The drama from Bravocon continues as Bethenny discusses the Vanity Fair article, what’s behind the sponsors and a glaring omission from the event! Plus, the latest on Kyle and Mauricio.
The Bravo conversation continues. The people on very successful shows are defending the realm, which I don't blame them. They are in a great position right now because they are on successful shows and Bravo really needs them to defend and protect the realm and market how amazing everything is. And I had totally understand that the Vanity Fair article got more clicks for Vanity Fair than any other story that they've had. It has been a huge success for the magazine, despite people including myself, thinking that there was a lot left on the cutting room floor. Exactly why, I don't know. I think Vanity Fair maybe is just the tip of the iceberg, and it's like the corner of your nail polish that you peel off and then there's so much more there based on the incoming calls that the people who have cases have gotten, meaning many other publications and news outlets are really fishing around. So it's an interesting dynamic because I was sort of a black cloud over Bravokon and truthfully, I don't really want to be. I've never been to bravokan I am. I've been invited to Bravocon many times. I declined many times, and they asked for me to have certain items of my wardrobe ber Bravo Con. I've never really wanted to be there, And I watch Bravo Con and I think it's such a great platform for the people there. I look at do Reed and she's showing her fashion and she looks so beautiful, And I look at so many of the women and feel like it's great, but they're sort of I don't know that they're shining on their own versus as part of this whole machine. Like they're sort of shining for the whole machine. It's hard for anyone to get their own image or word in edgewise when you're seeing so many different images. So it feels like a competition of fashion, where years ago, I remember we had the Bravo A List Awards and we were all so green and it was a new medium and it didn't feel like such fierce competition. I kind of tune out to the outfits because they're all so outrageous. Many people are wearing underwear and like disco pants and over the top, Like it's hard to stand out because it's just gotten so competitive, and I can't see the forest from the trees, and it's interesting because I'm watching Bravo try to now be more kind and more aware and rinse away everything that I've been talking about having happened in the past. But then where does that leave them, because that's basically the foundation of this environment. So now Andy Cohen's on stage and there's a group of beautiful women sitting there, all dressed up. They all tried really hard to look amazing. This is their super Bowl of fashion. The question was who has the worst fashion at Bravocan And that's a perfect example of like leaving the bait there so then they can battle each other. No one's going to be mad and Andy Cohen for asking that question, but women are going to be mad at each other for the battles that start, which perpetuate amazing television. And I know that, Like I keep thinking about as a mother, I think differently as a mother, the stuff that women fight about in this universe, you'd be you'd you'd have to go to the principal's office if it were your kids. Like if I heard that someone was making fun of the way that my daughter dressed or what she wore, that would be something that you'd probably talk to the school about. Like that would be something really mean. And so people talk about other people and the house they live on. One of the questions on the Watcher Rappins Live was like who has the worst house? Like that's kind of saying who's the poorest or who seems the poorest? So who has the worst fashion sense? It's just it's not even clever, It's just mean. And I know I was part of it. I know I was knee deep in it, like I was in thick of it. We can I can keep repeating that over and over for people who say that I'm biting the hand that feeds me, I'm not biting any hand. Really. This is about reality television overall. But I'm just seeing things differently as a lot of these women are. And as you get older, I think you get a little softer. As you have kids, I think you see things differently. As you have girls that are teens and you see what they go through, you see things a little bit differently. So it's just interesting to see the shift in Bravo trying to be more watered down but also trying to stay true to what the brand is. Otherwise they're gonna what what are they gonna talk about? They're gonna have poetry readings. I do think it could still be really interesting, but it would have to be a complete revamp. So Kyle and Mauricio have chosen to go the public route about their breakup. It's highlighted and spotlighted on Kyle's show. Maurice has been talking about it surrounding Dancing with the Stars. I maintain that Maurice Dancing with the Stars is nothing short of brilliant. People were speculating that he had a romantic tryst with his partner, which she and she have publicly denounced, so I don't think that's true. But it's a very intense experience. Having done Skating with the Stars, you really fall in love with your partner, just even as a friend. It just becomes the person that you're with every day, that you talk to, and that you're going through something very unique, very intense, and very arduous. Their relationship has always been front and center. Now it's never been more because that's the price. That's when you choose to put your relationship front and center, and it will spike ratings and it will guarantee a good show. And this is the life we chose. When you're on the Housewives. You know, Kyle's been on the Housewives for thirteen years in a row, thirteen consecutive years. I could only handle three years, and that I had to leave because it just wasn't something that I felt proud doing. And then I left, rinsed it off, and I came back, and that was a really long stint for me, which was five years. Someone like Lisa Rinna, who to me feels like a later newer Housewife, I didn't realize she was on Housewives for eight years in a row. It will definitely change your mind. It will you cannot stay grounded and really feel like what it's like to feel like a normal person not in the Bravo sphere if you've been on so long. So Kyle's been on for thirteen years, so