Yahoo News Everything We Learned at BravoCon 2022
Money can’t buy you class, but it can buy you a ticket to BravoCon, which made its big return to New York City on Oct. 14-16. A weekend at the Javits Center gave Bravo fans the chance to shop, attend panels and say “Hi, baby gorgeous!” to their favorite Bravolebrities.
Many praised the convention for providing exclusive programming and allowing Bravholics to get up close and personal with reality stars, while others criticized the event for its long lines to partake in meet-and-greets, purchase drinks and attend panels.
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Go inside #BravoCon 2022 with Variety's @katcystephan and @elliseshafer ✨ Get all the biggest news from the weekend: https://t.co/AEcjvBWa6a pic.twitter.com/AnuYgVofeI
— Variety (@Variety) October 17, 2022
Variety spoke with Bravo’s brightest stars on the red carpet, including the cast of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.” Lisa Barlow revealed that castmate Jen Shah, who pleaded guilty in July on criminal fraud charges stemming from an alleged telemarketing scheme, crashed BravoCon afterparties despite not being on the convention’s official docket.
Meanwhile, Kathy Hilton of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” slammed Lisa Rinna for her claims about Hilton’s so-called meltdown during the girls’ Aspen trip at the end of the season. “Let’s just put it this way: What I said was not what Lisa said. I was in shock. And that’s why she dragged it for so long.”
The all-new cast of the rebooted “The Real Housewives of New York City” was also revealed at a Sunday taping of “Watch What Happens Live,” featuring a crop of seven new ladies.
Variety hears the upcoming “Legacy” version of “RHONY” will feature former housewives Dorinda Medley and Sonja Morgan, but Medley stayed mum about her involvement: “I swear to you, you know as much as we do. I promise you,” she said. “I’ve heard more about the new girls [on the rebooted ‘RHONY’] than I have about ‘Legacy.’ Listen, if you hear something, call me! I’ll be at Blue Stone Manor waiting, decorating for Halloween.”
Read on for more of the biggest news from the weekend.
Gizelle Bryant on ‘Real Housewives of Potomac’ Premiere: ‘I Came in Hot’
“The Real Housewives of Potomac” star Gizelle Bryant admitted that she “came in hot” during the show’s Season 7 premiere on Monday night.
“I honestly was like, I came in hot,” Bryant told Variety of her reaction to the first episode. “Why were we at a taco party? I do feel like I should have sat down in the corner. But you know what? I was having fun.”
At the party, Bryant both iced out Wendy Osefo and confronted Mia Thornton about her social media posts suggesting that she may have cancer. Regarding Thornton, Bryant said the two “talk it out” later in the season.
“You know what, I felt that way. I just didn’t need to tell her that I felt that way, in that way,” Bryant said. “I was a little harsh.”
As for Osefo, Bryant said she’d be open to a friendship if she “grows up and realizes that you can’t just hug a problem away.”
“You know, I’m a grown woman. You can’t gloss over it. You have to have real conversations,” If she would have come to me like, ‘Hey Gizelle, I really want to talk to you, let’s do it later,’ that would have been amazing and we would have talked. But no, don’t hug me, don’t touch me.”
Robyn Dixon said she was happy with the first episode because the entire group was able to get together early on at Karen Huger’s taco party — though she insisted “there were no tacos.”
“Normal first episodes are just a bunch of little catch-ups, kind of slow,” she said. “A lot of [first] episodes you don’t even see the group back together, and the fact that you were able to see us together a lot early on in Episode 1, I think that’s what made it so exciting.”
Dixon agreed with Bryant that Thornton’s social media posts were “vague” and “misleading.”
“In that moment, there was definitely, first of all, an initial feeling of concern. But then there was the confusion of like, ‘What exactly are you saying?'” she said. “It was very vague, it was very misleading. And it just wasn’t a mode of communicating that I would have chose for something so serious.”
Another big storyline this season is sure to be the divorce between Ashley Darby and her husband Michael — though in the first episode, she revealed that they are in the process of buying a house together. Dixon said she was “quite confused” by the announcement.
