The new girls on The block
Meet New York’s latest ‘Real Housewives’
Being the new kid is never easy. Especially when you’re new to “The Real Housewives of New York City.” Last season’s “Housewives” ended in a bloodbath, with fan favorites like Jill Zarin, Alex McCord, Kelly Bensimon, and Cindy Barshop geting the ax. When the fifth season of the reality show premieres Monday night, three new ladies will have joined the cast. And along with the additions of Aviva Drescher, Heather Thomson, and Carole Radziwill come new personalities, new dynamics, and plenty of new drama.
Inside Thomson’s midtown offices, where the elevator doors are painted bubblegum pink, she and Drescher are prepping for an interview and there are already fireworks.
Rushing into her conference room, Thomson is on an animated tear about a “Housewives” co-star. An educated guess would make the target of her bile either Ramona Singer, who makes an enemy of Thomson early in the season, or Sonja Morgan, recently quoted trashing Drescher. Uncharacteristically, Thomson is too quiet to hear.
When the longwinded entrepreneur finally takes a breath and notices a reporter in her midst, tape recorder and note pad at the ready, she flies off the handle.
But soon enough apologies are made, smiles plastered on, and wine — not Ramona’s vanity brand, it’s noted — is poured. One thing is clear: Thomson was born to be a Housewife.
It’s surprising then that the fashion designer, who has worked with Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, and Sean Combs, almost didn’t take the gig.
“I got a phone call at my desk one day, it was the casting company for the show and they said my name was being kicked around Bravo as a potential housewife and would I be interested,” the stunning mother of two says. “My first reaction was that I didn’t think it would be the right fit for me; actually, I said, ‘Hell no.’”
Drescher, a law school-educated mother of four, and Radziwill, a TV news veteran, author and journalist, have similar stories. None of the women initially wanted to give their lives over to the glare of the spotlight, to subject their families to public scrutiny, or to end up drunk on national television. But in the end, all three decided that the good that comes with being on the show outweighs the bad.
“Ultimately I decided to do the show because I don’t really care what people think about me,” says Drescher, a nonpracticing lawyer and full-time glamazon, says. “And I’m okay being a caricature and laughing at myself.”
Drescher, who lost a leg at a young age to a farm accident, says she plans to use her time on the show to raise awareness for amputees. Likewise, Thomson wants to garner attention for the liver disease her young son suffers from and Radziwill hopes to promote her forthcoming book.
“The idea that [being on the show] would increase my readership did cross my mind,” says Radziwill, who is related by marriage to the Kennedy family.
Something else all three new Housewives say they want to do is raise the bar for the show. Long known for showcasing the petty disagreements of Manhattan’s upper crust, the franchise is, according to these women, ripe for promoting a new kind of image.
“I’m a woman
for women,” says Thomson. “I built a brand focused on wanting women to look and feel their best. And I am a woman who is juggling: I had a husband and a business and two children, one of them sick, before ‘Housewives’ came to me. I thought there might be an opportunity to bring non-manufactured reality to this show about six women coming together with real issues and real conflict.”
Drescher recalls discussing the possibility of being on the show with her 11-year-old son. “I said I’m going to do this TV show,” she says, “and your friends might make fun of you, but I am doing this so people will understand mom’s special leg. He turned to me and said, “F— ’em.” And I knew at that moment, I was doing a good job.” Fans of the show’s trademark backstabbing won’t be disappointed with the new cast members. In addition to Drescher and Thomson’s already public feuding with Singer, the premiere episode shows off plenty of the antics — courtesy of longtime Housewives LuAnn de Lesseps and Morgan as well as Singer and the new women — and the rest of the season promises to be as fraught with tension as ever.
“I can’t put my finger on why,” says Radziwill, whose dry commentary makes her an easy early favorite, “but it’s apparently very entertaining to watch grown women arguing. And we don’t disappoint.”
Drescher echoes that. “Since the beginning of time, people have been drawn to conflict,” she says. “Nobody wants to watch girls having a nice time, it’s boring. We may have hours of good times, but you’ll rarely see it. You’ll mostly see when we’re at each others’ throats.”
The ladies know that the show won’t always show their most flattering aspects and that the TV editing process will distill them into characters and not well-rounded people. Still, they each say that the friendships they’ve made are true and the experience of being on the show has been fantastic. So, if viewers want to pick sides, so be it.
“For people trying to make themselves feel better by knocking down the ‘Housewives,’” says Drescher, “let them hang me by my toenails. I only have five.”