

Radziwill, who confronted (and strenuously denied) the question on camera in a heated fight with Drescher, was flabbergasted, and the scandal - #bookgate - hovered over and partly informed the trajectory of the season. What sucked her in were accusations from Aviva Drescher, a cast member who had also joined the show in Season 5, that she had heard "on the street" that Radziwill used a ghostwriter for What Remains, her 2005 memoir.

Season 6, Radziwill's second - which began airing in March - drew her immediately straight into its mad heart. When she first joined the show in Season 5, Radziwill - a writer and Emmy-winning former ABC News producer - served the necessary function of commenting, if not sometimes gawking, at the often crazy behavior of the rest of the cast. Being the voice of reason on a reality show such as Bravo's The Real Housewives of New York City is destined to be a doomed position, as Carole Radziwill found out the hard way in this past season.
