Entertainment

'RHONY' Teaches How To Listen In

Heidi Gutman/Bravo

Watching eight seasons of Real Housewives Of New York has taught me a few things. One is to never tell your friends that their fiancés are making out with random women at bars. They will shoot the messenger. Another is that money can’t buy you class. And another, yet, is how to eavesdrop into a conversation that you have no business listening to. Heck, even conversations that you should be listening to! Everything I learned about eavesdropping I learned from Real Housewives Of New York.

The April 26 episode is a prime example of this. Every conversation, to some degree, was listened in on by someone the others didn’t know could hear. Bethenny was in the car in front of Ramona’s house listening to Dorinda berate Sonja about their relationship and the Berkshires and Grey Gardens and who knows what, and it seemed quite entertaining for Bethenny. Sonja and new girl Tinsley walked in on Dorinda, Luann, and Ramona talking crap about them the next morning at Luann’s Sag Harbor house (have you see the renovation? Because she mentioned it 30 times). Tinsley heard Sonja complaining about her from upstairs in the home that they’re currently sharing, mostly because Sonja likes to whinge and she was mad that Tinsley was hanging out with her friends or something. My all-time favorite eavesdropping moment was Jules and Carole in the closet in the Berkshires last season, but who could forget speakerphone calls with Luann when Jill was fighting Bethenny? Ah, those were the days.

This sort of intelligence gathering is an integral part of the franchise, because you can’t confront someone who is talking sh*t about you if you don’t know the sh*t that they’re talking. Eavesdropping on Real Housewives Of New York is just a way to arm yourself, and these ladies are certainly making good work of it already this year.