And Just Like That fans are still waiting to find out how Samantha Jones will make her glorious return, but there’s currently a bigger question that needs to be answered: Did the latest episode include another Real Housewives Easter egg?
During the Thursday, August 10, installment of the Max series, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) met art dealer Mark Kasabian (Victor Garber), who runs the gallery where Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is now working. During their brief conversation, Carrie told Mark she’s a writer. As Mark was all too happy to inform her, writing is a profession he knows a little something about.
“My second wife was a writer as well,” Mark explained. “Wrote The Big Book of Bikinis: From Havana to the Hamptons.”
The Big Book of Bikinis is, unfortunately, not a real book. It is possible, however, to purchase a tome called The Bikini Book, published by Assouline in 2006. Its author? Kelly Killoren Bensimon, former Real Housewives of New York City cast member and star of the upcoming fourth season of Ultimate Girls Trip.
Mark didn’t mention any names, of course, but Us couldn’t help but wonder — is his second wife a loosely fictionalized version of Bensimon?
It may sound like a stretch, but there are a couple of reasons this theory bears out. First of all, the timing works. Mark told Carrie he’s in the middle of divorcing his third wife, meaning his second wife likely left the picture a while ago. Perhaps in the early 2010s, after the mid-aughts publication of her bikini book?
Secondly — and most importantly — this season of AJLT has already included a blatant reference to another RHONY veteran: Bethenny Frankel. Frankel, 52, stayed on RHONY longer than Bensimon, 55, but their time as Housewives overlapped, culminating in one of the most famous Bravo feuds ever. If there’s really a RHONY fan in the AJLT writers room, then it seems likely they’ve seen the Scary Island episodes more than once.
The Frankel reference came during the June premiere when Seema (Sarita Choudhury) proposed sharing a Hamptons rental with Carrie, who said she “almost bought a house in the Hamptons six times but always found a reason not to.”
Seema then quipped, “Was that reason always Bethenny Frankel?”
Frankel took the dig in stride, sharing an Instagram video of herself drinking wine at her estate in Bridgehampton. “When you’re off TV for years … AND JUST LIKE THAT … catty housewives are still talking about you,” she wrote over the video, which also showed a scene from AJLT playing above her.
She captioned the clip: “CURRENTLY sipping my new Forever Young rosé wine from my house in the Hamptons paid for by my last spirits venture. Cheers ladies.”
New episodes of And Just Like That stream via Max on Thursdays.
