The Louis Vuitton-patterned lifestyles of the residents of Orange County, California is actually a presence now in pop culture, and the personalities on reality shows like Laguna Beach, and Real Housewives of Orange County have become something of a touchstone for our society in terms of privilege, excess, and maxed out credit limits. Real Housewives always fascinated me, because for most of the people on the show, the emphasis in life is money and marriage, rather than education and career. How could people actually be this rich and secure, that they don't need a plan b? Well, it turns out that much like the other trappings of their lives—designer clothes, fancy cars, plastic surgery—their wealth is just surface. This particularly applies to one wife, Tammy, who had been married to a billionaire named Lou with whom she had two daughters. His company went bankrupt, they divorced and the girls started homeschooling, out of embarrassment of their lost fortune. Lou—a creepy older man with too much plastic surgery, who hung out with girls his daughter's age—married a mail-order bride from Thailand, started a new company, and began to rebuild his fortune.
He dropped dead of a heart attack about a month after filming ended on the second season of the show. For all the airs he put on, he left nothing behind for his children. And what is left of his company goes to his mail-order bride. Now his daughters, Megan, 20, and Lindsay, 18, are left without money or an education. However, they still have high hopes for a future filled with breast enhancements.