New York Housewives: Cliques and Feuds

Mar 042010

Looks like we’ll be treated to a season of Housewives wars. Jill, LuAnn, and Kelly versus Bethenny, Ramona and Alex. Strange bedfellows, I would say.

An excerpt from Kelly Bensimon’s recent People Magazine interview sums it up:

How is your relationship with Ramona Singer, who makes an insult about your breasts in an upcoming episode??
Ramona is Ramona. She knows she can say whatever she wants and I’m not going to cry because she’s just trying to spark up a moment. I got a lot of flack for not being mean last year. But I don’t need to say anything snarky. It’s not going to make me more famous to be mean. But it’s the nature of the show. It’s Mean Girls for the 40s set. The meaner you are, the more attention you get. And I just don’t play that game. That’s why on the show, there’s a complete disconnect, because I’m so real, and — with the exception of Jill [Zarin] and LuAnn [de Lesseps] — these women are off their rockers. We’re supposed to be bonding and being awesome, not tearing each other apart.

Speaking of tearing each other apart, what happened during your latest altercation with Bethenny?
I can’t speak to her sensationalism. Everything that happens between the two of us is something that she fabricates. It has nothing to do with me. Listen, that’s her way of getting press. If she talks about me then she gets press and that’s her game.

There seems to be two cliques this season — you, Jill and LuAnn versus everyone else.
I don’t think of it that way. I try to give every single person the benefit of the doubt until they go off to a place where I can’t be a part of it. When it becomes a made-for-TV movie on Lifetime, then I’ve got to excuse myself. But I really don’t see two teams. Each woman has something that’s really exciting or interesting about her, or she wouldn’t be on TV.