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      Jessel Taank is Back For More on ‘RHONY’ Season 2

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      Early on a Monday evening during New York Fashion Week, Jessel Taank breezed into the Sabyasachi boutique in the West Village, passing a life-size elephant sculpture near the sidewalk. But the “Real Housewives of New York City” star couldn’t quite say what it was doing there.“Good question,” she said with a laugh. “There’s apparently a great elephant migration that I wasn’t aware happens this time of year, and Sabyasachi is celebrating that tonight.”In fact, The Great Elephant Migration is a touring art installation featuring a herd of 100 faux pachyderms, handcrafted in Tamil Nadu from a dried invasive shrub. (Actual Indian elephant migration in India happens year-round.)Such obliviousness to details seems on brand for Ms. Taank, 41. After all, who could forget when she called TriBeCa “up and coming” on the last season of the “Real Housewives of New York City”?Ms. Taank with an art installation outside the Sabyaschi fashion week party she attended on a recent Monday night. Lanna Apisukh for The New York TimesBut when she commits these faux pas, she does so with a disarming smile, one that has won over prickly fans. By the end of the show’s 14th season — and the first of the cast reboot — it was clear that she had received the villain edit, criticized for what came off as willful ignorance and bratty behavior. But she had also found a fan base so ardent that, according to Rolling Stone, its members call themselves “Taank Tops.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      When the Devoted Wife Becomes a Winning Brand

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      “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the new Hulu reality show, centers on a clique of influencers in Provo, Utah. In their community, they are steered at young ages into marriages and pregnancies. But on TikTok, they converge into a #MomTok squad, executing coordinated dances in crop tops amid beige McMansions as they rack up followers and brand deals. Now they’ve been upgraded to reality television stars, a cast of frenemies who act out mean-girl scenes and hunt for loopholes in the strict codes of their church.It’s significant that the show identifies these women first as wives, not as influencers. They are professional content creators and, in some cases, family breadwinners. It is their social media popularity that landed them the show, not their unexceptional husbands. Several cast members are actually divorced.The “Mormon Wives” join an extended wife universe — see also: Bravo’s chaotic “Real Housewives” and Instagram’s ethereal tradwives — where the term “wife” no longer strictly refers to a woman’s marital status. “Wife” is a brand. In “Mormon Wives,” it suggests a woman whose public identity is defined by her relationship to the home. A woman whose worth is still measured by her proximity to the patriarchy, even as she claims that her profitable TikTok presence challenges it.These wife-themed shows and tradwife social-media accounts might qualify as simple brain-bleaching distractions, were they not proliferating during this particular presidential election season. The Trump campaign and some of its allies have repeatedly suggested that a woman’s domestic contributions are her highest calling — so much so that they have cast motherhood as a prerequisite for her participation in work outside the home. If a woman hopes to claim a role in public life, she must play the wife and mother everywhere that she goes.In comments from three years ago that resurfaced recently, Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, complained of “childless cat ladies” in business and politics, and railed against the “leaders of the left,” like the American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, whom he called “people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children.” (Like Kamala Harris, Weingarten is a stepmother.) Last week, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas appeared alongside Donald J. Trump and suggested that because Harris has not birthed children, she has acquired a character defect unbecoming of a leader: “My kids keep me humble,” Sanders said. “Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.”Meanwhile, since Elon Musk took over Twitter, rebranded it X and transformed it into what Charlie Warzel of The Atlantic has called “a right-wing echo chamber,” my feed has featured commentary about how infant formula is poison, day care causes mental illness and children ought to be home schooled or “unschooled” by devoted mothers. Instagram and TikTok supply montages of fantasy housewives: white women in pastoral settings, wearing aprons and kerchiefs, kissing their husbands, rubbing their baby bumps and proselytizing about the benefits of beef tallow.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      7 Days in the Cultural Life of a Real Housewife of N.Y.C.

