Real Housewives’ Lisa Rinna Dishes on Yolanda and Brandi, With a Chaser of O.J.

Specs Age 52 Claim to fame Star of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Base Los Angeles Twitter @lisarinna Adweek: What's the first information you consume in the morning? Lisa Rinna: I wake up and I get the kids ready for school, and I turn on the local NBC news or CNN. I read the New York Post and then I go to the Daily Mail. Then I will check Instagram. I no longer check Twitter because I hire somebody to do that. It's become so negative while I'm doing the show. Like your recent Twitter war with ex-Housewife Brandi Glanville. Yeah, that one came out of my reading the Daily Mail. I just sent out a tweet because [Lisa Vanderpump and Kyle Richards] are my friends. I heard [Brandi] say really, really nasty toxic things about these two women that I work with. I try to also, you know, fill myself with some positivity in the morning. I study Kabbalah so I'll scan the Zohar or I will read some Eckhart Tolle. Speaking of being positive, you just launched a new lifestyle curation site called From My Lips. You know, I had somebody approach us and say, "Would you want to do this?" and I said, "Yeah," because I've never been able to have a website that's really worked. We create it and then no one ever mans it and then it just kind of dies. So we had this company come to us and say, "You curate, pick things to talk about and put out there." And I said, "Great, let's try it." So, we're trying. What do you watch on TV? I'm a huge TV watcher. [Husband Harry Hamlin] and I, that's our business, so we love TV and movies. I'm a huge Turner Classic Movie channel viewer. I watch old movies constantly. We also binge-watch many shows. We watched Making a Murderer and were completely obsessed. We're watching Downton Abbey, Fargo and Mr. Robot and The People v. O.J. So tell me about The People v. O.J. Simpson. What's the buzz in Real Housewives-land? I'm surrounded by people that were part of it, or in it, or lived it. At the time, Harry and I were obsessed with the trial. I have been around so many of the people, whether it's Kris Jenner, Faye Resnick and now Kathryn [Edwards]. You know, it's still a really taboo subject on our show. Have you read Faye Resnick's book, Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted? I have had no desire to read the book. I'd much rather watch the miniseries because I am a huge Ryan Murphy fan. I'm more interested in why O.J. killed Nicole and what really happened. Like, were [victims Nicole and Ron Goldman] having an affair? Was he just at Mezza Luna, which we all used to go to dinner at? How did it all play out? Harry and I know Robert Shapiro really well. So it's close, you know. It must be really strange to watch these actors portraying people you know. Is Connie Britton a dead ringer for Faye Resnick? Dead ringer, I think. She has her whole vibe down. It's been weird to watch [John] Travolta play [Robert] Shapiro because I know Bob so well that that's hard, and it's hard to see Cuba [Gooding Jr.] playing O.J. even though I love him. I just think O.J. should have been somebody else. I have a hard time buying him as O.J. Did you know O.J? I mean, I knew him peripherally. I would see him at events and he was always very friendly and he was so charismatic, obviously. This season of Real Housewives has some fresh blood. What do you think of your new castmates Kathryn Edwards and Erika Girardi? I like both of them very much. I like Erika very much. She's really interesting and she's very smart. And she's been fun to work with. Do you think you could see yourself on The Real Housewives for a few more years? Can you handle it? Oh God, I don't know. It is a hard show to do, because you do take it personally. You can't help it. It's real. It's really happening even though it's still a show. It's not like I have a script. Even when I'm working as an actor, it's really hard to let it go at the end of the day. I'm not somebody who can just drop a character and be myself. It comes along with me. So being myself, it's even harder to drop. It's kind of a mind-fuck to be honest with you. I'm sure you didn't really want Munchausen brought up during a discussion about Yolanda Foster's illness, and there it was. Or maybe you did… I mean, the truth of the truth is that really did happen. I'm doing a reality show. I'm supposed to show you my real life. I'm supposed to tell you what really goes on. You know, David Foster and Yolanda were getting divorced and they hid the entire thing from us. We never even dealt with it. So I go, "All right, well what's my job here?" My job is to show up and show you all aspects of my life. That's what I signed up for. So to me, then, it's very confusing if somebody can pick and choose what they show... Anyway, I think that doing the show has been a great thing but I don't know how long I'll do it. They basically have to ask you [to stay on the show], so whether they ask me or not is always a question. If it's meant to be it'll be. If not, I'm sure I will find something else to do. This story first appeared in the Feb. 22 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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Real Housewives’ Lisa Rinna Dishes on Yolanda and Brandi, With a Chaser of O.J.

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