A Real Housewife Lighting a Cigarette Broke Bravo Fans’ Brains

This week:

• Everything you need to know about Wicked.

• The reality TV scene fans are going crazy over.

• An all-time great podcast story.

• An unbelievable vocal performance.

An Iconic Reality TV Moment

That high-pitched squeal you heard Tuesday night was Bravo fans shrieking in unison at a now-iconic scene in the season premiere of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Dorit Kemsley lighting up a cigarette on camera.

The backstory is only mildly necessary for understanding why this was such a shocking serve for the once floundering cast member. After a rather boring season last year, fans had started to argue for Kemsley’s firing. Well, she has risen like a phoenix from the ashtray: She announced her separation for her husband, PK, put his years-long battle with alcoholism on blast, and decided to wage war against her former best friend and erstwhile Grand Poobah of RHOBH, Kyle Richards.

After an introduction in the premiere revealing all that drama, the cameras follow her as she careens down the canyon in her car, windows open, and lights up. For a Housewife who had been almost self-destructingly insecure about how she is portrayed on screen, manicuring and polishing her image, it was like a Bad Sandy in Grease moment: This is a woman who finally doesn’t give an eff, and is ready to burn it all to the ground in pursuit of great reality TV.

Listen, is smoking cool? Of course. Err, I mean no! Definitely not! Just say no, kids!

Oh, who are we kidding? In a three second camera shot, all of my childhood D.A.R.E. training went right out the window. I’ve never seen someone look so fabulous. And I’m not the only one who felt that way. Dorit smoking was as close as Real Housewives gets to breaking the internet. Just look at the response:

This Is How You Tell a Story on a Podcast

Everyone’s favorite Saturday Night Live cast is the one that was on the show when they first started watching regularly. So for me, Molly Shannon, Cheri Oteri, and especially Ana Gasteyer are as iconic as it gets. But I only recently discovered that “iconic” only skims the surface when it comes to Gasteyer.

On the Las Culturistas podcast this week, Gasteyer, who is currently starring in Once Upon a Mattress on Broadway, talked about how, when she was growing up in Washington, D.C., she became childhood friends with Amy Carter, daughter of Jimmy Carter, while he was president. She would have sleepovers with her at the White House. She hung out with Anwar Sadat and his delegation while they were at Camp David to negotiate the Camp David Accords. It sounds like an unbelievable, political version of Eloise at the Plaza.

The point of bringing this up was not for Gasteyer to humblebrag. She wanted to make an earnest comment about the power of comedy in fraught political times, and brought up the night that she was at the White House and saw Jimmy Carter sitting in an armchair, drinking a beer, and cracking up at Dan Akroyd’s impression of him on Saturday Night Live. At a time when a politician’s humorlessness begat a national crisis, that memory, she says, is a crucial reminder of comedy and laughter’s power to surface truth at the same time it excavates cheer.

Truly Unbelievable Vocals

I swear that, each week when I’m writing this Obsessed newsletter, I say to myself, “No more talking about Kelly Clarkson. You cannot possibly put Kelly Clarkson in the newsletter again. People are tired of reading you fangirling out over Kelly Clarkson.” But then Kelly Clarkson does something amazing, and I’m powerless. Attention must be paid.

I’ll keep it short and sweet this week, though: This cover of Céline Dion’s “All By Myself” is unreal.

What to watch this week:

Wicked: The film defies gravity! It sure is going to be popular! You will be changed for good after watching it! Insert more Wicked puns here! (Now in theaters)

Gladiator II: If you loved the first Gladiator, you’ll like this one too, because it is basically the same movie. (Now in theaters)

A Man on the Inside: We must be in the Good Place, because Ted Danson is in another great comedy series. (Now on Netflix)

What to skip this week:

Spellbound: The Netflix animated musical is a star-studded miss. (Now on Netflix)