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      Between seasons of “The Real Housewives of New York City,” Erin Lichy is researching recipes, listening to Charli XCX and checking out fashion at the Met.Erin Lichy joined the cast of “The Real Housewives of New York City” last year, and like so many of the women on the long-running Bravo series, “housewife” doesn’t really even scratch the surface of her life. Lichy, 37, is a mother of three and sells luxury real estate in New York City and the Hamptons. She has a home on the Upper West Side and another in Sag Harbor.Before the premiere of the new season of “Real Housewives of New York City,” which is set for Oct. 1, Lichy kept track of her cultural goings-on during a busy week this summer. These are edited excerpts. (“RHONY” fans will be delighted to know that Lichy really does serve a lot of shakshuka.)On a busy summer Wednesday, Lichy visited bookstores around New York City to research recipes. Monday: Pilates and PickupsI arrived back in the Hamptons from visiting my son at sleep-away camp in Maine, then drove my two younger kids to day camp back in the Hamptons and finally got to a Pilates class. I picked up a cappuccino and a croissant at Carissa’s Bakery and got home around 10:30 a.m. to begin my meetings and calls. Then, I picked up the kids from camp at 3 p.m. and stopped at the farmers’ market on the way home to pick up fresh produce to grill for dinner that night. After we ate I put the kids to sleep, journaled and got to sleep early.Tuesday: Italian in Sag HarborBefore I dropped the kids off at camp, I stopped with them at Provisions to get the kids smoothies they love called “Strawberry Monkey.” I went to acupuncture in Sag Harbor for my “trigger finger,” and it actually healed it. Steroid shots didn’t work, but acupuncture did. It’s amazing. Then I got back around 10 a.m. to hop on a call with the mezcal brand Mezcalum team about a weekend that we planned in early August. We created lots of video content and social/YouTube content for the brand in addition to cocktail and recipe videos with Joey Wölffer from Wölffer Estate. Then, after a long day of work, I landed at Tutto il Giorno for dinner in Sag Harbor.Lichy outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she saw the “Sleeping Beauties” fashion exhibition.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Dawn Richard Sues Sean Combs, Alleging Threats and Groping

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      The lawsuit was filed by Dawn Richard, a member of groups assembled by Mr. Combs. A lawyer for Mr. Combs called the suit “manufactured” to get a “payday.”Dawn Richard, a singer who came to prominence on the MTV reality show “Making the Band,” filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the music mogul Sean Combs, accusing him of threatening her, groping her and flying into “frenzied, unpredictable rages” while he oversaw her career.A former member of the now-defunct groups Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money, which were both assembled by Mr. Combs, Ms. Richard detailed a litany of complaints from her time working with him, alleging a culture in which her boss would order her to strip down to her underwear, smack her behind, throw objects such as laptops and food, and at times fail to pay her for her work.In response to the lawsuit, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, Erica Wolff, said in a statement that Ms. Richard had “manufactured a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a payday,” noting that the lawsuit came shortly before Ms. Richard is slated to release a new album.In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, Ms. Richard detailed several occasions from as far back as 2009 in which she said she witnessed Mr. Combs physically abuse his former girlfriend Cassie, whose lawsuit last year prompted a cascade of civil claims against Mr. Combs. Once, the lawsuit said, Ms. Richard saw Mr. Combs push Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, against a wall and choke her, then throw a hot pan of eggs at her.“On many occasions, Ms. Richard tried to intervene, offering Ms. Ventura support and encouragement to leave Mr. Combs,” the lawsuit says. The court papers accuse Mr. Combs of responding with threats such as “you want to die today” and “I end people.”This is the eighth sexual misconduct lawsuit that Mr. Combs has faced since Ms. Ventura sued last November; the two sides settled in one day. Mr. Combs, who is also facing a federal investigation into his conduct, has described the civil suits as “sickening allegations” from people looking for “a quick payday,” and his lawyers have been fighting them in court.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Taylor Frankie Paul and the Story Behind ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’

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      A new Hulu series will explore a cheating scandal — and its aftermath — that rocked the world of Mormon social media influencers.In the summer of 2022, the world of Mormon influencers was rocked by a scandal that even their most dedicated followers did not see coming. Taylor Frankie Paul, a married TikTok influencer and mother of two, announced in a TikTok livestream that she and her husband had decided to get a divorce after “soft swinging” with other Mormon couples in their Salt Lake City-area friend group.The public admission prompted denials from Ms. Paul’s friend group, cheating accusations and even more shocking revelations, all of which have followed the so-called #MomTok influencers ever since.Now, the scandal and its aftermath have been documented for a new reality series for Hulu — the aptly titled “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” — which premieres on Friday. Here’s what you need to know about the women, and the scandal, at the heart of the series.OK, what is #MomTok?“I created MomTok,” Ms. Paul, 30, declares in the trailer for the show.MomTok is a nickname for a loose collection of popular young Mormon influencers who post TikTok videos of themselves dancing, lip syncing and behaving in ways you wouldn’t necessarily expect religious women to behave. But that’s part of the point: Ms. Paul and her friends, including Mayci Neeley, Mikayla Mathews and Whitney Leavitt, say that MomTok is about subverting expectations of how Mormon wives and mothers should act.“We are trying to change the stigma of the gender roles in the Mormon culture,” Ms. Neeley says in the trailer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      That’s a Great Reality TV Set. Let’s Use It Again.