“Ashley, being someone who can financially afford to live on her own, I didn’t understand why she didn’t immediately just like move out or get an apartment or townhouse,” Dixon said. “I just didn’t understand that whole conversation of why you’re buying a house with your husband that you want to divorce. I know I lived in a house with Juan when we were divorced, but we were broke and we needed to pool our resources, so this is different.”
Speaking of Juan — Dixon’s former husband who she is now re-engaged to — she teased that a big storyline this season is their pre-nuptial agreement.
“We had to get through a very uncomfortable talk,” she said. “So we’ll just have to see where that leads.”
Teresa Giudice Promises ‘A Lot’ of the House-Husbands on ‘RHONJ’ Season 13
Teresa Giudice and husband Luis Ruelas are still in their “love bubble.” The newlyweds packed on the PDA at BravoCon, sharing smooches on the red carpet.
“The Real Housewives of New Jersey” saw the “house husbands” take on a more prominent role in Season 12’s storylines. Giudice said fans can expect more of that in Season 13: “You are going to see the husbands a lot in the upcoming season. You guys will get to know Luis better.”
Make no mistake, though: it’s still all about the ladies, Giudice insisted. “It’s called the housewives for a reason. But it’s nice for the husbands to support us.”
“I feel like I’m just tagging along with you,” Ruelas chimed in.
When asked if she envisions a path forward in her relationship with brother Joe Gorga and his wife Melissa Gorga, Giudice deflected the question. “I’m focusing on my children and my handsome husband. That’s my focus.”
Taylor Armstrong Says She and Brandi Glanville Are the ‘Ultimate Frenemies’
On Season 2 of “Ultimate Girls Trip,” Bravo fans got to see a supergroup of Housewives vacationing at Dorinda Medley’s Blue Stone Manor, including former “Beverly Hills” stars Taylor Armstrong and Brandi Glanville. According to Armstrong, who is returning to Bravo on the upcoming season of “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” she and Glanville are the “ultimate frenemies.”
“You know, I think Brandi and I are the ultimate frenemies,” Armstrong told Variety at BravoCon. “Like, we’re always gonna give each other shit, but at the same time, we made up. We both got a lot off our chest on ‘Ultimate Girls Trip.’ One thing I was really thankful for on ‘Ultimate Girls’ is seeing her perspective, because I had a different impression of what that might look like. And because we were in that house together for so many days, we really got a chance to spend time and she put forth a lot of effort and I appreciate that.”
In response, Glanville jokingly said that she likes Armstrong, but “she keeps grabbing my butt a lot, and she hit me with her brush this morning. But I think she’s a lot of fun.”
As for returning to the OC, Armstrong said she couldn’t be more excited to be a Housewife again — especially now that she is “so happy” in her personal life with husband John Bluher.
“My family has lived there since I was 17, so it is home to me and it feels very comfortable being there. The thing I’m most excited about being on ‘OC’ and having another chance at being a housewife is that my life was so tumultuous when I was on Beverly Hills and there was so much anxiety at home and in my home life,” Armstrong said. “Now, I am so happy and I’ve grown so much from all of that. And so just being able to be myself and not be fearful of just being exactly who I am — it’s a huge blessing.”
Glanville would also be open to returning as a “Beverly Hills” housewive, if she were asked. “It’s not up to me, but yeah, of course,” she said. “I think if things were right. I think they need to figure out what’s happening right now, get that all sorted out.”
Tamra Judge, who also participated in Season 2 of “UGT” and is returning to “RHOC” next season, teased what viewers can expect. “You’re gonna see a lot of old school Tamra, from like Season 3, 4, 5 on up,” she said.
‘Vanderpump Rules’ Cast Teases ‘Messy,’ ‘Explosive’ Season 10
After two off seasons, the cast of “Vanderpump Rules” have promised a new beginning in Season 10.
“I’m hoping that people who kind of fell off and stopped watching when we were going through growing pains in Seasons 8 and 9 will come back, because it’s going to be a fantastic season,” teased Lala Kent.
