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[0:10] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's the round table with me, Robert Bannon.

[0:15] Robert Bannon: Well, welcome to the round table, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon, and it is almost Thanksgiving. And you know what I'm thankful for? Good old reality TV. No, honestly, I've become a little associated with the Housewives. I've appeared on the Housewives. Some of my friends are Housewives of New Jersey. But I didn't know Dorinda. I didn't know Dorinda Medley at all. I know the Teresa and the Margaret and the Melissa and that mess of a time, which is so much fun. But I didn't know Dorinda, but I did get to learn who she was, and she was here not too long ago, and I'm so happy to share this with you on the Broadway Podcast Network. You know what else you can be listening to, and I could share with my album.

My album's called Rewind, and it's out wherever music is heard now. And you could come see me sing some Christmas follow music. Come hear it. December 9th at Chelsea Table and Stage. For information, go to RobertBannon.com. You know, the Housewives are good at shamelessly promoting. That's what they're good at. They can promote anything. Dorinda's gonna promote 18 businesses, so I can at least promote my little stuff. Take a listen to when Dorinda popped on over.

[1:20] Robert Bannon: All right, ladies and gentlemen, you have watched her for years. Now you can read all about her life as well. She is fashionable, and she does a little bit of everything. Listen, anyone who says, "I'm not always right, but I'm never wrong," is my kind of people.

[1:44] Dorinda Medley: Well, you don't you know I'm a little bit of Jack of All Trades and the master of nothing. I really am a leopard that can change its spots very easily, which has been a great survival technique.

[1:53] Robert Bannon: Yes, I feel the same way. I'm literally in my grade classroom in New Jersey on lunch, talking to you. Then I go sing a couple songs. I pretend to act. I host my talk show and get to talk to amazing people like you.

[2:08] Dorinda Medley: Well, I'm honored. I'm honored.

[2:11] Robert Bannon: Yeah. Well, yeah, we have a lot of exciting things coming up. We have my paperback coming out March 22nd. Or May 22nd, sorry. And you know, it's really exciting because when it launched, it was COVID. So we weren't able to do a lot of personal appearances and stuff. So I'm hoping that with Simon & Schuster, we can get up there a little bit more and see everyone. But, you know, there's a lot of exciting things going on. As I just said, I'm moving after 21 years. Can you imagine?

[2:41] Dorinda Medley: No.

[2:43] Robert Bannon: 2022 is all about fresh starts. I'm telling you. It came to me February 22nd, 2022. I was like, I'm done. I need to change it up. I need to move. I raised my daughter here. This apartment has been so good to me. Even when I was married to Richard, I still had this apartment. I would sneak back to it with Hannah and do girls' weekends. So, but it's now time to hand it over to the next family and move into something a little more age appropriate.

[3:11] Dorinda Medley: Oh, I like that. The grown and sexy Dorinda's living space.

[3:15] Robert Bannon: Yes. My next apartment is not gonna have anything to do with kids or fun, you know, being I just wanted to be like a beautiful, sleek hotel room.

[3:25] Dorinda Medley: Well, that sounds good. Well, talk about real estate, talk about design. I can only imagine what the new place is. Your space up in Bluestone Manor is, I kind of, who would have thunk it, you know?

[3:41] Dorinda Medley: You know, it's so funny when they put me on pause. I was, of course, I couldn't believe it. But it was amazing the outpour of sadness over Bluestone Manor. People were like, "Does that mean no more Bluestone Manor?" And then it became the sort of effigy, like the Disney castle of the Berkshires. So when I was doing all my Zooms and everything, people were like, "Oh my god, are you at Bluestone Manor?" I'm like, "Yes, it's real," because people don't realize I've owned that place since 2005. They just thought it was sort of a housewife prop.

[4:13] Robert Bannon: Well, I didn't realize it's real. You film there, you stay there. Look at the pictures. Look, we have this little, we stole this from the internet. Look at this. There's the front of the house. There's the billiard room and the kitchen. Dorinda, it's stunning.

[4:29] Dorinda Medley: And do you know I haven't been up there now for three weeks and I long for it. I said to my mother, every time I met up there for two to three weeks, it literally starts to call me, "Dorinda, come home." You know, it has such a beautiful face. It's got such a beautiful story because as everyone knows, my great grandfather was one of the Masons that worked on it, and then my grandfather, and then Richard gave it to me as a wedding present like a month before we got married. So what I'm very proud of is, you know, when he passed, I was like, "How am I gonna do this?" Because Richard sort of did that part of it. He kind of oversaw all the stuff. And I thought, there's just no way as a, you know, a single woman I'm gonna be able to keep this, you know, estate.

And my mother said, "Give it a year, and if in a year you feel like it's too much, then sell it. But you don't do it now. You're just panicked," right? And you know, it's been his ten-year anniversary. I've owned that house longer on my own than I owned it with him, which is such an achievement for a woman because, you know, not a lot of women can say that they've been able to maintain a property like that.

