Fired New York Housewives

So a lot has been going around about the four housewives fired from the New York installment.  The Fired Four (is that something like the Fantastic Four - but like on opposites day?) are Jill Zarin, Kelly Bensimon, Cindy Barshop and Alex McCord. 

Now personally I rather liked Alex though in the last season it did appear that she was going out of her way to "bring the drama".  She said she had "finally found her voice" and when she did, most people wanted nothing more but for her to lose it again.  I always found her relationship with her husband, Simon, to be endearing - although many others just wanted him to go away.  I have a feeling that the rest of the casts hatred for Simon probably had something to do with Alex getting the boot.  I guess in New York society being detached from your husband is the way most women would prefer it.  Here in the Mid West I know a lot of women who would call their hubby their bff.  I guess I never really saw the problem with it.  To be fair to others, I can see how they did fit the "social climber" claims.

Cindy was probably the Housewife that I always cared the least about.  This woman is the absolute definition of boring.  And annoying!  "LuAnn you don't get to tell me what to do either."  Um okay...  Last time I heard that it was my 7 year old speaking to my 14 year old and it had something to do with whether or not ketchup could go with peanut butter.  The worst with her was some play date she was suppose to be having with the sperm donor for her twins.  It was actually painful to watch.  Everything the man did she complained about, he was too rough, blah blah blah.  No he wasn't, he was acting like a father, which is something you should be thankful for.  Because Cindy, while you "have everything you ever wanted", those kids of yours will probably want that 'father time' so why not just let them play?  Anyway, Bravo sent Cindy to the 'exiled' list, which was really a no-brainer since she was about as interesting as lint.

Now which should I list next - I have trouble deciding who I can't stand more; Kelly or Jill.  What is worse, complete conniving manipulative bitch or absolutely-in-need-of-meds psychopath?  Grrr - Lets go with bitch.

Jill Zarin it is.  If anyone has to wonder why this one got the axe, they must have spent the last three years popping jelly beans in kelly land.  You could actually SEE Andy Cohen getting panic attacks when he even so much as mentioned Jills name.  Jill was an original New York housewife and apparently she got it stuck in her crawl that she was the "popular" girl.  She truly acted like she ran the show and I think deep down she believed she did.

People originally loved Jill, but that was back when she was playing momma hen to the much-more-loved Bethenny Frankel.  Unfortunately in season 3 Momma Jill lost the vast majority of her fans when she tried desperately to ostracize Bethenny.  We all began to see exactly how manipulative this woman was.  From calling other cast members to convince them not to film with Bethenny to literally making Bethenny cry on a phone call that Jill allowed LuAnn to listen in on.  "She made her cry, she made Bethenny cry!" (Even Kelly knows this is a faux pas)

Moving into season 4 she continued with the Mean Girl facade and continued to lose fans by the truck load.  She even seemed to start getting on Ms.  LuAnns nerves.  She had nice things to say to peoples faces most of the time but as soon as they would turn their backs, she was busting them down in every possible way. 

I don't think any of the show drama she brought was what caused her to be fired, but I think it was more her constant attempts at manipulating the show.  I can easily see how irritating it had to be for producers to try to shoot footage only to find that once again Jill had decided who would film with whom and when.

The best part about the Jill business is how she tried so desperately to convince the world that she was "negotiating" with Bravo about the next season, when in fact the world knew there were no negotiations and she really got nothing more than a phone call to tell her she was fired.  Now she intends to pursue her career of tacky product lines that none of us want anything to do with.  She thinks she is going to make millions... Another visitor in kelly land we see.

Now Jill is threatening to tell all about Bravo.  Of course we are all waiting with baited breath.  Not that any of us cared to see her for another two seconds on the show but there is quite a bit of interest in the jelly beans that she is about to spill.  Lets hope she is not just talking out her skweezed ass once again.

Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly.  Where oh where do I start?  The beginning I suppose.  That takes us back to season two and an Arthritis Charity meeting where she so sweetly told a child Arthritis sufferer "how cute" her illness was.  Then went on and on about how busy she is and how she puts her name on NOTHING.  All at a preliminary meeting.  A girl sitting next to Bethenny asks "Who is she?" to which Bethenny responds "evidently she's Madonna".  Kelly is horrified by this clear attack and murder attempt.  "What?!!!", you ask?  Right that's what the rest of the world asked as well.

Kelly didn't let this go all through season 2 even though Bethenny made numerous fruitless attempts to squash the issue.  Honestly at no point in any of the footage does Kelly appear to be actually following a conversation, she just randomly spews nonsense.  For example someone could ask Kelly what she thinks about Global Warming and she would say "Well I am just so grateful for the Eskimos and all they do, you know I don't personally like to club baby seals and I know that has nothing to do with Eskimos but Peta does a lot of like hard work you know."  At the start viewers tried to follow, then during Season 3 we all realized that this girl was a long way off her meds and there was no hope in understanding.

Season 3 ended with the ill fated trip to Saint Johns.  The entire cast was of the strong opinion that Kelly had a serious break down at this time and I have to agree from the footage we saw.  The cast claimed that it was far worse than what was shown on TV which led many of us to beg for uncut footage.  That never happened and I found myself hoping that a body guard or something would speak up about what happened.  No luck.

On to Season 4.  More of the same.  Bethenny left the show to actually make millions on her own and so Kelly didn't have to fear for her life anymore but she still had plenty of "Kelly" moments to keep us guessing.  After the suicide of Russell Armstrong it appears that Bravo may be finally taking the mental stability of cast more seriously.  That is a good thing - although seeing an un-medicated schizophreniac in action did hold a certain amount of interest for me.
Watch Kelly in Action!

There is much going around the rumor mill about who the new housewives will be.  Certain names have come up and it is rumored that Bravo is looking for actually rich women now, not just those who will fake it to be on the show.  The names out now are Carole Radziwil a former ABC news producer with Kennedy connections, Heather Thompson who is a married mother of two and has helped celebs launch clothing lines and Aviva Drescher a Wall Street wife with three children.  Much remains to be seen and Bravo has confirmed nothing at this point.  One thing is clear, these possibilities certainly embody the glitz and glam that Bravo has been looking for much better than the previously mentioned Fired Four.