Showbiz Tonight
Showbiz Reality Secrets
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A.J. HAMMER: And you know it’s true. We can’t stop talking about these fights because, quite frankly, they are so entertaining. So what’s the secret to being able to hold your own in these reality fight club situations?
Well, I sat down with Kyle Richards who famously fought with her own, sister and co-star in the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. And I asked her if there was ever any concern about opening up her family to everything that reality shows cameras capture including all the scrutiny and conflict. Watch what she tells me.
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HAMMER: Wow. You and your sister Kim have had your share of ups and downs. Obviously, that happens in every family, sisters, brothers, whatever. But yours was caught on TV for everybody to see. So, I have to ask you if you could go back now, knowing what you now know, would you make the same decision to appear on the show?
KYLE RICHARDS, CAST, REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS: I don’t know if I would do that. I mean, there are so many negative things that do come with being on a reality show. But there are a lot of positive things, too. You know, you have the opportunity to bring awareness to your charities. I’ve lost a lot of family to cancer. So I try to make sure that I bring attention to my charities in each of the episodes or each of the seasons, I should say. One of the charities I was involved with, The Lollipop Theater Network, after being in my episode, their donations went up 200 percent. So, it can have an upside but there are a lot of draw backs as well.
HAMMER: And this is what I’ve heard from many of your costars. We had them right here on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" talking about the fact that yes, it`s great exposing my charities and getting much needed funds to these excellent. But the other thing that I also hear from many of your co-stars is you know what, I watch the show back and that’s not exactly how it went down. That’s not how it really happened. Do you ever feel like you’re a victim of the creative editing that’s often done to present the greatest drama and conflict?
RICHARDS: Well, I can tell you in season one in the finale, the fight with my sister, as difficult as that was, because so many people were angry about our fight. It was what I was feeling, you know. It was a lot of emotions that were built up over the years. So, as much as I took heat for that, I had to own it because that is how I felt, you know. I couldn`t explain the back story to everybody watching.
But like the fight at game night with Brandi, I do look at that and think that is not me. I look like a mean person and my sister does. We’re not mean people, we’re nice people. But I think it’s a combination of being caught up in the moment. And there’s a little tongue in cheek, you know. I mean, I did help Brandy. I offered to help Brandy down the stairs with her crutches. But that part wasn’t shown. And I don’t know if that’s because they can’t fit everything in an hour or what. But, you know, you got to come and take what gravy and sauce.
HAMMER: So is there a potential upside the opportunity to get, I don’t know, a kind of a therapy you couldn`t otherwise get where you can take a look at yourself and say hey, you know, I’m seeing some kind of behavior that I need to work on here?
RICHARDS: Yes, absolutely. I do think that you can learn about yourself and I really thought that going into this, I knew going into this that it would be difficult working with my sister at times. But I think that in spite of our big blow up at the end of season one, that it actually ended up helping our relationship in a lot of ways because we both had so much -- we held in for so long. It just kind of came to a head that night. And I don`t think we would have ever gotten out, otherwise.
HAMMER: There you go. Something that I’ve heard often from people, particularly about the real house wives shows, you look at the various franchises. And quite frankly, it often looks like a glorified version of high school. Mean girls and all. They are all there. Do you watch the show regularly and cringe at your own behavior or, by enlarge are you pretty please with the way you’re portrayed?
RICHARDS: I think, for the most part, it’s, you know, fair. And there are a lot of times I watch and I see my husband and my kids, you know, do my bike ride in Nappa to raise money for cancer with my husband, I do enjoy watching those episodes. When I look at that and I think that was just not me. I don’t know how I got to that point. I’m very disappointed when I see that. I feel sad. I actually cried. You know, a lot after watching that episode. Just being disappointed in myself and the whole night, disappointing anyone, feeling like I’d let people down.
HAMMER: So, for as much drama as there is going on with what we see on the show, there’s a whole lot of drama going on behind the scenes and you’re well aware of it. But you know the New York franchise of "Real Housewives" is a major turmoil. They were all fired from the show. There are some questions being raised about the New Jersey show imploding, "the real Housewives of D.C." didn`t come back after one season. Do you think the franchise is winding down? Or do you think it is more time than it would appear to at this time?
RICHARDS: I think that the ratings are still very strong, so that’s pretty indicative of people still being interested and watching the show. I think everybody likes to be a fly on the wall. And, you know, I think people want to look back and see that, you know, OK, you know, I’ve got a lot of problems going on in my life or whatever it is that they want to see what’s going on in other people`s lives. So I think that people are still watching. The numbers prove it.
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