There seems to be a cast type of the main characters for all of these “Housewives” shows: the not-so-bright but good hearted one, the bossy one, the one your a little jealous of, the lost one, and of course, the villain. On the New Jersey saga, the one who I thought was a little bit lost was Dina Manzo because it was hard to tell what she was searching for in life and was constantly seeking peace with teas, gems, and a spiritualist who became her BFF. Dina could not take the bad energy of the villain so she left mid-season, as did the villain Danielle Staub, who is now seeking treatment in stripper rehab after a three day gyration binge at Scores… I wish I was kidding.

As I awaited the new season of “RHONJ,” I was eager to see the prior Jerseyites who are Caroline–the bossy one, Jacqueline–the one I’m a little jealous of because no matter how many degrees are on my wall, my lifestyle is nowhere near what her’s is, and Teresa–the not so bright one, as evidenced by her malapropisms, but appears to be sweet and happy no matter what the circumstances are.

In between last season and the current season, it was made public that Teresa and her husband Joe Guidice were in bankruptcy and the opulent lifestyle that they flaunted on the show was really owned by Bank of America. The Guidice’s publicly stated that everything was great and they were victims of the economy. Unfortunately, I have seen this way too many times where the blame is put on everything from the dot.com bubble burst of 2000 to the recall of Skippy Peanut Butter and not people accepting what their actual net income is, also referred to as living in denial. We had also witnessed Teresa’s Italian temper–as she called it–in the famous table flipping episode in Season 1, which has been replayed more times than Lindsey Lohan walking into a court.

With all these intentional characters in place going about their business as if there were no cameras, even though anyone that has done any filming for TV knows there has to be crew to produce TV-quality work, I was very uneasy watching this season because the behavior now passed splurging on junk food and crossed over to sexism, violence, and ageism.

Lets start with violence. Two new characters brought in are related to Teresa: her bother Joe Gorga and his wife Melissa, and her cousin Kathy Wakile and her husband Rich, who looks like Robert DeNiro as Sam Rothstein in the last scene of the movie “Casino.” Melissa has now replaced Teresa as the not so bright one, Kathy is the lost one and Teresa has now become the villain. There is clearly jealousy and tension between brother and sister and at the Christening which they all kept exclaiming was so sacred, there was quite a bit of boozing. Having been to numerous Christenings, I do not recall people doing shots like it was a bachelor party. A few scenes later after gossiping about each other and spearing the stink eye across the room, Teresa went over to congratulate her brother and his wife, which only agitated her brother to the point of him slamming the table like a neanderthal and ordering his sister to get away from him. As more back and forth power struggles ensued, what happened next was really revolting: Joe Gorga became enraged like someone spilled drambuie on his  Adidas track suit as the venue was filled with children of all ages, playing or in strollers. Then a brawl broke out that you would expect from The Situation of the “Jersey Shore,” except it wasn’t in a dive bar but in front of all these kids dressed in their Church clothes. In addition, to watch a sister flinch because she is afraid her brother is going to take a swing is abusive and is not what I consider to be a little brain candy.

The next scene after the dust up, which I am sure every catering hall owner looks forward to, Teresa and her husband Joe are outside and husband Joe tells her to “shut up,” which is separate from the condescending tone with which he normally speaks to her.  Really Joe?  “Shut up,” on TV?  Nice.  Do you speak to your Mother that way or just your wife? I am sure if someone spoke to any one of your four daughters like that, you would want to take care of business. While I am on my sexism tirade, we could use a little less of Joe Gorga constantly wanting to maul his wife and expressing the fact that part of her job is to take care of him.  We get it, Joe Pesci, noodles and nookie.

Next, ageism came from Teresa. One nemesis, Kim G., is a reality show star wanna-be who has it in for Teresa, now that Danielle is gone. Teresa has stated that Kim G. is elderly. At an event where Kim G. was a few tables from her and was no doubt talking about Teresa, Teresa again made another old lady reference about Kim G. until Caroline told her to pipe down; Kim G. is about four years older than Caroline, who is in her late 40’s. Everyone has a different definition of what is considered, old but I think elderly is pretty well defined as at least 80 and above.  Really, Teresa, its so derogatory when you demean another woman that way, whether you like her or not, and it will come back to bite you in the backside someday.

One would hope that a reality show depicting housewives and their families who are all parents to mostly underage children would be better behaved and more mature than their kids but its not, which only means that this particular show will be duplicated many times over as long as there is money to be made, lives to be humiliated, and audiences who will eat it up no matter what discriminatory behavior is aired.

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Keep in mind that Lohan is no A-lister, either. She’s a troubled young star making movies no one’s interested in and her celebrity status falls further by the day.

If this is the treatment she receives, try to imagine what happens at a shoot involving a Julia Roberts, Barbra Streisand or Cameron Diaz.

The Washington Post recently reported on the Bravo poll that gave the Salahis the spotlight once again. The article noted that Bravo ”decided to poll viewers for their thoughts on Michaele and Tareq Salahi. This included asking whether you’d think less of Bravo if it gave the Salahis their own reality series.” The Post article noted that “the poll, which was being conducted by Research Results — a company that says it’s affiliated with NBC Universal” asked repondents if  “it would be in poor taste to give them [the Salahis] their own reality show. ” The answer to that question seems obvious.  The Salahis got publicity for breaking into a White House party. If that activity helps to earn them a reality show, that will only lead to future White House incursions by publicity-hungry celebrity wannabes.

