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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

    Cookie Queens goes behind the scenes of Girl Scout Cookie season

    Alex Bentley
    Aug 7, 2026 | 4:30 pm
    Cookie Queens
    Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions
    Girl Scouts in Cookie Queens.

    Few people are strong enough to resist the lure of Girl Scout cookie season every year, with the cookies’ limited availability and unique flavors a strong incentive to indulge. But only the girls and their families who have sold the cookies know the joys and stresses of trying to get people to buy them, a process that is detailed in the new documentary, Cookie Queens.

    The film by documentarian Alysa Nahmias uses the stories of four different girls to represent the nationwide ritual for the Girl Scouts. They include 12-year-old Olive in Charlotte, North Carolina, a longtime top seller; 8-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso, Texas, who wants to earn the reward of going to camp; 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, California, whose goal is modest compared to most other girls; and 9-year-old Nikki in Chino, California, who has to compete with her older sisters in the cookie-selling bonanza.

    The girls represent a cross-section of both ages and backgrounds, with some girls coming from wealthy families and some girls dealing with more limited means. And how much money your family has makes a big difference, as not only does someone richer have more freedom with their time and supplies, but all scouts are required to reimburse the organization for every box they take in, regardless of whether they’re able to sell it or not.

    That caveat makes the journeys of the four featured girls feel wildly different. It’s clear from the start that Olive and Nikki’s families don’t give a second thought to the personal economics of selling cookies, with each girl taking in thousands of boxes at the beginning of the six-week selling season. With both Olive and Nikki rightfully confident that they’ll have no problem offloading their supply, their stories turn to how selling is personally affecting them, with each trying to reconcile the fun of doing it with the pressure they feel from their family members.

    Shannon Elizabeth’s story is more harrowing, as her parents feel a strong desire to help her accomplish her lofty goal, but worry that the cost might literally be too high for the family as a whole. More than once, the parents are shown fretting that they won’t have the money to pay back what they owe should they fall significantly short in their sales. Their selling approach, which includes walking through an empty swap meet and standing outside a chain restaurant at night, only adds to their stress.

    The most fun story to watch is that of Ara, whose innocence is matched by her confidence. Her parents teach her how much money they’ll owe with her small goal of 55 boxes, but right away she takes on more responsibility than expected. She’s shown making sales pitches and tallying the total number of boxes she’s sold with little-to-no help from either her mom or dad. With her high voice, glasses, and a monitor on her arm to manage her diabetes, she becomes the cute and sympathetic part of the film.

    There are times that the film starts to feel more than a little manipulative, however. While many of the moments documented come off as organic, some of them seem like Nahmias is actively guiding the participants in order to get a better story. This is especially evident with Shannon Elizabeth and her family, whose early struggles turn into a miraculous feel-good story by the end, a turnaround that seems implausible at best. Everything with them might have been aboveboard, but Nahmias and her team edit the family’s journey in a way that pushes a bit too hard for emotion.

    Cookie Queens, which was produced by a company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, helps to give insight into the business of selling Girl Scout cookies for those who’ve only been on the purchasing end of the transaction. The dedication of each girl toward selling their allotted supply proves fun and interesting, even if the filmmaker tries to gild the lily on occasion.

    ---

    Cookie Queens is now playing in theaters,

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