'Real Housewives of New York' Heralds New Countess-Lite Season

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The RHONY superteaser looks appropriately crazy/fantastic/terrible, but what of this news that Countess LuAnn DeLesseps will only be a recurring housewife this season?

E!Online has an interview with the Countess in which she confirms that she will be absent from the new season's first three episodes, and that she will in fact be only "recurring" this season.

"The show has been a part of my life for so long," LuAnn said. "There's a special place in my heart for the show, for the women, I'm really close to the women on the show. I just made the decision to step back so I can spend more time doing my things with business and my family.

"It's a win-win for me," she continued. "I'm still on the show. I'm still very much a part of the show, but it's not a fulltime thing. It's very engulfing when you're on it. It takes up all of your mental and physical energy."

Does this mean LuAnn is pulling a Camille Grammer for this sixth season? Pulling herself out of the main cast only to snipe away from the sidelines, before going away for good the next season? Dear Jesus Andy Cohen please at least tell me that LuAnn will remain in the opening credits. We need to see what bon mot she's chosen to introduce herself with this year. "A countess remains chic in any language," perhaps? Or "The only things deeper than my voice are my loyalties"?

So while the Countess decides to focus more time on pursuing "acting gigs" (cue this reaction), The Real Housewives of New York have added a new cast member, Kristen Taekman, ex-model, youngest of this current Housewives cast, and friend of Beverly Hills' Brandi Glanville, which could portend shit-stirring.

After a look at the season six trailer, here's what else we could ascertain:

• The ladies will don drag-queen costumes for their network-mandated appearance on a Pride parade float. [CORRECTION: Coney Island Mermaid Parade, not Pride Parade. We got our super-gay summer parades mixed up.]
• For at least the third consecutive season, Sonja Morgan is an absolute trainwreck of a person, throwing doggie funerals and repeatedly losing her partial tooth. 
• Legless mass of neuroses Aviva Drescher loudly fights with seemingly every single cast member, including previously neutral parties Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson, and the Countess.
• New-girl Kristen apparently runs afoul of Sonja, Heather, and perpetual new-girl foe Ramona Singer. Ramona maybe possibly throws something at Kristen's face and draws blood while they're both swimming/canoeing in a lake.
• Kristen's husband looks exactly like Lance Armstrong.
• Aviva's creepo father is back, saying things like, "Ramona is a bitch, and you know what happens to bitches? They get fucked by dogs."
• Heather calls Aviva a "motherfucker," continuing 2013's streak of ostensibly classy ladies saying "motherfucker," including Sandra Bullock in The Heat and Julia Roberts in August: Osage County.
• The superteaser ends with the most haunting image imaginable:

The full supertease:

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.