Brandi Glanville recently let slip to “In Touch Weekly” magazine, that Season 5 of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” might just be her last. “I’m not sure how much longer I have on that show,” Brandi tells the new issue of ‘In Touch.’ “Maybe it’s not for me anymore.” Anyone familiar with the series doesn’t have to wonder why it might not be for her anymore.
Brandi Glanville is the only single working mother on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” She needs a paycheck to support herself and her two young children. As evidenced on the series, Glanville receives a paltry $1000 a month in child support from ex-husband, actor Eddie Cibrian. The question is, how bad does she need or want Bravo’s paycheck anymore?
Glanville is currently the darling on NBC’s fourteenth season of “Celebrity Apprentice”, hosts her own successful podcast at PodcastOne, “Brandi Glanville Unfiltered”, writes a weekly column for Australia’s leading celebrity magazine “NW”, and is the author of two New York Time’s bestselling books, “Drinking and Tweeting” and “Drinking and Dating: P.S. Social Media Is Ruining Romance”. Glanville confirmed on RHOBH that a third book is forthcoming.
Even though Glanville is arguably the most sought after “Housewife”, it’s no secret to Bravo fans why Glanville might consider pulling the plug. Any “Housewife” in the Housewives’ franchise, and most fans, knows all about the “edit”. The “Housewives” can’t talk about it, they aren’t allowed to defend it, but they know going in. They also know if they don’t produce ratings, they could end up being one season housewives.
Each season, or in Glanville’s case, several seasons, one wife is chosen to be the villain. This seasonal focus on Beverly Hills has centered more on Glanville than the other cast members. The difference is Glanville has more to lose. The other “Housewives” are actually, housewives. Their, mostly wealthy, husbands support them and their families. Even currently single actress, Kim Richards, has outside financial support in the form of alimony and residuals.
Additionally there is the fame and status of some of the husbands, which protect their wives from the bad edit. Example: no one can imagine ex-model, Yolanda Foster, receiving the “bad edit”. Why? She is married to powerhouse composer and songwriter, David Foster. Would Bravo shred the reputation of “Law and Order” and “Mad Men” star, actor Harry Hamlin’s wife, Lisa Rinna? Doubtful.
Each “Housewife” appears for only a few minutes each week, minutes culled from days of filming. Producers at Bravo have reams of footage to choose from in creating each episode. They may portray each of the wives in any manner they choose, while the “Housewife”, has zero control. Thus far, season five of RHOBH has worked overtime in portraying Glanville in a bad light.
New castmates, soap actresses Eileen Davidson and Lisa Rinna, were expected to create a story arc worthy of interest to viewers, in lieu of that, they seem to have decided it’s easier to achieve airtime, or “make the edit”, by creating disparaging sound bites about Glanville; they continue this behavior on their Bravo blogs and on Twitter. Kyle Richards and Lisa Vanderpump also dedicate much of their own screen time and blogs disparaging Glanville. In fact, many fans are complaining that is appears to be a coordinated attack.
Easy work if you can get it, but why? Are they that uninteresting? Maybe. Do they need the paycheck that badly? Who knows? One aspect that is certain, the series has become darker this season and fans are not happy. They’re not happy about the direction and they’re not happy at they way Glanville is being portrayed. It seems, Glanville is not happy either.
Another facet, is that Bravo not only endorses the attacks, both on air and on the Bravo website, but even on Bravo’s official RHOBH Facebook page. The RHOBH Facebook page seems to favor the other housewives and allows internet trolls to write vicious attacks on Glanville without obvious moderation.
Another possible factor is Glanville’s future with Bravo is the WWHL episode that guest starred Glanville and Jeff Lewis, host of Bravo’s “Flipping Out”. The episode aired directly after the RHOBH episode where Glanville tossed wine on actress Eileen Davidson. Per sources close to Glanville and her own Tweets, Glanville and Lewis, a friend of Glanville, agreed to “prank” Bravo’s Andy Cohen, at Lewis’s instigation. As agreed beforehand, Lewis would insult Glanville; she would pretend to be outraged, thus having a reason to toss wine onto Lewis. Cohen and the audience were stunned and appropriately “punked”.
The apparent problem for Glanville is that Bravo’s Andy Cohen refused to admit that it was a prank. Glanville immediately Tweeted it was a prank. Cohen remained silent for days, while Glanville received legions of damning press and hate Tweets accusing her of mental instability and drug abuse. Many viewers saw through the act and saw that Glanville was shaking from laughter, not tears, and was “acting” on the late night comedy series, but the person who could corroborate and exonerate Glanville, her boss Cohen, failed to do so. Eventually, days after the media furor dissipated, Cohen begrudgingly admitted to being pranked, but it was days later, mostly unseen by the public and ignored by the media. Sources say the episode left a feeling of mistrust in Glanville. She no longer feels her employers have her best interests at heart.
This is Glanville’s third season as a full-fledged “Housewife”. She first appeared as a friend of the “Housewives”, in season two. Per Glanville’s first book, “Drinking and Tweeting”, Glanville was living in her car, broke, homeless and without a resume, albeit her modeling career before marriage, when Bravo called. She needed a job, any job. Cibrian was playing hardball and drawing out their divorce. Glanville had no credit, very little money, two small children, and nowhere to go. She went to Bravo or they went to her. Either way, it was all too apparent, then anyway, she would do anything Andy (Cohen) and Bravo wanted to garner a paycheck to feed and house her children. Glanville said as much on Twitter and it seems she has done so. Bravo wants ratings and she gave then ratings. Recently, Glanville even went so far as to defend Andy Cohen when her fans attacked him on Twitter.
But, now much has changed, the bad edits, the WWHL episode, and “Celebrity Apprentice”. Fans have now seen another Glanville on “Apprentice”, the Glanville that recently stated on Twitter she is the “real me”, a no nonsense women with a strong work ethic, innate marketing savvy, and the ability to get along with strong personalities without “Housewife” style drama. Glanville’s press from “Apprentice” is good. Her fans have grown. Her Facebook alone saw a 50,000 follower increase during Apprentice. Her Twitter analytics are strong and she has that new book deal.
Whether Glanville receives other offers that afford her egress from RHOBH is unknown? Whether she would chose a project that allows her further opportunity to eradicate her RHOBH reputation remains to be seen. Whether Bravo is willing to present Glanville in another light also remains to be seen. It’s the obvious choice, but will they see it?
One thing is certain, Brandi Glanville remains the reason many tune-in to watch RHOBH each week. Many fans are now mockingly referring to RHOBH as the “Brandi Show”. If you agree, you still have what remains of season five of the RHOBH and the finale of “Celebrity Apprentice” to watch your favorite “Housewife”, after that, it’s all contract negotiations.
Brandi Glanville: FameFlynet
