Hollywood Demons Recap for Housewives Gone Bad

 

This week’s episode of Hollywood Demons is titled Housewives Gone Bad and gets into the dark side of the Real Housewives franchise.

Several people, including Dr. Drew Pinsky, Kate Casey, Samantha Bush, Schaachi Koul and attorney Ronald Richards, talk about the different franchises and what they represent, as well as the drama that comes with each one.

Dr. Drew gets into how several Housewives have been involved in criminal activities, while Jeana Keogh talks about her time on Real Housewives of Orange County. She started as a model and actress and soon moved to Orange County, which is considered a ‘rich’ area in California/ She recalls talking to her neighbor Scott, who was in show business.

He wanted to do a story about her life and family, which was supposed to be based on Desperate Housewives. Four other ladies would join and thus RHOC was born.

Andy Cohen was soon added to the mix and loved the concept since he was a huge soap opera fan.

RHOC begins. At first, it is a bit boring and had low viewership. More people are brought in for more drama and as the franchise went to other cities, more of the cast members had hidden issues, criminal pasts and other disturbing issues.

Tammy Knickerbocker talks about her own time on the show. She’d been divorced at the time and thought the initial experience of preparing for the show was sweet at first, but then once she began, she realized it was anything but.

Tammy had also been dealing with the death of her ex and felt as if production was hard on her and her girls.

Tamra Judge dealt with her divorce on the following season.

Season two was more dramatic and ratings got better. The question now was…how do they top it?

Lauri Waring Peterson, another RHOC, was a struggling single mom and was honest about her struggles and dealing with her son’s addiction. She eventually ended up getting married and leaving the show once things got too difficult with her son and life.

New franchises would start filming in NYC, Atlanta and New Jersey.

Rumor had it that NJ’s cast members took a long time to sign on, making people wonder if they were worried about secrets coming out.

Kevin Maher talks about his relationship with RHONJ cast member Danielle Staub. He was an informant and her ex-husband. He talks about everything from their sex life, her former life as Beverly Ann Merrill, her prison time and everything in between. He promised to help her and admits he stupidly told her that he was an informant.

The story was that allegedly she was involved with a drug dealer who kidnapped a child, pistol whipped him and abused him. The kid allegedly also stole $25,000 worth of cocaine. This led to her being arrested and he agreed to help her. Everyone was arrested and she eventually got 5 years of probation with all charges except extortion dropped.

Kevin and Danielle got married and divorced within the span of a year. They would lose contact until 2009 when his book Cop Without a Badge came out. This book, of course, was featured on RHONJ and used against Danielle, leading to Teresa Giudice’s famous table flip. A producer was under the table and given to Danielle during this very scene.

This would put the show on the map…as well as Teresa.

Teresa would go on to take every opportunity she could, including coming out with cookbooks, appearing on other TV  shows and magazines and everything in between. She became more famous and intriguing, which led to people looking deeper into her life….which is how her and her husband Joe’s criminal activity was discovered. They would both serve time in prison.

Another housewife with questionable activity was Erika Jayne and her now ex-husband Tom Girardi from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. She was not charged with any criminal activity, but he was in hot water with the law.

Nene Leakes from RHOA also had a criminal past when she ripped off her phone company.

These criminal activities made people more interested in the ladies and kept them tuning in.

Teresa would return to the show…..which made people wonder, what crime is too big for a comeback?

Jen Shah from Real Housewives of Salt Lake City was another one with criminal activity. One of her school friends Amy talks about Jen’s growing up years and how she changed so much. She also talks about seeing her on TV and being surprised with everything that occurred.

Jen’s life seemed like smoke and mirrors since day one since she spent so much money and no one knew where it came from.

Several of Jen’s victims come forward and talk about how they were scammed out of their money through her companies….and how it ruined their lives.

One of her co-workers Joe Bish, also talks about his experience working with her and explains how the companies worked.  He was floored to see her on the show and says that he and his co-workers knew she was going down.

On season two, Jen’s arrest is covered, complete with the SWAT team, FBI and Homeland Security coming in to arrest her and her assistant Stuart.

Jen’s victims talk about the arrest and seeing her on TV. They were angry that their money went to fund her opulent lifestyle.

All the while, Jen denied doing anything wrong…..until she decided to take the plea deal, landing in jail for 6 1/2 years.

Jen’s classmate cries over this and talks about her opinion of Jen has changed.

