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KLMNO THE RELIABLE SOURCE Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger Through the looking glass


“Real Housewives” from left: Mary Amons, Cat Ommanney, a friend, Stacie Turner, Michaele and Tareq Salahi.


housewives from C1


hotel rooms — including the $15,000-a-night suite at the Four Seasons where Oprah Winfrey once lodged — without acknowledging that a reality star can get that kind of treatment comped in exchange for the TV exposure. The many-gabled country home where the Salahis appear to live on the show is not theirs, but a friend’s; “Housewives” never exposed that illusion either. But the show also played into the savvy viewer’s understanding that the couple’s wild ride was about to end in scandal at the White House. In one scene, Michaele chided another Housewife’s daughter for posting incriminating stuff on Facebook — “If you’re out there doing crazy things, it’s going to come back.” But that line’s only funny if you recall the giddy photos with Joe Biden and Rahm Emanuel that the Salahis posted online after they managed to get into a state dinner without an invitation. In a riveting scene aired last week, “Housewives” became a reality show about a reality show. The cameras followed the Salahis primping for the state dinner at a Georgetown salon. And we didn’t just see Michaele searching in vain for her invitation (nonexistent, according to the White House) — we also saw and heard a producer reminding her what


she was looking for. We know the feeling! What were we looking for here? It was the first time that Bravo had shown us the mechanics at work. What was that about? Mostly just good TV, said Abby Greensfelder, of Half Yard Productions. “There’s a level of surprise to see some rawness to this show,” she said. “It just makes it interesting.”


One scene of “Housewives” was set at a reception hosted by lobbyist Edwina Rogers — a strangely underpopulated affair. We’re told that she got a good turnout but that many of her guests hid in the hallway, reluctant to be caught on camera. Certainly there are reputations to uphold in D.C.; did that make it a difficult place to film a reality show? Not especially, said Greensfelder: “Everywhere that we shoot, there are always going to be people who want to be on TV and people who don’t want to be on TV.” “Housewives” often had to stretch to convey any sense of official Washington: Photojournalist Charles Ommanney, husband of star Cat Ommanney, was frequently described as a “White House photographer” as if he were on staff there, with scant mention of his employer, Newsweek. The show’s next


biggest get was a cameo by Bo Obama’s trainer. But two bona fide politicians did agree to step in front of the camera: D.C. Council member David Catania, who used his camera time to advocate for gay marriage; and Virginia state Del. David Albo, in a brief scene discussing winery regulations with the Salahis. (It was real business, he told us, not just for the cameras.)


A close viewing of the show revealed that producers took huge liberties with chronology. Parties, conversations, conflicts were often replayed wildly out of the order in which they occurred in real life.


Some of this you’d only know if you were, say, a columnist who had chronicled nearly every time Half Yalf filmed around town. But there were other giveaways, like the mysteries of Cat Ommanney’s bangs. In most scenes the sharp-tongued Brit wore her hair in a perfect blond fringe along her brow. Then, in the same sequence, we’d see her again, forehead magically exposed, her bangs completely grown out. Or there was the weather: One minute the Housewives were in snow, the next, frolicking under the sun and leafy trees. Such discrepancies exposed the show’s


 Whenever characters are seen dining or drinking out, the restaurant’s facade and sign must get a courtesy shot, so we know where they are.  Whenever one character calls another, it must be on speaker, preferably through a tiny cellphone held in the upraised palm of the hand as if blowing a kiss.  In every episode, someone must remind viewers that we are in Washington and articulate its rules: “D.C. has a special etiquette: As a host or hostess, you are responsible for taking care of your guests” . . . “In Washington, you try not to let politics get personal” . . . “In D.C., there is a certain standard of integrity that you must demonstrate, otherwise you’re not going to make it.” (We didn’t say the rules are accurate.)


» STEPHEN BOITANO/BRAVO


fundamental trickery: When Ommanney (without bangs) talked gloomily about her husband, it was actually months later, when she had the hindsight that comes with an imminent divorce. (The couple separated this spring, months after the bulk of filming ended.) And when the Housewives whispered about “rumors” regarding the Salahis, it was actually transpiring in snowy December, after the White House incident — and after the media stories that revealed their financial morass — none of which had happened yet in the show’s murky chronology. (You follow? Bravo doesn’t want you to, apparently.)


Should this bother anyone? Greensfelder


defended the sly editing as the only way to weave together disparate stories in a way that is “authentic to these women in their lives.” Okay, so that was the explanation; here’s the


excuse: “It’s an entertainment,” she said. “It’s not a news program.”


Missed last night’s episode? See a recap at voices.washingtonpost.com/reliable-source and cast


member Stacie Turner dishes on the drama that went down in the season finale of "The Real Housewives of D.C." at 11:30 a.m. at washingtonpost.com/realhousewivesdc.


GOT A TIP ? E-MAIL U S A T RELIABLESOURCE@WASHP OST . COM. FOR THE LA TEST SCOOPS, VISIT WA SHINGTONP OST . COM/RELIABLESOUR CE Boffo ratings, beige stories for D.C. ‘Housewives’


you might not awaken Friday morning after watching Bravo’s “Real Housewives of D.C.” finale only to discover it was all a bad technicolor dream that, happily, is over.