“We’re not in our 20s anymore. We’re grown adults and we’re going through divorces having children, it’s just it’s a different game,” she added. “You guys will see the first person I hooked up with since my last relationship on ‘Vanderpump Rules,’ which was weird. I’m looking at cameras going ‘The boy is here, I want to take him to the bedroom… What am I doing right now?’ Out of body experience.”
“I feel like the old show is back,” echoed Scheana Shay, already looking to the future. “I think we set ourselves up for a Season 11.”
“It’s a whole new landscape for ‘VPR.’ It’s like a ‘VPR’ reset,” said Tom Schwartz, whose divorce from Katie Maloney was finalized this week. “Two people just got out of engagements. I got out of a marriage. Twelve years together. I’m just sort of rediscovering how to be Tom Schwartz.”
Rumors have swirled online for months that Schwartz and castmate Raquel Leviss are romantically linked, but she stayed mum on the matter. “I know there’s a lot of stories coming out about me, but I kind of just don’t really want to speak about it too much, because I think it’s important to really see how things play out. I stand by every decision that I made this season, and you’ll just have to see.”
Ariana Madix cautioned against buying into rumors: “The internet is not always right about what’s going on. I feel like sometimes people see one thing and they think they know, but they have no idea.”
Crystal Minkoff on Being Called a ‘Dramatic Millennial’ by ‘RHOBH’ Castmates: ‘Suck My Balls’
During the first installment of the three-part reunion of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” Crystal Kung Minkoff attempted to explain the drama surrounding the story that 14 of her friends cut off contact with her. However, Kyle Richards questioned Minkoff’s choice of words several times, and viewers didn’t learn anything new about the situation.
Given the chance to share her side of the story, Minkoff dismissed Richards’ interruption: “When people want to try to, like, catch you, it always leads into semantics as opposed to the actual content.”
“It was a hard situation,” she says of losing some of her social circle. “I got asked to do show, and before I started I had some friends who were not as supportive, and that’s OK. It wasn’t OK at the time. It was hard. But it’s been a few years now. It’s weird to bring it up — to talk about random things from a couple years ago, rather than talking about your own issues.”
While Minkoff said she’s “all about quality over quantity now,” she did reveal that the much-discussed number 14 isn’t actually accurate. She says the miscommunication stemmed from a lunch with Lisa Rinna. When asked about her relationships, she recalls casually stating, “It’s like 14 people.”
“I just made up this random number. It’s like four, actually,” she clarifies. “I don’t care about this number anymore. It is what it is.”
As for being called a “dramatic millennial,” Minkoff thinks some of the women have iced her out because she’s 39. “I think these girls don’t necessarily hang out with younger girls,” she says. She’s been criticized by some castmates for using the word “violated” to describe a moment when Sutton Stracke walked in on her naked, but Minkoff stands by it.
“They’re so narrow minded. They can’t think outside of their own experience…When you get a parking ticket, it’s a violation. I don’t think it’s sexual that you didn’t pay your meter, but it’s a violation. That’s what the term means!”
“I guess it’s like you can’t teach old dogs new tricks,” she quips of her older co-stars. “I worked so hard to try to make people understand. And I think that’s my lesson: I can’t change someone’s politics, right? Because you can’t change mine. So at some point, it’s like, this where I stand: Very liberal. You’re not gonna make me a Trumper, no matter what you say. So I think that’s where I have to be. This is how I feel. If you don’t want to take it, go suck it. Is that a millennial thing? Suck my balls, I don’t care.”
Stracke also spoke on the seeming divide between the new cast members and so-called “OGs,” specifically when it came to the group not standing up for her when Diana Jenkins had some choice words for her in Aspen. “That scene and Aspen was really hard for me to watch back. I didn’t want to watch it,” Stracke told Variety. “I saw myself as not myself. So that was hard.”
Despite that, Stracke says she’d be eager to return to the franchise next season – and thinks that “all of us would come back” — though she hasn’t received the call yet. “I don’t know if I’m coming back. We don’t know yet,” she said. “But I would hope that next season, whether I’m on it or not, that we don’t see that ganging up, because nobody wants to see that.”
