Last week, it was reported that Kelly Bensimon is the only reality star who has signed up for next season’s Real Housewives of New York. The rest are reportedly holding out for six-figure deals.

Asked about the salary demands, Zarin told Usmagazine.com: “I think that in an ensemble cast, it’s hard to have demands because I think all women are the same. I think all women should be treated identically. I don’t think one is more valuable than other.”

“I’m not saying someone new on the show would be valued the same as someone who’s been on the show three years,” she said – presumably referring to newcomer Bensimon – at a launch party for the Wendy Williams Show Monday in NYC. “But I think that the cast is the cast. Take an ensemble like Friends. They felt the same way about each other, even though some became more famous than others and some were more liked. They all took care of each other, and I think that’s the way it should be.”

Asked if she’s coming back, Zarin told Us, “You’ll have to watch and see what happens. I can’t announce anything.”

Bravo has confirmed it is “casting for additional housewives” for next season amid reports about the salary dispute.

But Zarin told Us she has “no idea” about casting. If someone’s been hired, “I definitely don’t know who she is,” she said.

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Bethenny Frankel might become a real housewife soon enough!

After The Real Housewives of New York City star — who has been dating beau Jason Hoppy for eight months — was spotted wearing a diamond ring in Miami on Saturday, her rep confirms exclusively to Usmagazine.com that an engagement is definitely in the celebrity chef’s future.

“I can confirm Bethenny and Jason are in love and plan on getting married,” her rep tells Us. “So I guess this is the starter ring.”

Although Frankel — the inventor of the Skinnygirl Margarita — has struggled to find love on the hit Bravo show, the 38-year-old admits to falling for Hoppy.

“I’m in love,” Frankel said at an event in the Hamptons. “I’m pretty much certain I’m going to spend the rest of my life with him… I’m really happy.”

The couple first met at NYC nightclub Tenjune. Since then, the Frankel and Hoppy — who works in real estate — have attended several events together and went on a romantic vacation in Turks & Caicos in May. She has even reportedly gotten approval from her Housewives friends, who say Hoppy is a catch.

The ring she’s wearing might not be the real deal yet, but a source close to the couple says that a proposal is on the way.

“He’s hunting for the ring, but in the meantime this is a place holder or promise ring,” the source tells Us.

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After weeks of mounting tension between Danielle Staub and sisters Caroline and Dina Manzo, all hell broke loose on the Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion show on June 25. Caroline accused Danielle of doing something so horrible, l she could never forgive her. Danielle blogged on BravoTV.com that all she’d done was “pass along a phone number to [Dina’s ex-husband] to contact the proper people,” but Jacqueline Laurita – who’s married to the sisters’ brother Chris – tells Life & Style exclusively that what Danielle did was far worse.

“I don’t think it was something as simple as giving a phone number out, but leave it to Danielle to try to downplay her whole dirty deed,” Jacqueline says. “She’s an angry, bitter person. She felt Dina rejected her, so she went out to destroy her!” While Jacqueline wouldn’t get into the specifics of the incident—claiming “innocent people” would get hurt—and insider tells Life & Style, “Danielle was trying to harm Dina by giving her ex-husband a phone number that might give him leverage in the custody of their daughter, Lexi.”

All this drama should make for an explosive second season, which, Life & Style reported exclusively, is set to start shooting in July. But Jacqueline says she refuses to do any scenes with the family nemesis. “I certainly won’t be filming with Danielle or wanting to talk about her. She’s a closed chapter in my life,” says Jacqueline, who welcomed son Nicholas on June 11. “I’d love to see more happy and fun family scenes than Danielle drama.”

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The women of The Real Housewives of New Jersey will be back on Bravo for a second season of Garden State–style drama, with shooting starting in a month, Life & Style can report exclusively.

“They’re doing a second season, and it’s going to be crazier than the first,” an insider tells Life & Style. “It’s going to explode.”

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“There’s no premiere date, but everyone knows it’s going to be a huge hit,” the insider adds. “The reason it has taken so long to announce is that once the show became such a hit, the women held out for much bigger paychecks.”

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In previews for Thursday’s second installment of The Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion, it appears that things heat up when the discussion centers on Danielle Staub’s past.

Now, with the emergence of legal documents uncovered by TheSmokingGun.com, it looks like her past may be much more checkered than the 46-year-old New Jersey Housewife has been letting on.

According to documents filed in Miami’s U.S. District Court, Staub — then known as Beverly Ann Merrill — and Daniel Aguilar, her alleged drug dealer boyfriend at the time, were arrested by the FBI in June 1986 for holding a man they blamed for a botched cocaine deal for $25,000 in ransom.

While Staub has insisted her involvement in the incident was minimal, the documents state that she went so far as to place a phone call to the man’s father to ask for the money — and threatened “injury or death” to the man if it wasn’t delivered.

The documents go on to reveal that Staub was arrested at a Miami apartment, where police also discovered six kilos of cocaine and $16,000 cash, and that Staub cooperated with the FBI in exchange for a more lenient punishment.

The papers appear to confirm several accusations made about Staub in Cop Without a Badge, the now infamous book about her FBI informant ex-husband Kevin Maher that became a major plot-twister on the show this season when it was discovered and brought to light by costars.

Staub recently denied the accusations in an interview with People, saying she was only an “accessory” in the incident, never worked as a prostitute and never had a cocaine problem.

But according to the papers, Staub was charged with one felony count and convicted of extortion; she “worked for an escort service,” according to an FBI agent on the case; and she was sentenced to drug treatment and weekly urinalysis tests for six months. Two years later, her substance abuse counselor recommended that her “drug aftercare” program be extended, “considering the severity of Beverly’s drug history and her former drug life style.”

Staub did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

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Jacqueline Laurita was the only housewife who came to Danielle Staub’s defense during the fiery June 16 Real Housewives of New Jersey finale showdown.

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Now, Laurita – who famously betrayed her sisters-in-laws Dina and Caroline Manzo by claiming that Dina uncovered the book about Staub’s crime-ridden past – tells the new issue of Us Weekly she and Staub no longer speak. (On Tuesday, federal court records surfaced detailing Staub’s deep involvement in a kidnapping plot, a $24,000 drug deal and an “escort service” – all of which she denies.)

“I am not friends with Danielle,” Laurita emphatically tells Us Weekly. Adds the mother-of-three (who welcomed a boy, Nicholas, June 11): “She has never seen the baby, nor will I ever show her. I learned my family was right about her all along.”

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The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Jacqueline Laurita has welcomed a baby boy.

Nicholas Francis Laurita — who weighed weighed in at 8 lbs. and 8 oz. — was born Thursday morning, a Bravo rep tells Usmagazine.com.

Nicholas is the third child for Laurita, who has a son, CJ, 6, with her husband Chris and Ashley, 17, from a previous relationship.

That’s not the only baby news hitting New Jersey.

Housewife Teresa Giudice is also expecting her fourth child in September.

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