New York Fashion Week -- that magical time of year when fashion insiders pack into Bryant Park tents to, uh, do something while the Housewives of New York City squabble from their first-row runway seats. Last night's edition of RHoNYC, aptly titled "Fashion and Fighting," included the traditional fashion show histrionics and a few other surprises, like a faulty reference to the stalker cult classic Single White Female and the possibility of an afternoon delight. After the jump, Movieline picks out the truest and fakest moments from Bravo's latest reality programming low. (If that doesn't interest you, why don't you take Bethenny's own advice and "Go read another book on etiquette and manners"?)
TRUE: Ramona Literally Throws Her Daughter Into Traffic For an Invitation to the Perez Hilton Party
And Movieline thought that Countess LuAnn's daughter, Victoria, had it bad after she broke both wrists leaping from her third floor bedroom. Last night, Ramona lowered the bar for housewife parenting when she abandoned her mother-daughter date for a Perez Hilton event.
For a second, Ramona weighed her options: Continue bonding with her impressionable young daughter Avery, or find more cameras. Ramona chose the latter, explaining that going to the party was the "polite thing to do," before running Avery out into six lanes of New York City traffic. When Ramona's chauffeured car was nowhere to be found, the housewife flagged down a taxi and threw Avery in despite her protests ("You want me to go by myself?!"). As even the morally questionable producers grimaced at the thought of finding Avery's lifeless body in a midtown gutter the next day, Ramona carelessly shouted "Text me when you get home!" and dove into Kelly's waiting vehicle.
The truth is, Ramona, you've definitely made a questionable child-raising decision when you're even called out bythe housewife who just posed for Playboy in spite of her two pre-teen daughters. Kelly later revealed in a confessional, "I wasn't really happy with how Avery went home. That really bothered me. I mean it's New York City. It's New...York...City."
FAKE: Bethenny Came Up With That Strange Single White Female Reference Herself
Let's face it. Bethenny Frankel is the RHoNYC purveyor of sound bites. Viewers rely on her for fresh takes on stale controversy ("This thing I told you wasn't that big of a deal is a big deal evidently") and her take-no-prisoners truthiness ("Every model in those magazines is like 'I had broiled salmon and lentils.' And you know, f*ck you. No you didn't").
So when the show opened last night with Bethenny on the couch in full-on "vent" mode with her boyfriend, viewers lingered on her every word, dry-heaved at Jason's suggestion they share "afternoon delight," and then lingered on her every word again. And then -- record scratch -- Bethenny referenced a mid-'90s movie that she had never seen to describe a situation unlike that mid-'90s movie in every way.
Short story: Bethenny trashed LuAnn on a voicemail to Jill. Jill played the incriminating voicemail to LuAnn. Bethenny found out and said this:
"I think it's deceptive. I left that message three months ago. That's like bordering on Single White Female. Like who plays a message that you left them for someone else?"
Bethenny totally heard a 2nd A.D. make that joke a week ago and, having obviously never seen the Jennifer Jason Leigh classic, misinterpreted the context clues to assume that the movie centered on a nasty socialite who saves every mean-spirited voicemail and replays them to burn bridges across town.
That being said, congratulations to Bethenny for making the most intelligent attempt at an outdated reference, and until next week, remember her motto: "If you've got "boyfriends, booze and books, then you don't need bitches."