Perhaps it’s to be expected from the website that had a divorce section before it had one on marriage. The Huffington Post, that repository of Hollywood morality, is cheering on a new show called, “Mistresses.”
Huff Post Live hosted a chat on the series called “ Glorifying Mistresses.” Sarah Symonds from the U.K., a former mistress and founder of Mistresses Anonymous Foundation, began the discussion by applauding a “long overdue” series. “I think its brilliant timing,” she said. “I find it very astonishing it hasn’t happened before because in the States, you’ve got shows about everything from fat kids called Honey Boo Boo to how to take drugs, teen mums, you know, it’s time to talk about something so real.”
“Mistresses,” a new drama based on a U.K. show, follows four women and their complex extramarital relationships. ABC advertises the series as a “drama about the scandalous lives of a sexy and sassy group of four girlfriends, each on her own path to self-discovery, as they brave the turbulent journey together.” The show premieres June 3 on ABC and stars actresses Alyssa Milano, Jes Macallan, Rochelle Aytes, and Yunjin Kim.
Tracy Schorn, blogger at chumplady.com, complained during HuffPost Live that the show is “making sociopaths sexy.” As a woman who was cheated on, she attacked the story, saying, “its the kind of fluffy soap opera stuff I could watch before I was cheated on, and anybody who’s experienced infidelity would find the premise of the show hugely offensive.”
Ricky Camilleri, producer at HuffPost Live, disagreed and interrupted, “Personally, you could find it offensive, but I think that, I think what’s interesting about this show is that we’re not necessarily celebrating women as mistresses, but you know we have so many shows where the male anti-hero is cheating and we talk about him but we rarely are able to talk about women’s roles in these affairs.”
Symonds, not one to stay silent, stressed, “As women in the sisterhood, I think we should all be on the same page, because wives and mistresses have got so much in common. They’re both sharing half of a man who’s lying and getting the best of two women.”
She finished her spiel, enthusing, “I am so glad every show out there especially in America is about wives. We’ve got the good wife, the desperate housewives, we’ve got the real housewives … let’s have some mistresses!”
