The season two premiere of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills will go ahead as planned next week, with Bravo taking a few moments to address the suicide of Russell Armstrong prior to airing a re-edited version of the episode.
How does this decision sit with Russell’s mother, John Ann Hotchkiss? Not too well.
“When I was informed of this, I thought, ‘I hope Bravo will take the high road and keep it tasteful,'” Hotchkiss said in a statement to HLN’s Jane Velez-Mitchell. “Let’s not murder my son twice.”
Just two days after his death, the grieving parent appeared on HLN and said of her son’s marriage to Taylor Armstrong: “I began to notice things starting to fray when the television thing came into being, and I was very concerned.”
Specifically citing Lisa Vanderpump, Hotchkiss said various castmembers “bashed” Russell and the program “really brought him down.”
But, hey, at least Vanderpump didn’t make a mockery of Russell’s suicide by having her dog Tweet his condolences. Oh, wait, she did.