of course she's going to put her relationship front and center. It's like you speak a different language, you live on a different planet. You are just in that world. And everyone has told me that their friendships that they had on the show are definitely different went off the show. That's different if you're someone like Teddy who wants to be back on the show and still friends with someone because Teddy still has a podcast about the shows, about the shows intimately, So she's still sort of on the Housewives without being in the Housewives. She was at Bravo kan because she's doing her podcast but like hanging out with the talent. So Teddy's kind of still on the Housewives without being on the Housewives. But if you really do leave, it's very difficult to maintain a relationship with people who are on the show. It will never be the same level. And relationships that are romantic or married or engaged definitely strain from being on the show. And there's a decision whether you're gonna bring it on. But it's called we chose fame. We chose this career. And unlike the Kardashians, who get to choose what their content is going to be on the show and they have editing and production rights, you can't compare the Housewives to the Kardashians because they get to decide what's on and what's off, or they get to change a scene. Housewives have really just made the choice that the fame and the money is worth giving up your relationship and the content around your relationship. And I've done it. It's next to impossible, but it's it's a choice that you make. There's a price that you pay, and it's affecting Kyle's relationships with Kathy and with Kim. It's just a different road to take. Kim is no longer on Kathy, I believe is no longer on by choice, Nicki and Paris have you steered clear from it? Because Paris has her own show, but again she controls what's in and out of that show. It's very, very different, So it's a specific machine. I think Kyle Maurice doing a good job of keeping it as clean as possible while still being in the machine. And he's on a different machine because he's on a show on Netflix, so he's got a different master that he's speaking to about that content. So it's definitely very complicated, and I'm seeing I saw Garcel's sons open up on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which she gave to the audience that intimate conversation about parenting to her kids. And you really never know what's coming out of the oven because often in these experiences, the kids who are unpaid and they kind of resent it, like most of the kids don't want that level of fame that's out of their control, meaning they're supporting actors and their parent or usually mother is the star, so they're like supporting. They're playing supporting roles but not getting to be a princess or being their own actor or actress. They're supporting roles in whatever the producers and the mother wants to portray, and they're not being paid. And we underestimate how smart kids are, and you see the resentment in them. You can just feel it like they really don't want to be there, but they're supporting their parent, and their parent is financially supporting them, so they kind of have to support the parent. You see this often with the spouse or the partner, and you see these scenes that are uncomfortable. So Garcela was with her sons and her son felt no hesitation to kind of say that he felt like his mother wasn't being a present parent. And it's kind of like they get this dig in. And I've been there, not really with kids, but with partners where you ask a question and you think kind of because you're the main character, that they're going to just go along, but they want to get their own dig in. It's their way of saying like fuck you, I don't really want this road that you chose for me. So they always end up saying something slightly embarrassing. You know, was Avery with Ramona, it's now Garcel's son with her. You saw it with my ex on my first season of Housewives, when he was like, we'll talk about this later, and I wanted him to kind of go on the ride about, you know, just giving me what I wanted in the scene when he was an unwilling participant in the scene and we were talking about possibly moving in together, and he was like, we'll talk about this later, which made me look so jilted. And you see it all the time. You saw it with Maurice and Kyle. People are saying that when Maurice and Kyle were in a scene in this recent season that like they both look like they dread being there. Well, you know, they may not want to be talking about this, or maybe Maurice doesn't want to be talking about this because it's not really his show and he's not really being paid for this role. And you see that seep out. You see the kids or the spouses, or the boyfriend or the girlfriend kind of give a little dig to the parent or the partner because they're not being paid and they have zero driving privileges in this, so it's something that really is feeding the realm and the producers. But these kids don't want to be there, and it's just kids really want to please their parents. They want to make their parents happy. She wasn't compensated for it, so it's just like the producers want to have a scene with you and your kids. Also, there was a bit of a faux earnestness at Bravo con like I'm so grateful and I owe such a debt of gratitude to the housewives, like it was being laid on very, very thick. And we're just living in joy. This is just Oprah's book Club, and we are just joyful, and we've always just been about joy. We're just gonna rinse this off now and pretend that it's always been only about joy. And I'm gonna give you some beautiful lavender oil to really just talk about your inner healing and so you can just relax because everything here is just for the talent and production. We're just full of joy and this is a spiritual journey that we're all on and it's for the betterment of people and it's for healing, and it's very touchy feeling and we just want to love one another. Here at Bravo con it's all just about love and joy, and it's never been about hate, and it's never been about overconsumption, and it's never been about anything negative. Bravo is just the Hallmark Channel, and we are just hugging one another and loving each other in a beautiful trust circle with our daisy chains around our ankles, and we're just at Woodstock in a circle of joy.