Real Money for Real Housewives

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Who would allow herself to be labeled a "Real Housewife of fill in the blank" and have the camera track her every move?

Me. Now that I know the Real Housewives of New York are getting $30,000 an episode, I'm ready to sign.

I'd put up with being mic'ed and gossiped about. It's not a bad way to make a living.
A good living at that.

Bravo, I promise I wouldn't push a book, jewelry, skin care or clothing line.

Oh Oprah!

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Now there are Oprah scholars

From Oprah, the person, to the TV show, magazines, radio, tours, book club, the road to Oprah scholars may have been inevitable. Are there Rupert Murdoch scholars or Martha Stewart scholars?

In today's New York Post, The Oprah Syndrome: Bloated, Depressed -- As O Goes, So Goes the Nation" suggests that we as a country are in the same state as Oprah.

Rich? Smart? Successful? Good-looking? Accomplished? If we are all those things, we are in pretty good shape.

But this article is about Oprah's weight and her inability to maintain it at a certain level. On that basis alone, we are to think her a failure. Oprah herself is "embarrassed".

If maintaining a certain weight is the standard by which we measure success, we are in a sorry state. Think of the women and men who'd be considered failures: Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Teddy Roosevelt, Elanor Roosevelt, Henry VIII, Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft.

Not that's a subject for scholars.