Saturday, July 28, 2007

Redecorating: Hey Paula Style

Did any of you enter the la la land that is 'Hey Paula' last Thursday?
Here's Bravo’s official synopsis of Episode Six:

Paula plans to rent a house while her home is being remodeled and asks her best friend/hairstylist Daniel to help her decorate. Daniel tours the rental house with Deb the interior designer to determine décor. Daniel and Deb make decorative executive decisions, and move in new furniture the very next week. But when Paula arrives to look at the house, she hates it and calls Deb to complain. After reconsidering, Paula decides to hold off on remodeling her house, and lets go of the newly decorated rental house.

Let's consider the version I saw, shall we?
Paula plans to rent a house while her home is being remodeled. She asks her best friend/hairstylist Daniel to help her decorate, explaining how she likes a unique and eclectic décor. Daniel, thinking he can work with someone whose consideration of others is that of a newt, takes on the task.

He and a nice interior designer, Deb, walk through a luxurious rental house discussing Paula's wishes. They wait for Paula, who is late. In fact, Paula is shopping for jewelry with friends. Recalling the pesky detail that she's made an appointment to walk through the house and provide input she calls Daniel to say she'll be late.

How late, asks Deb, who has her own busy schedule, and who lets Daniel know she must leave at four. Daniel reassures Deb that Paula will honor her commitment. Deb, who seems normal, believes him.The viewer is now treated to an uber awkward version of Waiting for Godot, in which Deb swallows her pride and waits alongside Paula's stooge because this assignment could lead to other bigger assignments if she plays her cards right.

Only Deb doesn't realize that Paula isn't playing with a full responsibility deck.

When it becomes painfully apparent that Paula isn't coming, Daniel tours the rental house with Deb to determine décor. Rather than bother Paula with iddy biddy details like how and where she wants the furniture, Daniel and Deb make decorative executive decisions, and move in new furniture the very next week.

The camera then pans through a nice looking house with Deb saying that she did her best and thinks/hopes that Paula will like the house. Deb is still nursing a hope in her breast that she will meet Paula. At this point my regard for Deb - who has been ignored and stepped on by Paula on several occasions - goes down a few notches.

The Loony Tunes theme song starts up and canned laughter is heard in the background. The viewer is made to understand that Deb's dreams of meeting the singer are being flushed down the toilet.

After Deb leaves, Paula arrives to look at the house. Seeing the tasteful, restrained decor she has a melt down.
Paula walks through the house shaking her head and muttering, then inexplicably demands that Daniel help her drag a birdcage from its unobtrusive position in a corner, saying in effect, Anyone who knows me should know I hate bird cages. Uh, Paula, Deb never met you. How would she know?

Paula nearly tosses her cookies when she sees the gleaming white and chrome bathroom with state of the art glassed-in shower and sunken tub. She calls Deb to complain, saying that even though they've never met and even though Deb has never received direct input from her, Deb should have known instinctively what was in Paula's heart and misunderstood soul. Daniel begins to understand that perhaps he couldn't read his friend's mind after all.

Paula continued to spew her thoughts and bemoan the fact that no one understood her and how she needed ... blah ... blah ... blah .... blah.

I turned the channel off.

Submitted by Ms. Place

8 comments:

Linda Merrill said...

yowsa. I'll have to catch this epi on a rerun. Am not watching the show, but one's with decorating client's from hell are always worth catching. Am wondering about the bathroom - they didn't redo it in a week, did they? Wouldn't it have been what was there - gleaming white, sunken tub, blah, blah? From your blog (not from watching the show) Paula seems to be a person who operates on the barest of surfaces - there's no there, there.

PS - love the waiting for Godot reference!

Anonymous said...

Lol waiting for Godot.

I can't even stand to watch this show anymore. It's just the same things over and over again--real life situations happen to Paula, and she cries that everyone hates her. I feel like smacking her and telling her to get over herself!

Damselfly said...

What I loved was that her friend stood there an blamed the designer even though he ok'd everything and was there when it all came in....ridiculous....

kora in hell said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
kora in hell said...

sorry about above.
too many errors.


The Godot is priceless.

damselfly: agreed -- all of these people are ethically deficient.

The problem with making tv shows about these celebritards* is that they have nothing interesting to say. Basically they are huge bores.

Even with a train wreck like Paula, after a point you need to stop rubber-necking and call for help.

The show is a psych grand round quiz on what kind of drugs she abuses. All of her symptoms cannot be explained by insomnia and mental illness (which she clearly suffers from in some way that may or may not be related to the drugs).And apparently she's had some head injuries? She is running out of cells up there.

*Here is the recipe for the Hollywood celebritard cocktail: you start with a base of selfishness and stupidity. You add ridiculous amounts of money and surround with a group of enablers who won't say no, thus creating a total detachment from reality:
"Everything I do is great."
"I can do whatever I want."

Mix (shake or stir) and you get one insufferable silly bint. Various drugs can be added for garnish. Talent optional.

Susan said...

This show is just too painful to watch. It's like one, very, very long episode of the A & E show Intervention, sans the intervention and rehab.

TheHoInMO said...

"celebritards"

OMG Trixie, you have me laughing so hard that my hubby came in here to see what was going on. Love it!!!

(((MUAH)))

eric3000 said...

I'm glad I'm not watching this show!