'Real Housewives of Orange County' eye greener pastures

Cast members parlay their fame via a variety of new ventures.

"I won’t let my success be handled by someone else,” says Bravo-bucking Slade Smiley, with Jo De La Rosa.
By Lynn Smith
Time Staff Writer

March 11, 2007

LIKE his neighbors in Coto de Caza, Slade Smiley is used to making things happen. He co-founded a title insurance company, bought a home in the planned, gated community, invited his girlfriend, Jo De La Rosa, a student and loan officer, to move in and proposed they sign up for Bravo's docu-soap "The Real Housewives of Orange County" because he figured it would be good for business.

When the show took off and the calls starting coming in, he wasn't one to sit back and let network executives decide what to do with their fame. "All of us made it happen. I won't let my success be handled by someone else," said Smiley, one of the more outspoken cast members who've created a modest but intense cadre of fans fascinated by their successful — and sometimes arrogant, shallow and self-absorbed — personas on the reality show, which will conclude its second season Tuesday.

Smiley has produced De La Rosa's first record, as seen on the show, but behind the scenes he has also joined her on TV talk shows, red carpets and promotional events not allowed by Bravo.

He said publicists called to "reprimand" him. And he spoke to the Los Angeles Times without a Bravo representative — really not allowed.

"They hate the fact we've figured how to take exposure from the show and turn it into something," said Smiley, who argues that the appearances that he and De La Rosa make are not for press or promotion. "We're about making personal relationships in the industry. It comes across when we meet people," he said. "We're not hungry for it. We're not pushing too hard."

A spokesman for the network said, "Bravo doesn't discuss the terms of its talent contracts, which are standard for the industry," and declined to comment on the activities of Smiley and his cast mates. "The talent contracts are all designed to protect the confidentiality of the plot development," the spokesman added.

Typically, the stars of low-cost reality shows agree to network contracts and small paychecks hoping to get a foot in the door of the entertainment industry. And the promise looms large. The young cast of MTV's first season of "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County" moved from high school to Hollywood to live the life and pursue careers in entertainment. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, eliminated from "Survivor: The Australian Outback," went on to co-host "The View." "American Idol" loser Jennifer Hudson won a career and Oscar gold in the business through the exposure.

While there's always a loose cannon or two, most reality cast members appear one season only and comply with the networks' often strict regulations.

But when it comes to successful Type-A suburbanites with their own ideas about running things, it's a different story. "Nobody at Coto de Caza needs anything from Bravo TV," Smiley said. "The other shows are competitive in their nature. People trying to make something of their lives. We're already there."

Not your average millionaires

CREATED and produced by a resident of Coto de Caza, Scott Dunlop, "Housewives," similar to "Laguna Beach," has followed the melodramas of the enclave's families, capturing some jaw-dropping moments of materialistic excess (a house for every child in one family), alcohol-fueled parties with inane conversation ("Do you speak Canadian?") and increasing strangeness — rabbit shooting, daughters turned into sexy spokesmodels for an energy drink, a catfight, pit bulls and naked jealousy over men, cars and bling. And that's just what shows up on-screen.

"Housewives" draws about a million viewers per episode, respectable enough for pay cable but a tiny fraction of what "American Idol" draws. Still, the "housewives," their children and husbands, ex-husbands and their ex-wives are recognized in the grocery stores, restaurants and hospital emergency rooms, not to mention a number of foreign countries that also air the show.

Like Smiley, real estate agent-"housewife" Jeana Keough said she hoped the exposure would help her business, though she also wanted to promote an acting career for her daughter, Kara, who had appeared in some movies as a child. And like Smiley, she's taken advantage of opportunities as they appear. She said she and three other "housewives" set up an online shopping center, http://www.TheRealOCBrand.com , to fulfill requests for the clothes and jewelry they wear and the products they use. "We asked Bravo to partner, and they weren't interested," she said.

"They threatened to sue if we didn't remove all pictures of two or more of us together from the website. They didn't want us to mention Bravo in any of our ads or to link with us."

Smiley said the show's participants are paid and that, contractually, two or more cast members cannot appear in unsanctioned press or advertising, nor are they allowed to use Bravo's name or logo in their ventures. And there's the issue of public appearances and interviews. Bravo declined to sanction interviews with The Times unless a publicist attended. Smiley, De La Rosa and Keough were the only participants willing to be interviewed without permission.

