So, it’s official — Adrienne Maloof not only isn’t returning to “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” next season, she didn’t even show up for the reunion special (which begins Monday following the season finale) this season. It’s likely that, given her then-plans to divorce, she just wasn’t in the mood to deal with Brandi Glanville and the other carping housewives. I can’t really blame her. But does it matter?
The conflict between Brandi and Adrienne fueled most of this season, and even when Adrienne wasn’t on hand to fight with Brandi (which was much of the time), there was always someone willing to do battle on her behalf. Whether it was Camille Grammer, Faye Resnick or Kyle Richards, they were all too willing to take a swat at Brandi. On this week’s episode, Faye had no problem bringing up the Adrienne problem while Brandi was in the midst of completely unrelated argument with Marisa Zanuck. Clearly, we don’t need Adrienne to have Adrienne-centric drama.
But really, I’m hoping that next season, with Adrienne gone (as well as Camille — she has said she won’t be returning in any capacity for season 4), maybe everyone can just move the hell on. It was frustrating enough (as Andy Cohen mentions in the reunion clip below) that we never got to hear what Brandi’s big, bad revelation was, due to Adrienne refusing to let it be aired. Worse, she seemed to be avoiding Brandi (except for a few battles, during which she had plenty of back-up from her (now ex-) husband Paul and the usual cast of characters. It seemed that the two of them could have sat down and hammered things out to some degree, as Adrienne and Lisa did at the beginning of the season. The fact that this battle was allowed to drag on and on, picking up steam and pointlessly angry women along the way, just seemed unnecessary. While I understand why people have problems with Brandi, at least she was willing to hash things out. Adrienne, though happy to have others fight on her behalf, never seemed up to the task of defending herself.
I’m not sure if Yolanda will stick around, but to her credit, she tries to get everyone to stop yakking behind one another’s backs and say the mean, nasty things they’re holding within directly to the person they’re focused on. It seems remarkably sane for this show, which could be good or bad. But what’s altogether good is that Yolanda is tough enough to go toe-to-toe with Faye Resnick, who seems determined to shoehorn herself into any argument, even when it has nothing to do with her. For someone who slams Brandi for not being a lady, I’m not sure what her definition of it is — but if Brandi isn’t, she isn’t one, either. Heck, if we’re going to start declaring who is and isn’t a lady on this show, I think it’s going to be a very, very short list.
Do you care that Adrienne isn’t coming back? Were you sad to see she wouldn’t be on the reunion? Are you looking forward to the finale?