Caroline Welcomes Mary To The Real Housewives

Article from the LA Times blog.

By: Yvonne Villarreal
When Caroline Manzo, the matriarch over on “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” walks into a room, one can’t help but stammer. Exhibit A: Danielle Staub. So it’s no surprise that Mary Schmidt Amons, part of the hit franchise’s D.C. version, found that her daughter Meghan had the same reaction … only the stammering came from excitement, not terror.

The mother-daughter duo crossed paths with Manzo, who’s family is known to be “thick as thieves,” while filming an appearance on a talk show recently in New York.

“She kept shoving me, saying ‘Mom! Mom! Mom!,” Amons said during a visit to L.A. earlier this week. “We were at a busy NBC lobby, and I couldn’t figure out if there was a rock star in the corner or something. No. It was Caroline Manzo.”

Like a good neighbor, Manzo welcomed Amons to the “Housewives” block. Amons, granddaughter of legendary radio and TV personality Arthur Godfrey, is founder of D.C.-based Labels for Love and co-founder of the District Sample Sale; she became part of the "Housewives" clan when the show premiered in August. But Amons’ daughter was less impressed with her mother’s induction into the reality sorority … after all, she had just met the referee of the ham game.

“Meghan was in heaven,” Amons said. “She was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. That was ama-zzzzzzzing.”

But Manzo isn’t the only Bravo-lebrity who has won the affection of the D.C. (McClean, if you’re being precise) clan.

When Amons met “Flipping Out’s” Jeff Lewis at a recent network bash, she made sure to get photographic evidence to send to her daughter Alexandra.

“She is probably one of his biggest fans,” Amons said. “She was like ‘Nooooooo way!’ I was quite proud of myself.”

While Amons may not have the same effect on her daughters, she’s still getting some attention.

“Someone asked me to autograph a dog bed,” she said. “I mean, it doesn’t get any weirder than that.”