In Bravo's latest offshoot from their "Real Housewives" franchise, "Luann & Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake," "RHONY" alums Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan package themselves as modernizations of Laverne & Shirley or Thelma and Louise in adventurous "fish out of water" scenarios that find them a-wrasslin' and a-catchin' catfish with their bare hands in a lake in Benton, Illinois called "Crappie Lake" — referring as much to the type of fish found within (pronounced Craw-pee) as to the odorific sewage plant nearby. But, to my recollection, neither of the buddy duos mentioned above are known for blasting out farts in public or aggressively propositioning local municipal workers as Luann and Sonja are. Not like there's anything wrong with doing that. Or not doing that for that matter. These are just points of distinction that money, so it seems, really cannot buy you class, but classlessness does make for great reality television. Ask the cast of "Vanderpump Rules" about their new Emmy nominations to prove this point.
To give some background on the "Crappie Lake" stars, Luann is a 58-year-old former model, cabaret singer and author of the book "Class with the Countess: How to Live with Elegance and Flair," who became a literal countess when she married her now ex-husband, Count Alexandre de Lesseps. Holding on to that title with both hands, she released a song called "Money Can't Buy You Class" in 2010, in direct contrast to her arrest in 2017 for battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest with violence, disorderly intoxication and corruption by threat for slurring, "I'm going to kill you all" in the back of a cop car.