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      “The Circle” is one of many current shows using the same state-of-the-art production hub to shoot a variety of international versions.In “The Circle,” a reality competition show on Netflix, a group of strangers are sequestered for days inside a multistory apartment complex, angling to survive rounds of eliminations to win a cash prize, much like “Big Brother.” The twist is that the players can’t see or hear one another, and must communicate via text — people might not be what they seem, and anyone, at any time, could be catfishing.As it turns out, “The Circle” has been doing some impersonation of its own, with one sleek setting standing in for a local building across several international versions of the show.The neon-lit compound — which was initially a housing block in Salford, England, before moving, in 2023, to a complex in Atlanta, Georgia — has not only been the set for the series’ flagship American edition, which returns to Netflix for a seventh season on Sept. 11. It has also been used for “The Circle Brazil,” France’s “The Circle Game,” the British version of “The Circle” and its 2020 spinoff “The Celebrity Circle.” With minimal adjustments, the show can look like it’s located virtually anywhere in the world.“We need a building with 10 rooms, without noise bleed, that looks great, is in a cool location, and that can house a team of 200 people in the basement,” Jack Burgess, an executive producer on “The Circle,” said in a recent interview. “That’s a hard thing to find, so of course you want to make the most of it.”“The Circle” is one of many current reality programs taking advance of international production hubs: state-of-the-art bases where multiple production companies can pool resources to make versions of a show tailored to a variety of global markets.The “Circle” building for the upcoming seventh season of the U.S. show. via NetflixWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Anna Sorokin Is Anna Delvey Again, This Time on ‘Dancing With the Stars’

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      The woman who impersonated a German heiress will reprise her false identity on season 33 of the show, becoming the latest contestant with legal or other troubles.It’s a familiar lineup for this season’s “Dancing With the Stars.”There are the athletes: the former N.F.L. receiver Danny Amendola and the Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik. There are the reality TV stars: Jenn Tran of “The Bachelorette” and a “Real Housewives” cast member, Phaedra Parks. There are the actors whose stars have dimmed: Eric Roberts and Tori Spelling.But there is also an eye-opening choice: Anna Sorokin, the fake heiress convicted of larceny and theft who was announced along with the rest of the cast for season 33 of the show on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.Sorokin masqueraded as “Anna Delvey,” claiming to be a wealthy German heiress, and she used that identity to con people in New York City society out of large sums of money, a jury found. She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison in 2019 and released in 2022.“I’d be lying to you and to everyone else and to myself if I said I was sorry for anything,” she told The New York Times in 2019.ABC, which broadcasts “Dancing With the Stars,” did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Sorokin’s casting.A news release disclosing the cast identified her as Anna Delvey, not Sorokin, and breezily referred to her as an “artist, fashion icon and infamous NYC socialite.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How ‘The Challenge’ Lasted 40 Seasons and Changed Reality Stardom

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      When Johnny Devenanzio swiveled in his chair and playfully called for his mother to bring some meatloaf, he knew exactly what he was doing. In his impression of Will Ferrell’s man-child from “Wedding Crashers,” he was really evoking Johnny Bananas, the Peter Pan-like alter ego he has played for much of his adult life on the grandfather of all reality-competition shows: MTV’s “The Challenge.”Devenanzio, 42, said he’d likely be a stay-at-home-son had his life not so permanently veered into the world of reality television. Or maybe he would have used his Penn State college degree to enter the world of finance. Of his large flock of one-time castmates, many have forged ahead with new careers, gotten married, started families. Not Devenanzio.“When I die I’m going to donate my brain to science to study what the long-term side effects of reality TV has been,” Devenanzio said over a Zoom interview. “Because I have literally clocked more hours than anyone on the show.”Devenanzio spoke just before embarking for Vietnam to film the 40th season of “The Challenge,” the flagship show on which he has appeared in more than half the seasons. Subtitled “Battle of the Eras,” the new season (premiering on Aug. 14) will feature 40 cast members representing various generations of the show vying for a slice of a million-dollar prize.That’s a long way from the show’s summer camp-vibes origin. The series premiered before the first Real Housewife ever chucked a drink, ahead of any chef-judge barking, “Hands up, utensils down,” and earlier than anyone surviving to outwit, outplay and outlast their competition. “The Challenge” even outstayed MTV predecessors like “The Real World” and “Road Rules,” which initially served as feeders for contestants to enter the show.The often harrowing daily challenges may be the underpinnings of the show, whether leaping from cars suspended over water or trying to fling fellow castmates off moving trucks.Paramount+We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More