Real Housewives of Orange County: Friend-zone celebration

Here’s one of the big differences between the real world and the reality TV of “The Real Housewives of Orange County.”

In the real world, it’s a good thing, as Martha Stewart might say, to be called a friend.

But in the reality of the “Housewives,” and especially in the mouth of a very angry housewife, that might be the most cutting putdown of all. Housewives are Olympians, you see. Friends of housewives? Mere mortals, with less airtime and smaller paychecks.

• “The...