"I'm not going to bite the hand that feeds me," said Vicki Gunvalson, a "housewife" who owns an insurance business. "We've been asked to abide by the rules. I want to do everything the correct way." De La Rosa, who has moved to Los Angeles, said Bravo had been "very supportive" of her efforts to build a singing career. Other participants did not return phone calls. Some spoke on condition of anonymity.

"I know we drive them crazy, because we keep trying new things to grow our business from our newfound celebrity," Keough said.

Keough and Gunvalson also started a travel business, http://www.CotoTravel.com . And in response to thousands of e-mails from women, Gunvalson is writing a book about starting an insurance company. Keough is auditioning to be a spokeswoman for a weight loss company. Lauri Waring, as shown in the series, is starting a jewelry business.

Advantages aplenty

NEW boyfriends and ex-husbands have also seized opportunities. Businessman Lou Knickerbocker, ex-husband of "housewife" Tammy Knickerbocker, Season 2's new "housewife," hired young women on the show as traveling spokesmodels for his new OC Energy drinks. His website displays their photos and labels them as having appeared on the show. Tammy's ex-boyfriend Duff now works for Gunvalson selling insurance.

Smiley argues that participants deserve to see a better return on their exposure than what Bravo provides. Keough and Smiley said what that Bravo pays participants doesn't come close to compensating for the time required to make the show. It costs money to start up their new businesses, and some said they have even lost money. Smiley said his firm lost a client who thought he was too arrogant on the show. One participant estimated losing close to $100,000 as a result of lost work time after a year, Keough said. Plus, she said, "They wanted endless hours of blogs for their website, which we are not paid to do."

Smiley and Keough's sense of their value to the show, and their plans for maximizing the show's value to them, have no doubt been colored by the fact that this isn't their first taste of Hollywood. Keough was an actress and Playboy Playmate of the Month; Smiley was a professional cyclist and model. "I always wondered what would have happened if I stuck with modeling," he said.

Knickerbocker said that he has benefited unexpectedly from the public exposure of his family life. He said he wasn't aware how deeply his children were affected when his previous business faltered and he lost his fortune until he heard them talk about it on the show.

On the other hand, he's also had some old indiscretions aired. "One of my customers in Singapore called and said, 'You cheated on your wife.' That was now 15 years ago," he said. "It's true, I did have an affair, I can't deny it."

Others have been touched by fame's darker side.

Keough said her younger son was beaten up by high school students jealous that he had made a fan of one of their girlfriends. Internet blogs have blazed with crass and incendiary comments about their looks and their past and present personal behavior. After attorneys for one participant contacted Television Without Pity, the fan-based website shut down a "Housewives" thread. (Bloggers on the Orange County Register's website complained their negative comments were not published on Bravo's website in favor of more favorable ones.)

Chelsea Behrens preps “Real Housewives of Orange County” newcomer Tammy Knickerbocker, with son Ryley Evans.

And there are rumors and hints of off-screen rage, tragedy and petty legal squabbling.

"I feel sorry for the kids," said Frank Mickadeit, a resident of Coto de Caza and a columnist for the Orange County Register. After taping ended in December, he wrote about a call he had from Waring's teenage son, Josh, saying how he felt abandoned when his mother, now dating developer George Peterson, kicked him out of her condo. Waring contacted him with her side of the story, that Josh had broken a "contract" with her over his having friends in the house when she was out. Mickadeit met with Josh and gave him some clothes.

Then, in what Mickadeit called "ultimate irony and weirdness," Josh went to live with Peterson's ex-wife. "It's almost unbelievable," he said.

There hasn't been any word from Bravo on whether there will be a Season 3 of "Real Housewives." A press release, however, announced an extra episode of Season 2, set to air March 20, "due to overwhelming drama."

The next logical step would seem to be a show about how the "housewives" parlay their reality celebrity into careers. One docu-soap star, Lauren Conrad from "Laguna Beach," has already starred in two seasons of "The Hills," a show about her forging a fashion career in Los Angeles.

The real back story of a reality show can be even more interesting than the show on television, but it can also present further problems. "As participants continue to milk every drop of economic benefit of their newfound celebrity, it's harder to sustain the illusion that viewers are watching something real," said Mark Andrejevic, author of "Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched."

And naturally, the cast members are well on the way to their own spinoffs. Dunlop is working with a Los Angeles producer to develop a series, "OC Starlet," about Kara Keough. And Smiley, now De La Rosa's ex-fiancé, is moving forward on a series he calls "Just Jo."