Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Real Housewives of New York City: Wacky Doodle Do Kelly Bensimon

The latest episode of The Real Housewives of New York City was so profoundly disturbing I've put off writing about it, mostly due to it sort of left me speechless.

It left a lot of viewers feeling that way, judging by what I've read on the various TV forums, in news articles and in comments to this very blog.

Like this morning I got a comment from Debby. Along with millions of viewers, Debby thinks Kelly needs serious help, as in she should check into a psychiatric clinic. And that she should not have custody of her kids. Because she is insane.

I saw Sarah Jessica Parker on Watch What Happens Live, after watching the disturbing episode. Both she and host Andy Cohen were among those left speechless. SJP said she'd never seen a person come apart, like Kelly had, before.

Apparently, what BRAVO chose to show us was mild, compared to how bad it really was. Bethenny Frankel has been quoted as saying it got physical and that Kelly was removed from the house the day following what we saw on last week's episode.

It has been 6 months since the disturbing behavior took place in the Virgin Islands. Kelly has not gotten help.

Following what was revealed in the past 2 week's episodes, Kelly at first chose to say she was "embarrassed" on her BRAVO blog. Kelly did not elaborate about what she was embarrassed about. Then, after last week's even more embarrassing episode, Kelly titled her BRAVO blog posting "My Breakthrough." With only 2 lines in the blog posting.

With those 2 lines in Kelly's Bravo blog being...

"I have never endured such a difficult time with four women.

Trust your instincts."


She wrote this after watching that episode? Thus confirming, again, how completely delusional and at odds with reality Kelly is.

When asked by a reporter if that was a Breakdown that we all saw, Kelly said, no, it was a "Breakthrough." Hence the title of Kelly's latest BRAVO blog post.

And then Kelly started Tweeting on Twitter, basically spewing the same type insane, illogical, twisted verbiage we saw on our TVs.

I've thought Kelly was nuts from almost the first moment we met her. There just was something way off about her. And then that "I'm up here, you're down here" confrontation with Bethenny. Well, Bethenny knew then that Kelly was nuts. I never understood how Kelly survived that particular, weird embarrassment.

Yet, she did. It was barely touched on at the reunion show for that season.

The reunion show for the current season airs soon. I think it may have already been filmed. How will they deal with the Kelly insanity?

Last week's episode was the highest rated in Real Housewive's history. That moment where Bethenny screams at Kelly, "go to sleep, you're insane," with Kelly recoiling with a shocked looked, had been promoted over and over again, all season, which had a lot of people tuning in. Little did we know that that moment was just one little part of the Kelly insanity.

Now, what bothered me when I watched the Kelly insanity unfold was that BRAVO and the show's producers may be doing a wrong thing in continuing to have this obviously ill woman as one of the housewives.

I think my new favorite housewife, Sonja Morgan, spoke for the majority of viewers when she told the other housewives that we are fighting with a sick girl here, we need to try and help her.

Maybe BRAVO should insist Kelly get medical attention as a condition of remaining on the show, with the doctor's visits taped for our voyeuristic viewing pleasure.

Or not.