Almost as soon as news dropped that she had "quit," it was reported that Dorinda Medley was fired from RHONY.
Now, a new report explains why Bravo had to cut her loose.
According to what sources tell Page Six, there is a specific issue that prompted Dorinda Medley's firing.
Yes, firing -- not the same as the initial, more dignified reports that she had quit.
According to insiders, Dorinda was given the axe because she had become a "mean drunk."
The report clarifies that this is not an accustion that Dorinda had become a "drunk," meaning an alcoholic.
Rather, that when she did choose to drink, her behavior was hostile and confrontational.
Up to a point, that can make for great television -- but only up to a point.
“That’s just not where they want the show to go," the insider explains.
Apparently, production wanted to distance themselves from her pattern of abrasive behavior.
Instead, they reasoned, they could find a new, fresh castmate for the other Housewives.
“In this climate of social justice and cancel culture," the source claims, "she was not a good representative of the show or the network.”
Obviously, cancel culture is a mostly meaningless buzzword.
To some people, it refers to gleeful internet mob behavior. To others, it refers to people facing consequences for their behavior.
In this case, it may simply mean that production feared that Dorinda might go too far while drunk and earn backlash at the show.
There may have been things that we did not see -- things that were edited out.
Sometimes, what goes on during filming leaks. Production may want to avoid having a particularly nasty incident go public.
Dorinda learned the stunning news of her firing while she was filming The $100,000 Pyramid for ABC.
She opted to spin it as quitting, which many other Housewives have done over the years.
Officially, Bravo usually allows this without comment. That doesn't stop sources from spilling the alleged tea, however.
What is really interesting here is that apparently, Dorinda could have fixed this.
"If she’d have said [at the end of the season], ‘Look — I’ve been depressed and that’s why I’m acting like this,’" the insider begins.
The source continues: "Or, ‘I miss my [husband, Richard, who died in 2011],’ and said she’d work on it, I think it would have been different."
Instead, apparently, the other Housewives were astonished ... because Dorinda did nothing of the sort.
She did not, per these reports, acknowledge that she had crossed any lines with her behavior.
Bad behavior followed by a vow to change could have given her a real path to continue on the show.
Some fans have asked, and not unfairly, why Luann wasn't banished from the series for her drinking -- including the incident that led to her arrest.
Well, according to insiders, the explanation is simple.
Luann's drinking may have turned her life upside down, but it wasn't effing with the vibe and tone of the show. Dorinda's was.
Of course, Bravo has not confirmed this report -- or even claims that Dorinda was fired, and that she did not quit.
We don't expect Dorinda to confirm anything of the sort any time soon, either.
Dorinda is moving on, and we wish her the best -- in her career and also in terms of her personal struggles.