Meanwhile, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Garcelle Beauvais spoke up about the difficult time her family faced after her 14-year-old son Jax Nilon was the subject of targeted online harassment using Instagram bots.
“That was the hardest, hardest thing for me. Because that’s my kid,” she told Variety. “I signed up for the for the show. He did not, which I’m glad he said when he wrote his statement.”
Beauvais praised her son’s maturity and resilience in that statement, adding, “As I was reading it, I sat down because at 14 I didn’t have the wherewithal to say how I felt like that to express myself. I was really, really proud of him.”
The search for who was behind the bullying continues: “I hired a forensic investigator to figure out what’s going on. It’s just not okay.”
Just this week, fellow “RHOBH” cast member Diana Jenkins filed a lawsuit regarding the harassment. The defendant is identified as John Doe, “because Ms. Jenkins does not yet know the identities of the persons behind the attack,” per a statement.
When asked if Jenkins has reached out, Beauvais laughs. “No. No.”
During “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” panel later on Friday, Lisa Rinna was greeted by a cacophony of boos. Rinna has been under fire for her ongoing feud with Kathy Hilton, who she has accused of saying devastating things about the cast during their time in Aspen, though she has yet to reveal the content of their conversations. However, there have been reports alleging that Hilton said a homophobic slur after a club DJ refused to play Michael Jackson. When asked later about being booed, Rinna told a group of reporters: “We are the No. 1 show on cable and on television and I’m a fucking rockstar.”
Erika Jayne, who has been the subject of ongoing controversy due to her legal troubles, has also been involved in the drama surrounding Hilton when Kyle Richards alleged that Jayne’s publicist is the one that leaked the allegations to the press. In response to that allegation, Jayne told Variety: “No, but here’s the thing. That part of the story is taking away from what really happened. It doesn’t really matter what happened after that. The story is what went on in Aspen, and that’s what I’ll leave you with.”
Vicki Gunvalson Filmed a ‘Couple Scenes’ for ‘RHOC,’ but Not Returning
Despite rumors swirling that former “The Real Housewives of Orange County” star Vicki Gunvalson is returning to the show, she insisted at BravoCon on Friday that she won’t be coming back as a cast member or friend of — though she has filmed a few scenes.
“I’m not on as a cast member, I’m not on as a friend of,” Gunvalson told Variety. “I definitely did film a couple scenes.”
During an “Ultimate Girls Trip” panel, Variety’s Elizabeth Wagmeister, who moderated, asked producers whether Gunvalson is joining “Orange County.” Alfonso Rosales, a co-executive producer on “Ultimate Girls Trip,” said he does not believe she is joining as a full-time cast member. A source tells Variety that she is in fact not joining as a full-time cast member or as a friend of the Housewives — but that she did film a few cameos, including a lunch scene.
Gunvalson was reportedly spotted filming for the new season of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” with Tamra Judge and Shannon Beador at a Laguna Beach restaurant in late September. Both Judge and Taylor Armstrong, who Gunvalson was on the latest season of “Ultimate Girls Trip” with, are returning to the franchise this upcoming season. But Gunvalson, who left the show in January 2020, said she doesn’t know how much she’ll tune into the new season.
“I don’t know. I’m not a big TV watcher, but I’m sure I’ll tune in,” Gunvalson said. “I’m very busy, but I’m sure I’ll support the girls.”
RENEWALS
Bravo has renewed “Below Deck Mediterranean” for Season 8 and “Below Deck Sailing Yacht” for Season 4. Peacock has renewed “Below Deck Down Under” for a second season. New series “Below Deck Adventure” premieres Nov. 1 on Bravo, and Season 10 of “Below Deck” premieres Nov. 21.
PREMIERE DATES
“The Real Housewives of Miami” Season 5 will premiere on Peacock Dec. 8 with its first four episodes. The Season 5 cast includes returning Housewives Guerdy Abraira, Lisa Hochstein, Julia Lemigova, Dr. Nicole Martin, Alexia Nepola and Larsa Pippen.
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