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Tinsley Mortimer's High Society Is Hideous

Socialite's CW reality show caters to the lowest common denominator

By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 11, 2010 12:28 PM CST

(Newser) – Tinsley Mortimer is yet another socialite with an awful reality show, but she came by her newfound reality star status by way of “some of the world’s finest institutions of learning.” She did, in fact, “at one point have some breeding,” writes Troy Patterson in Slate, which she's parlayed into great success as...a fame whore. Mortimer’s vehicle, High Society, debuted on the CW last night—and it “plays like a hideously deformed Edith Wharton story,” Patterson concludes.

Viewers should expect something along the lines of scenes that feature "her sobbing elaborately over the dissolution of her 17-year relationship, wearing a really great scarf." The “production values are cheap, perhaps deliberately, in the hope of creating a louche atmosphere,” and the series is contrived, as all reality shows are—but this one is “so shoddily contrived that one imagines the producers harboring an insultingly low estimation of the audience's intelligence. But then any viewer who sticks with this program through two commercial breaks is proving their estimate correct.”

Socialite Tinsley Mortimer arrives at the Roberto Cavalli Halloween party to benefit  Children in Crisis and The Happy Hearts Fund at Cipriani's 42nd street, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007 in New York.
Socialite Tinsley Mortimer arrives at the Roberto Cavalli Halloween party to benefit Children in Crisis and The Happy Hearts Fund at Cipriani's 42nd street, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007 in New York.   (AP Photo/Peter Kramer)
Socialite Tinsley Mortimer attends the Sixth Annual 50 Fabulous Females To Benefit 'Love Heals', The Alison Gertz Foundation For AIDS Education at Marquee on March 2, 2004 in New York City.
Socialite Tinsley Mortimer attends the Sixth Annual 50 Fabulous Females To Benefit 'Love Heals', The Alison Gertz Foundation For AIDS Education at Marquee on March 2, 2004 in New York City.   (Getty Images)
Reality actress Tinsley Mortimer poses for a portrait in New York, Tuesday, March 9, 2010.
Reality actress Tinsley Mortimer poses for a portrait in New York, Tuesday, March 9, 2010.   (AP Photo/Jeff Christensen)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
JGirl
Mar 12, 2010 6:12 AM CST
sigh...
hankhill
Mar 12, 2010 2:00 AM CST
SHE COULD BREED WITH ME ANYTIME
Another_person
Mar 11, 2010 6:38 PM CST
I appreciate this piece because I learned a new word, louche.

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