The Worst Women Of 2011: Time To Take Out The Trash

Bravo’s “The Real Housewives”

As if Stepford wasn’t bad enough, Bravo TV set its sights on following the hollow lives of various female elite in well-to-do cities. The issues raised in the episodes range from feigned gravitas to schmaltzy studies in vapidity, and the majority of the women portrayed are about as inspiring as sea cucumbers. With botoxed and artificially enhanced ladies prancing and preening about their mansions, the series’ newest installment in Beverly Hills should be more of an anti-plastic surgery PSA.

And then there’s New York’s Countess LuAnn who, much like the talentless Kardashian, decided to embark on a lackluster musical career with her auto-tuned ditties “Chic C’est La Vie” and “Money Can’t Buy You Class.” Luann cites Holly Golightly as her inspiration; others with a more discerning ear hear more of a post-tracheotomy version of the British singer-songwriter. Nevertheless, with through-the-roof Nielsen ratings and teenage girls’ vocalized desires to be like these fit-throwing, feud-having and gossip-gabbing women, the Housewives will unfortunately be around for the foreseeable future.

Barbara Walters

Embodying all that is wrong with modern “journalism,” instead of highlighting the potpourri of people who contributed to a groundbreaking year in terms of rebellion, grassroots upheavals and international solidarity for her 2011 edition of “Most Fascinating People,” Barbara Walters mainly chose to interview individuals about as gripping as a nonstick pan. Said interviewees included none other than the Kardashian family, Herman Cain, and the rosy-cheeked and steel-hearted Donald Trump.

And then there was that incredibly disappointing interview with Bashar al Assad, Syria’s bloodthirsty-dictator-in-residence who has presided over the deaths of more than 4,000 of his own people. Showcasing either her own waning journalistic competence or a subtle nudge to producers that she’s ready to retire, Walters failed to crack down hard enough on Assad’s abominable abuses of power and instead opted to assume the role of nothing more than a crestfallen compadre. Later referring to him as little more than an “accidental dictator,” Walters did not ask Assad what kind of tree he considered himself to be, but with her flimsy approach she may as well have.