N Because all that blah blah blah


that you’ve been reading about the show’s lousy ratings? Just wishful thinking on the part of The Reporters Who Cover TV. The Washington iteration has been, since its unveiling Aug. 5, the second-most-watched “Housewives” debut season in the franchise’s history. Averaging 1.58million viewers, it’s trending behind only “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” which attracted a record 2.55 million viewers its first season, in 2009. “RHDC” hasn’t completely


wrapped its first season: Bravo’s about to announce a two-hours-over-two-nights reunion show in which, we hear, all the non-Michaele Salahi housewives kick up a storm over how the Salahis and That Visit to That White House State Dinner completely derailed their lovely little reality TV series. The show’s mom-of-five/


biometric lock user/Arthur Godfrey granddaughter Mary Amons, modeling agency matron Lynda Erkiletian, real-estate agent Stacie Turner and self-edit-gene-lacking British designer Catherine Ommanney — they’re apparently hoppin’ mad.


But they’re not wig-tearing, table-flipping mad — which from the start has been one of the problems with this iteration of the Bravo network ratings magnet. “Real Housewives of D.C.” is, quite simply, too quiet. And too dignified.


o matter how many times you click your little heels together and make a wish,


THE TV COLUMN Lisa de Moraes


In other words: too


Washington. “We knew this was going to be


different from the others,” Andy Cohen, Bravo SVP of original programming and development, told the TV Column on the phone Thursday afternoon. “It’s less noisy.”


Some of the other “Real


Housewives” editions have benefited from being located “in the center of the media world. . . . Those women are going to parties every night that ‘E.T.’ and ‘Extra’ and ‘Access Hollywood’ are covering. Those feed into a kind of noise machine that D.C. doesn’t have.” Washington is a media town, he acknowledged, but it’s a different, more beige media. “It’s serious, it’s politics,” he


admitted. “The level of discourse on this show is different. For people who expect to see table flipping or wig pulling, that was never going to happen on this show.” That said, Cohen acknowledged that “RHDC” is not the “quietest” of the franchise. “I’ve always said of ‘O.C.,’ that’s probably our quietest, in terms of the drama — to me that’s the ‘Knots Landing’ of the franchise — their hair is blonder, their boobs are bigger and they probably drink a little more than a lot of our other housewives.” That would make “RHDC” the


“Falcon Crest” of the franchise, Cohen continued on his theme: “the quieter sibling with a mix of politics, Beltway ’tudes and rules — and, of course, a — albeit less successful — winery.” “RHDC” is also the oldest-skewing of the “Real


DOONESBURY FLASHBACKS by Garry Trudeau


Housewives” shows, because younger viewers really don’t want to hear about Washington, as MTV learned the hard way with its “Real World D.C.” experiment. The median age of the “RHDC”


viewer is 40 — meaning, of course, that half the audience is older than 40. That is not what a network targeting 18-to-49-year-olds wants to see, because people who watch a show tend to only get older as the years pass, what with having birthdays and all. What Bravo wants to see is “Real Housewives” with a median age of 34 — as had the first season of “Real Housewives of Atlanta.” Maybe even more disturbing — if you get disturbed at the thought of yet another D.C.-set reality series going toes up (“RHDC,” meet “Real World D.C.”) — our contribution to the “Real Housewives” pantheon did not grow a larger audience in the course of the first season, as had all the other versions. “RHDC” opened with 1.63million people tuned in and, as of last week, 1.18 million were sticking by the show. That was to be expected, Cohen insisted, given all the pre-debut hype about Michaele and Tareq Salahi and That Visit To That White House State Dinner. “We never had a ‘Housewives’ series be as noisy in the month leading up to its premiere,” Cohen explained. “It would have been impossible to maintain the cacophony of what was going on in the pre-launch of this show.” Plus, D.C. housewives had to


battle formidable Thursday at 9 p.m. competition as the broadcast networks launched their new TV season (Bravo moved the show from 10 — where “Housewives” usually


launches — to get it out of the way of MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” which returned with original episodes on Thursdays at 10 in late July). “The fact that these women


have maintained this strong average in the face of all these premieres, in a brutal time slot, and that it has been rerunning as well as it has been, is really positive,” Cohen said. You know what could really


hurt “Real Housewives of D.C.’s” chances of a second season? A super-gimongous launch for the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” next Thursday. Maybe if this one opens with the biggest “Housewives” audience yet, Bravo will pull a Brad Pitt and dump “D.C.” for the hotter number.


With “Real Housewives of


Beverly Hills,” Bravo is heading back to familiar territory: blond, booby, over-the-top and super-superficial. This newest entry has the most promising cast yet, having been populated with recognizable names that are sure to attract viewers — including, among others, Kelsey Grammer’s soon-to-be-ex Camille Grammer and not one but two Paris Hilton aunts: former child stars Kim and Kyle


CHARGING AHEAD? Michaele Salahi and the rest of the D.C. “Housewives” crew may not get a second season.


STEPHEN J. BOITANO/BRAVO


Richards. So, now, please click your heels


together and repeat after me: There’s no place like Beverly


Hills. There’s no place like Beverly Hills . . .


demoraesl@washpost.com


Lisa de Moraes takes your questions about “Real Housewives of D.C.” and the world of television at 1 p.m. at washingtonpost.com/liveonline.


A few codicils to the “Housewives” code:


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010


Movie reviews


Turn to Weekendfor


reviews of all the movies opening today, including:


Secretariat BBB There’s genuine suspense in this tale about the Triple Crown-winning horse. W27


Life as We Know It B Actors try to make the best of a stupid situation in this


cliched romantic comedy. W27


It’s Kind of a Funny Story B1


⁄2


Numerous elements that seem as canned as Muzak in a film that is neither comedy nor drama. W28


Also reviewed: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger B1


⁄2 W28


Ghettophysics: Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up! BB W29


To view movie trailers, read more reviews and buy tickets online, go to


RATINGS GUIDE


BBBB Masterpiece BBB Very Good BB Okay


B Poor 0 Waste of Time


CUL DE SAC by Richard Thompson


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