Reduce, Reuse, Real Housewives.

Look out, NYC. The Real Housewives of New York City are in the middle of filming their third season. Naturally, the PR machine that provides the elbow grease to facilitate and ease the cast’s every interaction is in full swing as well, because where would the show be without an endless supply of camera-friendly parties for the girls to attend?Reality shows set in New York have had a notoriously difficult time overcoming the classic “authenticity paradox,” meaning that any location authentically hip enough for a show to want to feature it would, by definition, be too hip to allow something as gauche as a basic cable show in. This is why the cast of The Real World: Brooklyn spent the whole season in the same few bars, and why Bravo’s NYC Prep was populated by high school students who were only members of the “elite high school scene” when measured by the loosest of standards.

The Real Housewives of New York seem to be fighting this problem by manufacturing their own scene. Hence, last week’s party at Alex McCord’s own upscale consignment shop, Second Time Around. Much of the cast was there, and all seemed perfectly at ease conversing in front of the film crew. All had a peculiar way of cheating their bodies and faces towards the cameras when engaged in conversation that looks unnatural in real life, but is almost certainly the mark of coaching by producers who know that home audiences don’t like to watch conversations occur entirely in profile.

Because they were filming, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Bethenny Frankel, et al., were unavailable for interviews at the Upper East Side shindig. Unfortunate, because it was hard not to wonder what the group thought about McCord’s take on a high end version of Beacon’s Closet.