Girl Crushable: Countess LuAnn from ‘Real Housewives of New York’

I did not see this coming. When I started watching The Real Housewives of New York in 2009, LuAnn de Lesseps was one of my least favorite because of her insistence that people refer to her as “Countess” and her judgment of others’ social faux pas. Despite being season 1′s token sexy divorcee, she was a drag.

But as the interesting ones leave (Bethenny Frankel) and others become hideously manipulative shrews (Ramona Singer), I have newfound respect for LuAnn. She’s straightforward and matter-of-fact when laying out her issues with the other ladies; in every (inevitable) argument she has with another cast member, she has always remained composed and never thrown a tantrum. Unlike Alex McCord, who’s made a huge deal this season about finally feeling free to speak her mind, LuAnn gradually developed her own snarkiness and now gracefully lobs smirking asides without causing World War III. And of course, she was the first New York cast member to put herself out there with this ridiculously campy music video:

LuAnn is not exempt from the show’s antics: Her bitchiness comes from lecturing the other women on how they’ve misstepped, and several confrontations have come out of her sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. But unlike the others, she sees things in perspective. She wants to enjoy the good life and swat away anyone who’s messing up her nice time.

While not for a minute do I believe that it was actually LuAnn’s idea for the ladies to vacation to Morocco, I admire the way she tries to manage the other Housewives during the trip. Ramona and Sonja Morgan especially liked to gallivant around drunk and inappropriately dressed, demanding Pinot Grigio and unwilling to conform to other standards of the country in which they’re staying. In stark contrast to that twosome, LuAnn showed genuine interest in Moroccan culture. Her Arabic may have been shitty, but at least she tried to speak it.

In tonight’s episode (part 2 of 3), it’s camel-riding time:

As cute as the above is, you can bet that there will be an emotional showdown — probably the Ramona/Jill Zarin fight teased last week — and I’ll be interested to see how LuAnn steps in.