WATCH WHAT HAPPENS LIVE WITH ANDY COHEN -- Episode 14152 -- Pictured: Lydia McLaughlin -- (Photo by: Charles Sykes/Bravo)

Lydia McLaughlin Doesn’t Understand Shannon Beador; Would Never Put Heather Dubrow On A Magazine Cover

Lydia McLaughlin

Knowing that Lydia McLaughlin was going to be one of the guests on Watch What Happens Live, I was expecting a soft interview with lots of shameless plugs for her magazine. Surprisingly enough, only the latter was true. Fans who called in and tweeted questions for the Real Housewives of Orange County star really went in with the questions.

Lydia was almost as flustered as Shannon Beador was at Ava’s birthday party when Lydia kept mentioning Vicki Gunvalson. Lydia was almost as thrown off as Shannon and Tamra Judge were after Kelly Dodd “unexpectedly” showed up to dinner when Lydia actually invited her. I’m trying (and failed) to think of some way to incorporate the words “pot stirrer” into that old “pot meet kettle” expression, but if you’ve been watching RHOC, then you probably get what I’m going for: viewers were stirring shit up with someone who has been accused of stirring shit up.

Of course Andy Cohen polled the viewers to ask whose side they were on: Lydia’s or Shannon’s. He even remarked, “This is a friendship that did not work from the get-go,” which is the understatement of the century. Shannon destroyed that poll by taking 63% off the votes. Do the viewers agree with Shannon or do they just think that throwing plates and storming off from a child’s birthday party is more entertaining than shamelessly promoting a magazine and claiming to be a “friendship whisperer”? Most likely a little bit of both.

With that said, Lydia couldn’t help reacting to the poll results. She said, “No, and I mean, people love Shannon. That’s OK. I’m OK with that, but I feel like I stick up for myself and I try to learn lessons that I need to learn. But I can’t believe it: 37% percent! Can you explain to me her side?”

Is Lydia not watching the same show that everyone else is? Lydia kept repeating Vicki’s name the day she met Shannon even though Shannon asked her not to. She acted all innocent when Tamra and Shannon were blindsided by Kelly’s appearance at the Quiet Woman even though she invited Kelly and even called her again en route to the restaurant to make sure she showed up. Sure, Shannon has some wild overreactions, but at least Shannon is providing the fandom with some entertaining material for GIFs and memes.

Moving on from the Shannon talk (for a moment), Lydia addressed her discomfort at drag queen bingo. She explained, “I feel like I was misunderstood a little when I am quoted and I say that ‘drag queens aren’t in the Bible.’ What I meant by that was I didn’t know a verse that meant like ‘I can’t go and participate in this.’ I wasn’t meaning like drag queens aren’t in the Bible so therefore they’re somehow excluded from God’s promises or something.” As Andy pointed out, this is definitely going to be a topic of discussion at the RHOC reunion.

Then the Shannon chatter resumed. A caller asked Lydia, “Do you think you’ve been too harsh on her this season and do you see a future being friends?” Lydia told the fan, “I feel like I really tried to be friends with Shannon and we just really misunderstood each other, but I still have faith in us. You have to keep watching. The season’s not over.”

I’m all for Lydia and Shannon becoming friends, but the last thing I want is another Lydia-infused season of RHOC. They can make up away from from television screen.

One caller really went in on Lydia by saying, “What happened to your last magazine and how’s your new magazine doing? Did you come back to the show just so you could plug that magazine because you don’t want to do anything, you don’t want to dress up in drag or nothing like that. So what’s up girl?” Damn. As expected, Lydia didn’t address the juicier portions of that call, but she did take the time to plug her magazine (of course): “We have another magazine called Nobleman Magazine and it’s doing really great. Thank you.”

The pseudo roast of Lydia continued when a caller told her, “You talk about your husband getting his balls cut all the time, but you’re very sensitive about your breast job. I think that’s very hypocritical.” Lydia said, “I don’t think I’m sensitive about talking about my boob job.” Did she not watch last week’s episode?

Lydia said, “Tamra asked me about my boob job and I wasn’t sensitive to her at all. I was fine about it. And then while we were talking, I noticed that Shannon was like squeezing legs under the table. When I went back, Shannon was being loud and expressive because that’s her personality I’m learning. She was like ‘You got a boob job’ with all these other men standing right there and I was like ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow. You know I got a boob job. You just squeezed legs.'”

The boobs look great, Lydia. There’s no need to get all riled up by the attention. Plus, Shannon wasn’t even referencing Lydia with her instantly infamous leg grabbing. It was about Peggy Sulahian and all of her offhand comments.

Speaking of Peggy, the women were channeling the Season 10 Brooks Ayers saga by questioning her cancer situation the second she got up from dinner to run to the restroom. Lydia wasn’t invited to that dinner, but if she had been, she insisted that she wouldn’t condone that conversation. Lydia said, “Peggy  had a double mastectomy, so what do the details matter? I think I would have stood up for her if I were there.”

Even though Lydia seems like she has no idea what she got herself into by being a Real Housewife, this is actually her second time on the show. During her first season, she got some flack for refusing to put Heather Dubrow on the cover of her magazine – again, with these magazines – even though she put fellow Housewife Lisa Vanderpump on it during the same time period. She was asked, “Do you still feel like Heather Dubrow isn’t enough of a name to grace one of your magazine covers?” Instead of playing up that whole innocent Lydia persona, she kept it real and admitted, “No. She’s not. She’s a Housewife, I mean.”

Andy commented, “You have Matt Damon on your cover” and Lydia didn’t hesitate to say, “Exactly. I’m sorry. She’s not an A list celebrity.” SHADE THROWN.

RELATED: Lydia McLaughlin Thinks Shannon Beador Just Wants To Pick Fights

TELL US – WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON: LYDIA’S OR SHANNON’S? ARE YOU HAPPY LYDIA CAME BACK TO REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ORANGE COUNTY?

[Photo Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo]

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