So Now I’m a Real Housewives Blog, I Guess
I’m kind of a Renaissance man; I have lots of interests. One of those is, of course, wine. But another is the debilitating effect tiny amounts of fame have on the human psyche. A perfectly normal person can be rolling along just fine, and then a tiny fleck of fame lands on them and they’re infected. They do whatever they have to do to stay in the spotlight, whether it’s posing naked in Playboy or driving all night to appear at a shopping mall opening in Duluth. And when they arrive in Duluth they throw a tantrum because no one is there to open their car door for them.
So if, perchance, some story lays astride the worlds of wine and minor celebrity, I find that story hard to resist.
Here’s a good example: last week’s posting about the “star” of Real Housewives of New Jersey who is coming out with her own brand of Pinot Grigio. (I guess all the White Zin had already shipped.) It really doesn’t have anything to do with wine, except that it sort of does and it gave me a chance to crack wise. It made kind of a funny posting, and it got some good comments, and I only felt a little dirty when it was done.
So after that, I’m going on with my life peaceful as can be when:
A wild brawl broke out at the wrap party for the Real Housewives of Orange County on Saturday night, with Tamra Barney and Jeana Keough throwing wine at each other.
I have no idea who Tamra Barney and Jeana Keough are, except that both of them seem to have misspelled their own names. And, judging from the photo above, both seem to have put on some weight since they bought those dresses. But they are, apparently, famous people of the sort who inhabit the cable channels in the wilderness on the far side of ESPN and the news nets.
So I’m reading this item about them having a wine-throwing brawl at a wrap party — where, seriously, what you’re supposed to be doing is screwing the other cast members and sucking-up to the Executive Producer for your next job — and I’m asking myself: Can I really justify two Real Housewives postings in two weeks? Is that reasonable? Is this a Wine Blog or a Real Housewives Blog?
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. When the circus freaks parade down Main Street, I’d be obligated to say something even if this were a blog about the geopolitical implications of the trade deficit.
So, ah, anyone know what kind of wine they threw at each other? I’m guessing Chardonnay. They seem like the kind of women who’d be drinking Chardonnay.
October 26th, 2010 at 6:33 PM
Well she did say, “Just a splash”
October 26th, 2010 at 9:35 PM
Chardonnay….with ice cubes in it
October 27th, 2010 at 10:57 AM
I’m thinking the ice cubes are probably molded into some shape or another. Little sailboats, maybe, or bunches of grapes.
October 27th, 2010 at 11:16 AM
I recently remarked to a Sonoma wine maker that his Chardonnay was considerably more nuanced and subtle than something like Mer Soleil. He emphatically stated that he did “not make cougar-juice.” Our list of cougar-juice grows with every weekend influx of wealthy North Shore Chicago parents visiting the kids at college. Cakebread, Mer Soleil, Caymus, Conundrum, (Caymus must be Modoc for cougar, La Crema, Cupcake, Layer Cake, Santa Margherita. Any other known cougar-juice producers? Little Black Dress tried to enter the market but failed because it was too cheap.
October 27th, 2010 at 6:44 PM
Wally, correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t Santa Margerhita a wine that was “upscaled” from the jug by a certain Lake Bluff distributor to capture the cougaresque market? They’ve done very well with it, which considering that it is available in all the finer Walgreens, is saying quite a lot
October 27th, 2010 at 6:52 PM
I didn’t even know they made Chardonnay. I thought they were all Pinot Grigio all the time.
October 27th, 2010 at 9:18 PM
Yes, it is Pinot Grigio, same concept