This is the true story… of 435 strangers… picked to work in the House…(sometimes together) and have their lives taped… to find out what happens… when people stop being polite… and start getting real.

One of the major revelations is that the self-proclaimed “grande dame” of Potomac may no longer reside in the town.

The new iteration of the show focuses on six women who “have fought for their places in this society by way of legacy or marriage.”

Photo by Bravo Sometimes headlines write themselves; this is one of those instances. Between lawsuits from caterers, landscapers and PR firms, apparently Tareq and Michaela Salahi are losing the clothes right off their backs. According to the Washington Post, Michaela Salahi, one-half of the stealth White House-crashing twosome, plans to auction off her infamous red sari, worn to the state dinner for India, next month — Jedi powers not included. Auctioneers conservatively estimate that…

» No good deed goes unpunished, but some supremely annoying deeds win reality television contracts. The Salahis. The Real Housewives. The Real Housewives . . . of . . . oh, oh God, please, no. . . . » Bad news for Virginia commuters: ABC7 reports that I-66 heading East is closed near the Fairfax County Parkway. Details are scant, but it doesn’t look like an accident that will be cleared quickly. » Yesterday…

Meet the Real Housewives … of 16th century Britain?

The scheming, backbiting, and in one case, suspiciously Paris Hilton-esque (chihuahua included) sisters Goneril and Regan manage to do the unlikely: turn the epic solemnity of King Lear into riveting, train-wreck theater. These women chain smoke and cackle, strut around in fur coats and sequins, and get graphically pleasured onstage by their boy toys. Director Robert Falls, whether he’s livening up Lear’s ceremonial division of his kingdom with a rapping D.J. or having his actors throwing ripped out eyeballs into a stock pot, is definitely putting together a Lear like you’ve never seen.