Real Housewives
breakout has moved on from the franchise that made her famous. But does she really want to leave the drama behind?Bethenny Frankel doesn’t believe in the edit. With the edit, television producers turn reels of plotless, mostly unwatchable footage into addictive, binge-worthy reality shows. At some point, most reality stars ascribe their reputation not to their own conduct but to the edit, over which they have zero control.
In fact, Frankel seems to be so self-aware, it’s almost unsettling—a woman wired for life on camera, in control and unselfconscious, cracking the joke before you can call her a punch line. The 50-year-old has spent 16 years making the reality-show rounds, first in 2005 as the runner-up onThe Real Housewives of New York
; in between as the girl who got the guy ; then, while extricating herself from said guy, as a daytime talk-show host ; and also, briefly, as a house flipper . In an ideal future, Frankel says, she’ll vanish from our screens. But in the present, she’s producing and starring in a new reality series,chronicles Frankel’s search for a vice president of operations for Skinnygirl, the lifestyle brand she launched in 2009. With Frankel as CEO, Skinnygirl has bloomed into a $100 million enterprise. Its products range from shapewear and jeans to coffee and snacks. Frankel’s personal brand has benefitted too.
Bethenny So interesting