Sadly, the Salahis are no stranger to either Bravo or the reality show universe. According to a New York Times article from November, the Salahis were already being filmed because they might be added to another reality show.  According to that article, Bravo had ”confirmed that Michaele Salahi was being seriously considered for the coming series ‘The Real Housewives of D.C.’”  However, the recent Bravo poll suggests to some that the Salahis are being considered for more than just a supporting role on a reality program.  As an article from the New York Post noted, one of the questions in the poll, that attempts to gauge people’s thoughts about the network if they gave the couple their own show, “suggests that somewhere within the NBCU wheelhouse, someone is contemplating giving the fame-seeking duo a shot at their own TV show.”

The reasons not to include the Salahis on their schedule should be obvious to Bravo and it seems like it may have been evident to some of the folks behind the poll. The Post article noted that the poll was “yanked since word of it got out to the press Wednesday morning.” Someone at Bravo or working on the poll must have realized the amount of bad publicity that the network could get for conducting a survey about whether White House party crashers should get their own show.

The Salahis are famous for the wrong reasons – not for what they did right or the careers that they took time building.  They are famous for what they did wrong: crashing a White House party, and that should not get them more air time. Plus, the Salahis already have a guest appearence scheduled that should get them a lot of media coverage. The Post article stated that the infamous couple “are already the stars of a federal investigation and a Congressional committee wants to meet them too, voting to subpoena them for a Jan. 20 hearing, although, sadly, their reps have said they’ll take the Fifth at that bash.” How ironic. The one time they actually get invitations to appear and they don’t want to say anything. (Unless of course, Vice President Joe Biden shows up and then the Salahis would probably want to take a picture with him.)

I hope that in pulling the plug on the poll, Bravo also decided against giving this couple any more publicity by not puttting them on their own reality show. I am also hoping the network realizes that the actions of the Salahis should not give them a career boost.  If the network decides against putting the Salahis on their own show and rejecting them from “Housewives,”  I would say ”bravo.”

The leaders of the pack:

-Jennifer Carroll.  Very strong and consistent.  By far the most talented of the female contestants.

-Kevin Gillespie (aka Red Santa).  Seems like a genuinely nice guy with terrific culinary instincts.

-Bryan and Michael Voltaggio. These brothers seem to trade wins every other week.  Bryan is more conservative, straightforward, and thoughtful.  Michael is somewhat of a punk, but an excellent chef in his own right.  Bravo is a bit too enamored with this brother-vs-brother storyline, but the fact that they could both make it to the finals on their own merits breathes life into the drama–which the show’s producers have nearly beaten to death.

Dark Horses

- Michael Isabella.  Extraordinarily cocky and obnoxious, Mike is easy to dislike.  He’s a tough competitor, though, and he has the capacity to take down one or more of the favorites with a well-timed brilliant dish.  (I also happened to dine at his DC restaurant last month, and the food was, admittedly, delicious).

- Eli Kirshtein.  He’s been decent all season — never seems to make it to judges’ table; as a winner or a loser.  He’s managed to hang in there without alienating any of the judges or memorably screwing up, so he might just sneak up on folks with a few solid weeks in a row.

Dead Weight

- Robin Leventhal.  Richly deserves the boot, ASAP.  Over/under – 1 week left.

- Laurine Wickett.  A bit vanilla, not especially creative, and has narrowly avoided the axe a few times already.

- Ash Fulk.  Excuses, excuses.  Has he put out a single good dish yet?  Very forgettable.

- Ashley Merriman.  Despite a minor surge in recent weeks, she still seems weak. Question: Hey Ashley, can you talk about how your family was poor growing up in the woods a little more, please?

I was skeptical of Vegas as a host city for a cooking show, but it’s been wonderful so far. Cool guest judges and creative challenges have made this season quite enjoyable, as has the relative lack of contrived personal drama (think Hosea/Leah kissy-face awfulness). Head judge Tom Colicchio has commented a few times that this is the strongest pool of contestants of any TC season thus far, and it’s hard to disagree.  When the show finally sheds the wannabes, there could be an amazing run of episodes down the stretch–with very little room for error.  Looking forward to the rest of the Vegas run.

Bon Appétit!

Here’s the skinny on Top Chef Masters, courtesy of the LA Times:

The cooking competition spinoff — this one featuring “world-renowned chefs” — has recruited a star-studded lineup of guest judges.

They include Neil Patrick Harris, Zooey Deschanel, Morgan Spurlock, “Lost” writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, “Flipping Out’s” Jeff Lewis, and all of the previous “Top Chef” winners. Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons will also appear.

With the large number of competitors, producers have tweaked the format of the original series. From Bravo’s press release:

In each episode, money will be at stake for the chefs, with the winners of eliminations being awarded cash donations for their charities. The first six episodes will consist of four chefs competing against each other to name one winner. The six winners of each episode will then meet up for the final four weeks when one person will get eliminated each episode until the finale where one winner is crowned Top Chef Master. The winning chef will receive $100,000 for the charity of his or her choice.

What?!  Mere “appearances” from Tom, Padma, and Gail?  Who will run the show?  Answer:

Food journalist Kelly Choi will host “Masters.” New York Magazine food critic Gael Greene, Saveur magazine Editor in Chief James Oseland and British food critic Jay Rayner will judge.

As for Top Chef proper, rumors are swirling that season 6 will take place in Las Vegas.  Or Seattle.

Dig in.