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Bravo Cocktail Party: April 2

In case you missed it, all the Bravo news this week was focused on the fact that Jen Shah from Real Housewives of Salt Lake City was arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in full glam while filming a scene for season 2 of the show. I mean, what?? Her first assistant, Stuart, as also arrested and faces the same charges. When Shah tried to call in for her virtual arraignment, she wasn’t able to get into the Zoom becasue too many Bravo fans had joined and wouldn’t stay muted. They rescheduled the meeting for the next day and the judge wasn’t happy. She set a higher bail for Shah and it was confirmed that they don’t own the house that they’ve been living in for the show (or any other property, which I thought was very strange!). Bravo fans already knew that, thanks to Brandi Redmond revealing that before the show even aired, as it’s actually owned by friends of Brandi’s. Yikes. Her lawyer tried to get her our of having to put up bail money, but the prosecutor and judge were having none of that, so it will be interesting to see if she’s able to get that together and what happens with filming on the show. She isn’t allowed to leave the state of Utah, so cast trips will be out.

Now let’s check out the rest of Housewives drama for the week.

Bravo Cocktail Party: April 2

Photo by Bravo. Brandi the camper driver, who’s offer to drive comes complete with a costume.

Who Didn’t Make the Guest List:

Brandi and D’Andra: Guys, I really don’t like that I come here every week with the same things to say about Real Housewives of Dallas. When Brandi gets so mad about D’Andra’s comments to the press about the show addressing her racist video, it isn’t a good look for either of them, Is D’Andra being selfish? Yes, but it’s in a way that seems to be not out of meanness, but out of a very basic part of her world view that comes from how she was raised and how Mama Dee has modeled life for her. It doesn’t seem like that’s ever going to change or that she feels any guilt about it. I think the larger problem is that Brandi just still doesn’t get the full repercussions of what she’s done. She doesn’t get to control the narrative about her offensive video and dictate what everyone else gets to say. She messed up and other people are going to have feelings about that and are allowed to voice those feelings. Her desire to have it all go away and to smooth over it, just makes it worse.

Jennifer and Margaret: For all that these two say that they’re do over the drama between Jackie and Teresa on Real Housewives of New Jersey, they sure did a good job of amping up the hysterics at dinner at Dolores and Frank’s beach house. What started out as another night of Teresa bringing up the affair, quickly got blown to another level when Joe B’s name got dragged into the situation, causing Marge to go to squeaky defcon 6 level of fighting. Then they got into it a lunch again the next day, when Teresa and Jackie had finally cleared the air and we could all have fun again. You know I love Marge, but she really lets Jennifer rub her the wrong way, when Jen really is, as Dolores said, like an annoying younger sister who’s so desperate to be a part of the group that she says things just to get attention.

Hannah: I am so excited for Hannah’s old man boyfriend to arrive next week and for everyone to start to piece together the timeline and the fact that she was seeing him while also accusing Luke of leading her on. It’s going to be great!

Photo by Bravo. Real Housewives of New Jersey at the shore.

Who Made the Guest List:

Kameron and Court: These two crazy lovebirds got their dream home and I’m happy for them. The way that Court started chocking up when he was trying to tell her about ti was very sweet. Also, I would love to go a party at that house and sit at the enormous kitchen island. Did anyone else laugh when Kameron wondered aloud how she would reach the middle of the island to clean it? As if Kameron is regularly cleaning anything. The woman can’t even make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, as we saw in her hilariously tragic tutorial with her son.

Tiffany: Was anyone else very confused by the birthday tea party that Tiffany threw for her twins? First of all, she did hair and make up for the girls and herself, which seemed to consist of pink eyeshadow and pony tails for the girls followed by hours of glam and a wild poufy-sleeved min dress for her. Then they had it all at a hotel, and I was expecting them to walk into a big to do with lots of guests, but it was just the twins, Tiffany and her mother? I was confused by the whole thing, but I loved the part where Tiffany’s mom started to bug her and she got up from the table, muttering under her breath, and went to the bar to drink a bottle of champagne by herself.

Melissa and Joe: It’s so interesting to watch how the Gorga family fights have evolved over the seasons. Joe and Melissa have learned how to stand up to Teresa and stay a team, and that if they do that and invoke their parents’ heavenly desire to see them all get along, they can get Teresa to back down and restore the peace. I like that they can cycle from one snide comment to a full blown cheese-throwing, table thumping screaming match, to tearTeful hugging in five minutes or less these days.

Luke: This may have been the first episode where I actually had sympathy for Luke. He showed a lot of good sense in talking to the guys one on one to address the fight, then sharing some of his personal demons with the group and making public apologies to Hannah and Ciara. It seemed like the most honest he’s been all season, and I think it’s the start of his redemption arc, as the arrival of Hannah’s boyfriend next week is going to throw a lot of light on the shadiness of what she’s been saying about Luke.

Kyle: One of my favorite parts of this season has been all of the antics that late night Kyle gets into after everyone goes to bed. When everyone else was passed out after the fight, he was still roaming the kitchen after spilling a container of nuts everywhere pre-fight. He fell upon a plate of spaghetti, slurring, “I forgot what carbs tasted like.” It was so perfect and I enjoyed e very moment of it. Also, it does a alot to explain how he drinks so much and yet keeps those abs!

Lindsay: The best small moment of the night, though, was when Lindsay referenced her ROTC training and how that influenced her take down of Kyle during the fight. Then we got a zoomed in shot of her tackling and taking down Kyle when he was trying to go after Luke, plus vintage photos of her during the ROTC training. I have never loved anything more.