Arrogance

The Bravolebrities came at me the other night on Twitter in full force.   In an instant,  I was under a Twitter attack from all fronts.  I was like a deer in the headlight, frozen -  with only one question racing through my (tired) mind:

 

Why? 

 

What did I do to warrant this attention from the Bravolebrity Famiglia?  Ah ha.. turns out I retweeted an old article that they didn't approve of and  apparently, for reasons that are unknown to me, they seemed to be under the impression that I "owe" them my unyielding loyalty.  I had inadvertantly violated the Code of Bravolebrity Fandom Loyalty!!!  

 

Let me be clear.   I am not friends with the Bravolebritiy Famiglia.   I don't have Sunday dinners with them.  We don't chat on the phone.  I don't hang out with them at social events. They don't even respond when I tweet to them or acknowldege me when I support one of their endeavors for crying out loud!  I didn't just betray my bestie.  We are not now nor ever have been friends.  

 

I did run in to them twice at parties and they did deign to say hello to me (how kind of them to say hello to a civilian!)   And I have on rare occasion exchanged a friendly tweet with Bravolebrity Matriarch.  Actually, the Bravolebrity Matriarch was the only one of the Famiglia who followed me.  Based on her tweets, The Daughter's acknowledgement of  me in public was a magnanimous gesture of kindness.  I am after all just a lowly civilian with no blue twitter check next to my name.  I supposed, at least in their mind, I should be grateful for these generous (albeit small) acts of kindness.  (As a mere commoner, I enjoy interacting with people of all walks of life.  I actually enjoy saying hello to everyone! This is apparently not the case with Bravo Royalty.  Note to self:  It is a gift of significant proportions when a Bravolebrity greets you with "hello" in a public place and you are thereby forever indebted to them. I was unaware of this prior to Sunday but I got the message loud and clear now ) 

 

Moving on....

 

Another reason I am confused by their reaction to my little retweet is that I was accused of intentionally and maliciously hurting The Matriarch's (grown) children. (The woman who originally tweeted the link was spared any assault, the outrage was directed squarely at me.  I guess none of the Bravolebrities had ever said hello to @Vickihy at a party.)    I do not see, by any stretch of the imagination, how a retweet could be misconstrued as an intentional act of malice directed specifically at any of them since I didn't tag them and they don't follow me.  (Frankly, they have never responded  in the past when I have tagged them!!  Why would I think they would notice when I retweeted a link and didn't tag them???)  

 

Let me assure all of you, there was no malicious intent when I retweeted an old news article.  Actually, there was very little, if any, thought on my part. (Did I mention how tired I was at the time)  If anything, I am guilty of a lazy retweet.  I read the article, found it mildly interesting and shared with my twitter friends that it was a fun flashback.  (The article was published prior to season one and had some fun facts that I had forgotten about)  It wasn't a fluff piece by a random blogger making up gossip.  It was a news article full of facts (mildly interesting facts, but facts all the same).   https://www.nj.com/entertainment/celebrities/index.ssf/2009/03/real_housewives_of_new_jersey.html   ( I assume the Famiglia object to the mafia reference, which by the way,  is a bit of a cliche in these parts. Anyone whose name ends in vowel is at one time or another accused of being "connected".   This familial reference might occur less often if The Matriarch's approach to disloyal twitter folk was a little less Don Vito Corleone.  Just sayin.)

 

             "Why do you want to hurt my family"

 

 

So what's with the harsh reaction from the entire Bravolebrity Famiglia?????  I'll be honest,  I was completely caught off guard by this.   The Daughter didn't just ask me to remove the link or let me know she didn't care for the article, she came at me with guns ablazin and completely lambasted me.  Son Number Two seems to think I posted it for twitter popularity.  (That is just stupid)  And Son Number One, God Bless Son Number One.  He saw this as an opportunity to share his disdain for all of us who have supported him and his family over the years.  Son Number One doesn't think much of fans, viewers, bloggers or anyone else who makes watching the Real Housewives of New Jersey a hobby.  After I apologized and explained to The Daughter that I hadn't even given the retweet much thought, Son Number One responded:  " @MomsThoughts @Laurenmanzo A RT (retweet)  w little thought? Thats funny. Lauren, your life is this woman's hobby, I think that says enough."     https://twitter.com/AlbieManzo/status/356601601223438336 

 

Yes, Son Number One, it does say enough, about you and just how ungrateful you are for the viewer support.  You see, without all the people who have made "your life their hobby", you would be just another kid from Jersey who couldn't cut it in law school.   Humility is so much more appealing in a celebrity than arrogance. 

 

I am also still very confused by The Matriarch's private twitter messages to me.  She asked me why I would want to hurt her children after she has supported me.  HUH????  This confuses me on two points. 

 

1) I didn't want to hurt her children.  Let's not forget, The Matriarch makes a (handsome) living sharing her life on television.  She isn't forced to do this.  She chose to film an entire scene about her Father-in-Law!!  She of course knows his death was a controversial news story.  I simply retweeted an old news article.  And, while I know this is hard for this group to believe,  I was not thinking of any of them when I hit the retweet button.  My only thought was: "I think my twitter friends might find this (entire) article mildly interesting".   So I don't understand why she thought I maliciously and intentionally set out to hurt her (grown) children.  I would also think that by Season 5 this family would be accustomed to links to news stories they might not like and might know not to discuss this man on the show if they did not want him to also be a topic for discussion on social media and the blogs.  I am very confused by her assumption that I wanted to hurt her children.  (Maybe I am way off here, but wouldn't starring on a reality TV show expose her children to much more hurtful situations than my retweet of a twitter link?  How could she possibly think I was the one who was hurting her children???  She is a Bravolebrity!!! ) 

 

2) Even still more confusing to me was the part when The Matriarch said she has supported me??  This baffled me more than Russel Crowe starring in Les Mis.  Perhaps it was a typo?  Perhaps she meant that I had always supported her and her family for years.  That I would understand, that would make sense.  I have supported her and her family with posts and tweets for years.  I have supported her radio show, her book, the water, the restaurants, the cosmetics store, their appearances, their television show, their events, all of it!  for years!!  I have defended them all on social media to the point of being the recipient of relentless ridicule.  Bloggers and tweeters have accused me of being on the Famiglia's payroll!  Can you imagine that lunacy?   I have been very generous in my support. (and look where that has gotten me, one erroneous retweet and I become public enemy number one with a twitter target on my back.)    It has to be a typo because in all the years I have supported this Famiglia, no one, not one of them,  has ever invited me to an event, tweeted about my blog, website, show,  they've never retweeted me, as a matter of fact, they have never even said thank you.  Call me crazy, but I think it's kinda hard to "support" someone when you don't even acknowlege their existence.   But there it is... in a private twitter message... "We've always supported you".  I am so confounded by this.

 

After apologizing, multiple times,  publicly and privately, I also restrained myself from taking it any further.  I knew in my heart I did nothing with the intent of hurting anyone's children.  I apologized if my action did result in hurt feelings as that was never my intention.  The following morning, when I wrote my regular Monday morning RHONJ Blog,  I didn't write anything negative about any of this.  I had foolishly hoped they would eventually accept my apology and perhaps give me the benefit of the doubt, given my long history of unconditional, unrequited support.  I thought perhaps with a little time, they would believe me and eventually accept my apology.    

 

Unfortunately, my sincere and favorable blog only resulted in an unceremonious unfollow from The Matriarch.  

 

I assume that means my apology won't be accepted.  

 

I am going to miss their support.