On a recent afternoon, the new cast of “The Real Housewives of New York City” gathered at a members-only club in downtown Manhattan so exclusive its management didn’t want it named in this story.
The women were there to discuss their hopes for revitalizing the embattled Bravo series between bites of tuna tartare.
Brynn Whitfield, a marketing executive, was recalling how she came to be cast in the reality show when she stopped, mid-sentence, to find out what her co-star, Erin Lichy, and a female Bravo publicist, were talking about across the table.
“Sorry, is this about a boy? If so, then I want to hear about it,” Whitfield said. “All I heard was, ‘Don’t text him back.’ ”
Lichy, an interior designer who lives in TriBeCa, explained that, in her view, the publicist needed to wait at least another 20 minutes to before responding to a text message.
“Oh, are you waiting the same amount of time?” said Whitfield, clearly familiar with this dating strategy.
“She must,” said Lichy, firmly.
“Or double?” suggested Whitfield, grinning beneath a wide-brimmed black hat and a cascade of auburn hair.
Lichy nodded in agreement: “Double.”
This uncanny ability to sniff out drama, stir the pot and pull a story line out of thin air is bound to serve the women of “RHONY” as they attempt to rebuild the reality series from scratch. After a season mired in controversies about race, the show returned to Bravo this month featuring six new “housewives” (none of whom are actual housewives).
Unlike previous iterations of the series, whose casts were overwhelmingly white, the “RHONY” reboot reflects the cosmopolitan, multicultural city in which it is set. The new cast is younger by about two decades and more diverse in every way (except, perhaps, economically; none of these women lives with roommates in a fifth-floor walk-up).
“RHONY” is attempting to do something that no other “Housewives” show has ever done — start over,…
Read the full article here
