The drama on the new season of The Real Housewives of New York City is underway before a single episode has aired.
Sources tell The Huffington Post that LuAnn de Lesseps and Ramona Singer have received substantial pay raises for season five of the show: they will earn $500,000 for 18 episodes, an increase from their paltry $275,000 take-home from a year ago.
However, Sonja Morgan and the new cast members will still be making the latter figure.
"Nothing causes drama more than asking all the ladies to do the same amount of work and paying some more for it than others," a source says. "That is already causing tension. - plus, a very unlikely friendship between past enemies LuAnn and Ramona. It's way too early to know how all this is going to play out, but early meetings have gone great."
Early meetings between Bravo executives, that is. They've successfully manipulated relationships in this franchise yet again, which is clearly a cause for celebration. When could that ever cause a problem?
[Photos: WENN.com]