Bravo Delays Filming of The Real Housewives of New York

Too privileged for television?

Still reeling from the recent tragic suicide of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Russell Armstong, and desperate to do some public relations damage control to their image, Bravo is backpeddling on their plans to begin filming the next season of The Real Housewives of New York. The RHONY cast was originally set to begin filming around Labor Day, only to receive news that filming has been delayed, pending further notice.

One of the cast members from The Real Housewives of New York told AOL Huff Post, “We were originally meant to start filming on Labor Day, then we all received an email saying we would start filming September 8th, when Fashion Week started in the city. Now we have all been notified that it has been pushed back another three weeks, at least.”

The recent Russell Armstrong suicide tragedy has put an unattractive smear on a television franchise that was moving full speed ahead, largely on the platform of featuring spoiled, entitled “housewives” who fill their time arguing and feuding with each other, for lack of any real problems. Although, I do make some exceptions in certain cast members, like Caroline Manzo from TRHONJ. Perhaps the tide is turning, and showing these over the top richer than rich lifestyles is no longer appropriate in an economic climate where the average American can barely afford to pay their monthly mortgage.

As evidence has shown, not only are the lifestyles of the Real Housewives set rare, some of the cast from the Bravo franchise are even having some trouble keeping up with the Jones’s. In 2010 Real Housewives of New Jersey breakout star Teresa Giudice and her husband, Joe filed for bankruptcy, with public records painting a very different financial picture than the couple was portraying for Bravo’s cameras. Now Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Taylor Armstrong and her late husband, it turns out, were not exactly on easy street either. After Russell Armstrong’s suicide, public documents revealed that the Beverly Hills husband had actually filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection back in 2005, and according to Armstrong’s attorney, the late Housewives husband was barely able to keep up with his wife’s ritzy lifestyle.

Now, with their celebrity status on the line, some of the Real Housewives’ collective cast members are considering their options for cashing in on all of the behind-the-scenes drama with Bravo. “We have all been approached to appear on TV and tell the behind-the-scenes truth about the series,” several cast members told AOL Huff Post. “But before we do that we want to see who is not going to be invited back. Those that are, are not about to bite the hand that feeds them.”

Do you think Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise is promoting unrealistic and hurtful lifestyles that are unattainable by the average viewer?