Taylor Armstrong of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and RHOC, was a victim of domestic abuse off the show. Her husband Russell would commit suicide during season two.

Randy Edwards talks about Russell and how they were best friends since childhood. He knew Russell wanted to be rich and says things would be different had ne not met Taylor.

Taylor was known as Shana Hughes and Shana Ford, the latter of which people believe she used to make it seemed as if she were connected to the famous family.

Taylor and Russell would marry and have a daughter named Kennedy when they went on TV. People warned Russell about being on the show, but he says he wanted to do it for Taylor.

Taylor and Russell were considered a fish out of water compared to their other co-stars and people wondered how she fit in, let alone how she was able to afford her lifestyle. People think it was too much and too showy.

All the while, Russell and Taylor were facing financial struggles and he was also struggling in his work life. This led to a lawsuit since no one knew where the money was coming from and what Taylor’s true story was that they couldn’t see.

Taylor herself comes on camera to tell her story. She talks about her abusive childhood and how she would change her name to escape it. Ford came from Tom Ford, her favorite designer.

She met Taylor at a restaurant while waiting for a friend. They got to talking and would soon get together. He had two children from a previous relationship and was at first a Southern gentleman.

Things were a whirlwind, and they were soon a couple and then living together. They would then get married and at the time, she was pregnant with Kennedy.

Looking back, she could see some red flags.

Before long, she was cast on RHOBH and thought it would be fun. Russell seemed very supportive of this at first.

Dr. Drew and Tammy wonder why anyone would expose their family to a reality show when most times it ends in disaster.

Taylor shows a scene when she is greeting men at a party and Russell got jealous. She then talks about how she discovered he was recording her in her office. Her housekeepers would find more recordings, causing her to think she was always being recorded.

She also recalls a time she made his sons a pizza and he got violent with her since there were no veggies. She would constantly question if she was being abused since it seemed like she had it all.

Taylor then gets into one scene in a limo where she was terrified Russell would hurt her because she knew the look in his eyes.

She also gets into how he would gaslight her out of working by make it seem like he wanted to take care of her, so she didn’t have to work. However, he controlled her finances and threaten her so she couldn’t leave.

Another incident happened when she was at a friend’s house. The friends offered to help her leave, not knowing that Russell was listening in the bushes. He then beat her and the male friend, knocking the man’s teeth out and almost drowned her.

More people became aware of her problems, and it was even brought up on season one when Camille outed it at a party. She was angry and terrified because of this, not knowing what Russell would do.

On Taylor’s 40th birthday, Russell took her to the Four Seasons, got her eight pairs of her favorite shoes and a card saying that he loved her. All seemed well, until he accused her of sleeping with a Chippendales dancer in Vegas. He then beat her to the pulp, breaking her orbital floor.

Taylor would go to the doctor and used the cover story that Kennedy accidentally kicked her. The doctor knew this was a lie and pointed out he only saw this happen once, when a cop was punched in a similar fashion.

She would have reconstructive story and file for divorce since she now knew she was being abused.

Randy talks about how Russell talked to him about the issues and how they were impacting his life.

On August 16, 2011, Taylor would go see Russell in his office, only to find out he was missing. She went to the place where he was staying with a champion kickboxing friend….where they found out that Russell had hanged himself. 911 was called and Taylor went to the car to be with her daughter, who sensed something was wrong.

Dr. Drew talks to Taylor about everything. They discuss if the show impacted what happened, but she says that she thought the cameras would protect her from the abuse. She talks about how she wanted her daughter to have a dad and good life, which is why she stayed, but now wishes she would have left earlier.

She also gets into Russell’s suicide and how she never thought he could do such a thing. There were times she thought things were suspect and how she had to hire a law firm to get the money….which was all gone. She also reveals that Russell’s business partner had a weird reaction to the suicide….only to also take his own life. They were both connected to an elite investor group, which people wonder played a role in the suicides.

Taylor questions all of this and wonders if there was something more sinister going on behind the scenes.

Dr. Drew says the autopsy report for Russell had some strange aspects, some connected to a suicide, some not.

Randy talks about his own investigation and how it didn’t seem like a murder.

The whole thing is still a mystery since at the time of the deaths, there was a lawsuit against Russell.

There is no longer an investigation into this and the lawsuit was settled out of court.

Dr. Drew says Taylor is doing better and congratulates her on doing so well and being so strong.

The suicide was not shown on TV, but the aftermath was shown.

 

The ladies talk about the shows they were on and their decisions to leave.