Fans=Success So Why Ostracize The Fans?

Many of The Real Housewives have used the popularity and fame they have gained through the show to market their own businesses and make money.  Their success is dependent upon their fans, so it surprises me that a Real Housewife would ostracize their fans.  Some Housewives go to great length to protect their image and have employees dedicated solely to handling their social media and ensuring that negative comments (via Twitter, Facebook, etc...) about them quickly disappear from the internet.

Jill Zarin from The Real Housewives of New York has been most frequently accused of doing so.  If someone is making defamatory or bullying comments perhaps there is some grounds for this, but then again isn't that par for the course when you are in the public eye?  Many of the reasons why celebrities do not sue the tabloids for reports that are full out lies is that when you are a public figure it is very difficult to prove defamation.  There is a much higher standard for defamation for public figures versus private figures.  Also, if Housewives are blocking fans who are merely pointing out the truth, that is hardly fair.  If someone is holding a mirror up to your face and showing you your actions and you don't like it, perhaps it is time to change your actions not break the mirror.

This whole idea leads me to a Twitter interaction I had with Gretchen Rossi from The Real Housewives of Orange County.  There was a recent article on Dailyglow.com called Real Housewives' Gretchen Rossi Shares Recipe For Skinny, Sexy Cocktail.  Essentially, Gretchen is promoting Voli's low calorie vodka and pink lemonade drink.  I retweeted the article and questioned whether Gretchen was trying to be Bethenny Frankel.  

For those who don't know, Bethenny is a former NYC Housewife who purportedly  made $120 million selling her massively successful Skinnygirl Margarita.  Who wouldn't want to follow in Bethenny's footsteps.  It appears that Gretchen was offended by my tweet as I got, what I interpreted as a somewhat nasty direct message saying "No its called an endorsement deal!" (sic).  The thing is, there is nothing wrong with a Real Housewife having an endorsement deal.  They should take every opportunity to parley their time in the public eye into financial success--after all who knows how long the Real Housewives success will continue on.  I personally just found that by Gretchen direct messaging rather than replying via a public tweet it was clear she was bothered by my tweet and being nasty in return.  But of course did not want the rest of her followers to see her being nasty.  First of all, even if it does bother her, she felt compelled to message me directly with a nasty response.  She has nothing better to do with her life?  And two, I was not a Gretchen hater and I wasn't really criticizing her.  I promoted the company she has an endorsement deal with by retweeting the link and basically said what the article said, that she as following in Bethenny's footsteps.

Before this incident I didn't think Gretchen was perfect and she certainly had her flaws, but all in all I was a fan.  I thought she was fun, a good person, and enjoyable to watch.  But now my impression of her has changed. I am starting to wonder if her niceness on camera is just that--on camera.  That she really isn't a good person and that everything we see on the show is just acting.  I've never really decided where I fell on the whole "Tamra v. Gretchen" debate.  I've always liked both of them and wasn't sure who to believe with the whole "Jay" situation.  Seeing that Gretchen can be nasty to a fan, so long as it's not in a public forum, makes me truly wonder how she really is when the cameras are not running.  I now wonder the same thing about the rest of the Housewives.  Who is authentic and who is acting?  But at the end of the day, even if you think no one is watching when  your success depends upon fans maybe you should be nice.

I wanted to write this blog post not as some type of revenge because I was offended by Gretchen, I really don't care--the message.  But I saw the direct message is my twitter inbox today, it got me thinking about whether the Real Housewives are who they show on camera and about the importance of fans.  Gretchen's success is in part dependent upon her fans wanting to buy her products and the products she endorses.  If she is going to be nasty to her fans in private, it is something that the rest of her fans should know.