It’s the New Year, which means it’s time to reflect on everything that has already passed and make resolutions that are already starting to wither like the lemon trees in the Capri Room of the Buca Di Beppo in the Valley. It also means it’s time for New Year’s Eve, which most sensible adults spent sitting at home trying to avoid Omicron and having to play another round of Clue Master Detective with their 7-year-olds. But not Andy Cohen. No. He spent NYE getting publicly drunk with his bestie and fellow twink-magnet (or is that magnate?) Anderson Cooper on national television. On CNN an “overserved” Cohen, who was pouring his own drinks, went after Bill de Blasio, Mark Zuckerberg, and fellow NYE host Ryan Seacrest. While this might have landed another host in hot water, it was so on-brand for Cohen that it only burnished his image and will probably make more people tune in next year. It was sort of like Mariah Carey’s famously disastrous December 31, 2017, performance except, somehow, much less gay.
But enough about Andy; we’re here for the Housewives in general. As we get ready for the year ahead in Housewifery, the Institute is taking a look at the state of the union, as it were, among our shows, as well as some things that I never want to see on our shows again. But before that, a new year means new news.
Photo credit: Bravo Productions 2022
Mention It All
Not all the news, but all the news you actually care about.
MARY, MARY, QUITE CONTRARY: As everyone who follows the Real Housewives with even a passing interest knows already, Mary M. Cosby did not attend the season-two RHOSLC reunion, which filmed last week. (Reunion looks are here, and some fans think they’re the worst-dressed cast in Housewives history.) It’s not hard to guess why. This season featured not only the cast wondering whether she ran a cult and her seemingly unprovoked rebukes of several castmates, but also at least two racist remarks. (She compared Jen Shah, who had recently been arrested, to a “Mexican thug,” and told Jennie Nguyen that she liked her “slanted eyes.”) Mary has never taken a grilling well, so there was no way she was showing up to listen to Andy Cohen go after her.
She might also be trying to avoid some other rumors. If you go deep into the internet gossip — which we do, but with grains of salt as huge as Lisa Barlow’s Big Gulp — you’ll find speculation that what Mary wanted to avoid were rumors about her relationship with Cameron Williams, Lisa’s friend who was featured on season two and recently passed away. Private Instagram account Bravo and Cocktails (I told you this was deep) claims that Mary and Cameron were having an affair for many years. I mean, I don’t believe it, but the speculation is interesting. Andy also says there is a “bombshell” in the last few episodes, so maybe that is what Mary is avoiding?
You probably have strange grammar. Pretty much every language has a different grammar style than English, as far as I know. Don’t know Malaysian, so I can’t answer that specific part. But based on your question, you have better grammar than most on the internet. So that could be it, that you’re “too perfect.” Could be an accent, too. Or idioms, those things are pretty funny.
Because non-native speakers use English differently as compared to native speakers. It’s… it’s as simple as that.
I can also usually tell within the first few moments of talking to somebody on the internet whether they are from a native English-speaking country or not. They’ll use slightly different phrasing. Use of idioms is also a dead giveaway.
I dunno. It’s usually patently obvious. This doesn’t make a non-native English speaker’s English bad by any stretch; just different.
I can also generally tell where native English speakers are from as well, at least in a general sense. Canadians tend to sound like Americans (even in writing) but spell more like the Brits. British persons obviously use British English and will use British colloquiums and the word ‘whilst’ often will pop up. Australians lean heavy on the word ‘mate’ a lot of the time. Americans use American spellings and sound like Americans.
And so on.
It may be little things like not using native idioms, that you would pick up from living in the UK.
But, hey. That’s just a guess.
Also, I don’t think I would’ve noticed you were foreign from what you wrote, if you didn’t point it out.