New York's Real Housewives

Are you ready to meet the Real Housewives of New York City? Bravo is spinning off their Orange County-based reality show with a look into the lives of some select East Coast ladies. The show will air March 4th, and The Daily News reports that the "stars" will be Bethenny Frankel, LuAnn de Lesseps (that's Countess, to you), Ramona Singer and Jill Zarin of the Upper East Side and Alex McCord of Cobble Hill. We're glad they branched out of the UES and threw a Brooklynite in there (though we wish it was a Park Slope mom); at 34 she's the youngest of them all.

Is this all sounding a little Cashmere Mafia? It is. All of the women revolve around their jobs, but vow to party as hard as they work. While McCord is said to work in visual merchandising for a major retailer, it appears she is also an aspiring actress (surprise, surprise).The series has been filming since last summer, and the women say they don't want to be portrayed like their West Coast counterparts. McCord points out "We are pretty different people. We are not in a gated community. We are in the thick of things, doing our activities and coexisting with 8 million other people." Do these look like the New York women you know? Get more details on each after the jump.

L-R: Jill Zarin (with husband), Alex McCord, Ramona Singer (with husband and daughter), LuAnn deLesseps, Bethenny Frankel.

Alex McCord Born: Washington, D.C. Lives: Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Married: Yes; husband works in boutique hotel management. Kids: Two sons, ages 2 and 4. Job: Works in visual merchandising for a major retailer.
Bethenny Frankel (website)
Born: New York. Lives: Upper East Side.
Married: No.
Kids: None, but her boyfriend of 10 months has three, ages 4, 7 and 9.
Job: Frankel's health food company, bethennybakes, creates wheat-, egg- and dairy-free baked goods as well as tailored, healthy menus for clients.

LuAnn deLesseps (website)
Born: Connecticut. Lives: Upper East Side.
Married: Yes, to Count Alexandre de Lesseps, a French aristocrat she met in the Swiss Alps.
Kids: 11-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter.
Job: Hosts "The Countess Report," her own cable show based in the Hamptons.

Ramona Singer
Born: Rhinebeck, N.Y. Lives: Upper East Side.
Married: Yes, and co-creating a jewelry line with her husband.
Kids: 12-year-old daughter.
Job: Buys and resells excess fashion inventory to discount boutiques and chains. Also developing her own skin-care products.

Jill Zarin
Born: Woodmere, L.I. Lives: Upper East Side.
Married: Yes, to second husband.
Kids: 15-year-old daughter; husband has three kids of his own, ages 25, 28 and 31.
Job: Owns Zarin Fabrics & Home Furnishings on the lower East Side.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on January 14, 2008 10:03 AM

Comments [rss]

lexus

All the New York wives need to brush their hair besides Jill. They all look like they just rolled out of bed. I like Bethenny and Jill, but the rest need to really get a life away from New York. Explore more... Alex and her husband i feel sorry for, but at the same time they don't belong on the show. They need their own show.

vcgirl

I also heard that they booked her as a man at the police station

here's the link

http://www.realfauxhousewives.com/

vcgirl

I also heard that they booked her as a man at the police station

here's the link

http://www.realfauxhousewives.com/

twinks

Simon and his fruity wife are really creepy and big time wannabes

cookie11706

I love Housewives NYC. I love the relationship that Alex has with her husband. You can see the love between them IS REAL. I do not notice this type of relationship with the other housewives.

Alex has shown that you can have lots of money and true love too. Do you see that with the other housewives in the show?

ShannonH

Alex and her husband are nothing more than Wannabes.

And it was so sad to see Ramona actually SHOCKED when Alex's husband showed her some attention in public. But I guess from someone who WARNS her poor daughter about how she'll be a penniless, Welfare receiving bag lady when her husband leaves her, it wasn't surprising to see her shocked that a man actually loves his wife.

And her poor daughter Avery is being set up by Ramona to be a man loather who will live in pounce mode and on the defensive in her marriage waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Instead of teaching her poor daughter to be suspicious and defensive of husbands maybe she should teach her to PICK A GOOD MAN. If she CHOOSES WISELY she won't have to have a back up plan for when her marriage fails. And she won't have to abandon her child(ren)to 100 hours in daycare while she saves for that dreaded day.

How sad.

juliabo

Great. A show about shallow boring twits for the east coast. With Gossip Girl, Cashmere Mafia, and this show, NYC is this year's new mecca for people striving to become self-absorbed rich idiots.

spoon

I guess the real NY housewives will be a really accurate representation of all New York...just like the OC version was.

tsol

Why rich (mostly Jewish) white women and not struggling welfare mothers? I'm equally likely to hate either group, but at least I won't feel guilty about hating wealthy ones!

kdallbrandtson

you people are ridiculous. It's just entertainment, so what's the big deal? plus, I know these women and most of them are wonderful people. If you want the day to day struggles of welfare recipients or low income people in NYC then watch another show. No one is forcing you to watch this.

bklyngrrl

the second one looks insane.

Dude69

What's wrong with a reality show about the day to day struggles of welfare recipients or low income people in NYC?

Dude69

We have reached the nadir of Jen Carlson's "cultural" posts.

JacqueMehoff

any of them have kids with mental problems?

autism, asperger's? common up there, no?

bornbrednewyorker

If there was ever a who gives a s..t post, this one is it.

JRod5417

At least they made the cast diverse by adding the Brooklynite.

zodak

Fake Mostly-Married Working White Women of New York City only on Bravo....

(Oh, were you expecting quality television on our channel? You're a couple of years too late.)

Hawk

Peter said:

"Why is the show called Real Housewives of New York City when none of the women are housewives?"

Very astute observation!

Looks like a lame show about rich white women. BORING.