotchke known to mankind, were enough bedrooms (5) and bathrooms (3) as well as seating areas for us and the boys as well as some guests we’d invited to stay with us that weekend. The yard was huge, as was the pool, both of which the boys enjoyed in abundance throughout the 4 day holiday weekend.

Next we cut to LuAnn discussing the Cindy Adams column with Jill. Jill said that my NY Mag quote was "sort of like I was better than her." LuAnn replied stating that for her that’s the worst when people think they are better than other people. Now, I won’t remind you all of the scene with Bethenny,  LuAnn and the driver! OK?

So to the Social Life Magazine party where Jill quickly mentions that the party she went to there a few weeks ago (the one we were all at Memorial Weekend) was much better and Brad states how it’s so pedestrian and if he sees any more plastic surgery he’s leaving. This has successfully set up this party as somewhere beneath them but of course not to us. This is reinforced with the talking head shot of Bethenny having a go at us about attending a party with Social Life in its title. Perhaps she should have turned this cover down a few months later or maybe they now want it back.

So Jill and I had our little heart to heart; our mea culpas, although I still believe her transgression was way more egregious than mine, and then irony of all ironies, she suggested that Bobby and I should go and shoot Tequila. I suppose in her defense she was trying to prove her point after the event!

Wow almost 2/3rd’s of the episode is over and surely Alex & I can now have some respite and others can take up the drama but no, it’s off to dinner with Ramona & Mario. No doubt one of those dinners where she no longer has to wait for a table. viz Ramona: (Interrupting) “…I [never have a problem now] getting a reservation, or if I walk into a restaurant and they go ‘I'm sorry, we don't have a table outside,’ after 15 minutes they figure out who my husband and I are and they go ‘Oh, you know that table we thought we didn't have? We have that for you right now.’”

So Ramona and Mario are in their own words having a rare night out together and what do they discuss? Me and whether I’m gay, bisexual, metro, a clothes horse, or a whatever, but really, they really must lead an interesting life if I am their prime topic of dinner conversation. Is it just me or is this constant refrain about me being gay getting tired? I am straight and so secure that I can wear outlandish clothes, feel totally comfortable with friends who aren’t straight, and not really give a sh*t what people thinl, but I really don’t get why this should be such a big talking point!

OK Mario gets to lick the spilled drink from Ramona’s forearm and now surely Alex & I can sit back and watch the rest of episode 1. Ah, at last, the new housewife gets introduced. We see her modeling and riding and meet her children Sea & Thaddeus (Kelly, wish you’d been on Season 1 to take the heat of the reaction to my children’s names, named after my father). Love the scene where she talks about buying beautiful things and she’s shown walking out of a changing room wearing a big red tent!)

It’s a shame that all Jill’s work for the Help for Orphans benefit was reduced to only a few minutes of screen time but it did include Ramona talking about Alex’s and my bad energy while she sucks up to Kelly. Jill’s comment about the effort we made to get out there was nice and further confirmation we were all over fighting each other in the NY media. And all I can say about Ramona leaving the benefit, is she must be a clairvoyant as she left before we even arrived!

I won’t comment on what they showed as ‘coming up’ throughout the rest of the season, but will do when each episodes airs!