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    Aftershocks

    Why are all the Real Housewives married to such ugly mutt men?

    Joseph Campana
    Theodore Bale
    Oct 29, 2010 | 10:44 am
    • Camille Grammer deserves much better than Fraiser. And she may have alreadyfound it in Nick.
    • Only Kyle Richards — among all the Housewives — can boast of a truly hothusband.
    • You wouldn't want to be married to Dr. Paul? We pity you Adrienne Maloof.

    What do you get the girls who have everything?

    Well, if you’re shopping for the glamorous girls of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, you get some arm candy and fast. Because the miniature canines these ladies tote around in their purses aren’t the only dogs in their lives. Take a look at their husbands. Or better yet, don’t.

    Readers, it’s taken us a couple weeks to get a sense of what Beverly Hills is really like en Bravo. It packs a mythic zip code and makes the crazed consumption of the Orange County housewives look like a trip to Costco. But all the glitz in the world can’t distract us from these cringe-inducing men. Even worse is their cringe-inducing behavior, and the Bravo producers make sure we see it all.

    Why is it that being a real housewife usually means that you have to suffer an unattractive mate? Aren’t real estate taxes enough of a burden?

    We remember in New York how Jill Zarin is married to a real dog, Bobby Zarin. LuAnn de Lesseps had the plump, elderly preppy Alexandre de Lesseps, but they eventually divorced. Alex McCord married the Basset Hound-like Simon van Kempen, now famous for his “banana hammock” look when the pair was vacationing on St. Barts.

    Orange County’s Alexis Bellino had Neanderthal Jim, who reminded us of a lower-echelon pawnbroker. Oh wait, he is a pawnbroker, as well as a house-flipper. Whatever pays the bills!

    And now in Beverly Hills, the fading beauty Adrienne Maloof-Nassif has hubby and rhinoplasty specialist Dr. Paul, truly the ugliest husband on all the franchises. When he appeared, we searched for a picture-mute on our remote control, to no avail.

    As the duck-billed Taylor Armstrong boasted to Lisa about her “big, Texas cowboy” husband Russell, we had high hopes. But when he entered their bedroom to supervise Taylor packing his clothes for a weekend getaway, we thought he was more likely her accountant. Russell looks like one of those desperate millionaires who even Patti Stanger can’t hook up with a gold-diggin’ young secretary.

    Why, Taylor, why?

    And when he notices Taylor knocking back too many glasses of Dom Perignon in the Las Vegas hotel suite with her drunken housewife friends, he escorts her out pronto. Taylor barely offers a quack as she leaves the room. Opposites may attract, as another housewife quips, but they can also tear each another apart.

    Lisa VanderPump-Todd’s hubby Ken is charming, quiet, and supportive, and in need of a skilled embalmer. Is he still alive?

    Just enough to pack his Dolce and Gabbana underwear into his Vuitton luggage, but at least he doesn’t expect Lisa to do his packing for him. Ken’s styling, particularly his white over-layered hairdo, remind us of a geriatric Rod Stewart in his twilight years, and we nearly expected him to deliver a spontaneous rendition of “if you think I’m sexy.” No, Ken, we don’t.

    Even lovely Camille Grammer is married to a dog. That’s right, readers, we said it. Kelsey Grammer demonstrated unforeseen staying power by spinning a slight character on Cheers into Frasier, now on eternal rerun on Lifetime. But what is he doing on Broadway in La Cage aux folles? He’s not exactly the guy we’d want to see in nothing but a pair of Daisy Dukes at the next White Party.

    So it makes sense that tonight’s episode opened with Camille hitting a few balls — tennis balls, that is — with young buddy Nick. He’s a real looker. Both Camille and Nick protest that he’s really Frasier’s good friend, sent to keep an eye on his trophy bride while Frasier tickles the fancy of urban metrosexuals on the east coast.

    But before Nick and Camille can start their little back-and-forth, Camille’s already asking him to play in only a jockstrap.

    “Do we need to open more balls?” he asks. She inquires if he has enough room to store the balls. You get the idea. She bounces around the tennis court, and we can’t help but notice Nick’s nipples chafing against his tight T-shirt. Forget the cameras, Camille. Why don’t you reach over and feel his Nick-pack? Plenty of others have profited from sex-tape scandals.

    The wonderfully acerbic Lisa reminds us of what Norma Desmond might be like if she had just loosened up, thrown more parties, and not driven poor William Holden to his death in her capacious pool. Lisa really knows how to lay out the arm candy, what with the delicious Francis Dimitrius, executive chef of her West Hollywood restaurant Villa Blanca. And let’s remember Lisa is the only Housewife fabulous enough to have her own live-in gay, the “permanent houseguest” Cedric who could really give Nick a run for his balls.

    It’s a relief, then, that our current favorite Beverly Hills housewife, Kyle Richards, is the only cast member who can boast a truly hot husband, the sultry Maurizio Umansky. And Kyle trusts him, we’re pleased to learn. It’s other women that she doesn’t trust, and she seems on her guard as the couples head to Vegas for a pleasure junket.

    It’s all fun and games as the girls play high-heeled basketball in Adrienne’s mega-hotel, The Palms. That is, until Camille gets her groove on. We knew there were problems when Paul stuffed dollar bills down her top just before she gyrated wildly at a Jay-Z concert. But we weren’t prepared for the gorgeous Nick to mysteriously find the crew in their luxury suite and then start sucking face with buddy Fraiser’s babe. Or, Taylor demonstrating her oral skills with a wad of puffy pink cotton candy.

    As they say in France, all that’s gold does not glitter. It’s no wonder Kyle and Camille were at each other’s throats by the end of the trip. There’s only room for one gorgeous bitch on this show, and we can’t wait to see who claims the crown.

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    Movie Review

    Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

    Alex Bentley
    Dec 12, 2025 | 2:30 pm
    Emma Mackey in Ella McCay
    Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios
    Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

    The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

    The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

    Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

    Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

    Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

    What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

    Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

    Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

    ---

    Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

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