[5:38] Robert Bannon: Well, it's a gorgeous property. Not only have you maintained it, I mean, it's featured in magazines, it's featured on the internet. It's literally a beautiful piece of architecture.

[5:46] Dorinda Medley: It was on Airbnb.

[5:48] Robert Bannon: It was? No, I was gonna ask you, it was on Airbnb.

[5:53] Dorinda Medley: That one really threw people. The frenzy that took place, you know, Airbnb came to me and they were like, "We would love to do something with you, you know, to spotlight Bluestone Manor." And I said, "Well, you know, I don't want to rent it in the traditional Airbnb sense because I just don't know what that looks like." But so we came up with this thing where, you know, they would use two or three of the bedrooms, I'd close off sort of parts of the thing, and then someone would come for two one-night stays. And I have to say it was one of the best sort of projects that I've done with someone because the absolute joy of people when they walk through the door was worth every second. Because of course I think of Bluestone Manor as my baby, so the thought of people there without me was a little bit, you know.

But I'm gonna tell you what's a really funny story. So there were two different sets of people. So there was one couple the first night they came that was very Connecticut, really sweet, very conservative. They came in, they looked at me like I was not real, and Bluestone Manor wasn't real, you know. I said, "Welcome," there was a man. "Oh yes, we love yours." I said, "Well, enjoy it. Use the pool, you know, sit in the pool, play billiards." I come back the next morning at like 10 and I said, "Oh my god, did you enjoy it? Tell me everything you did." They're like, "Oh, oh no, no, we didn't sit in the living room. We didn't want to touch anything." I said, "What?" Then the second night was four gay guys.

I don't think they went to sleep. They left it in perfect shape, I have to say. But I clicked in on one of, I was like, "Don't do it, don't do it." But I happened to click on one of the Instagram lives. I'm like, they had a ball, and that's what it should be. Leave it to the gay guys to make a mess, but clean it the next day. They didn't even make a mess, but they were in the pool, they were in the spa, they were in the kitchen cooking, they were in the living room mixing drinks, you know. I mean, that's what it should be. So what I realized is that place, it really does live and breathe, and it brings so much joy. There's something about when you enter the doors of Bluestone Manor, you just never want to leave.

[8:04] Robert Bannon: Well, I heard a rumor. I don't know if we could that we may see a lot more of Bluestone Manor because on the mashup. I am living for it. I can't wait to see, and it is gonna be, listen, Real Housewives Ultimate Girl Trip number one was amazing. I think this is gonna be incredible too because it's iconic and they have iconic girls. You know, they've got Vicky and me and Brandy and Jill and Eva and Phaedra and Taylor and Tamra. You know, I mean, where can you go wrong, right? Putting all these, imagine these eight girls locked up at Bluestone Manor for eight days.

[8:43] Dorinda Medley: Yes, exactly. Must-see television. This is going to be a good one.

[8:49] Robert Bannon: Yeah. Well, I know I'm living for that. If you want to see more pictures of Bluestone Manor, and if you want to continue to take a peek, and there's a whole line of Bluestone Manor products we're gonna talk about, you can go to dorindamedley.com. There's a link that takes you right to Bluestone Manor, and you can, you started selling Bluestone Bourbon. I just was on, believe it or not, I was just on CNN Business with them. Can you imagine? What the world has gone walking when Dorinda Medley's on CNN, right? What's going on?

[9:18] Dorinda Medley: No, that's wonderful. You're a businesswoman, but you've always been a businesswoman, Dorinda. You started your cashmere line. You were dressing Princess Diana. I mean, you're a business.

[9:28] Dorinda Medley: Well, I wasn't dressing her. She was like buying my cashmere. That's not, that's gonna be like telephone.

[9:34] Robert Bannon: Okay, no, I will tell the truth.

[9:35] Dorinda Medley: But still, that's such a, that's such a, listen. I think it's because I grew up in the Berkshires and I grew up very scrappy. And you know, I just, I'm a hustler. I like to, I don't do well with idle hands. Like I have to keep moving. It's either all go, as Hannah says, I'm like a wind-up gal. I have to really go or I sleep. I don't do like, I'm a horrible relaxer. That's why yoga doesn't work for me because I'm like, come on now, let's get it moving. You know what I mean?

[10:03] Dorinda Medley: No, so I just had a great thing on CNN with my bourbon, which is doing so well. We're doing a rollout, and it's Bluestone Manor Bourbon. You know, Bluestone Manor underscore bourbon is the Instagram, but it's BluestoneManorBourbon.com. I'm doing a whole series of signing of bottles over the next couple months, which I think is great because I love to connect with my audience. And then I have Bluestone Manor Home, which I've done candles and a couple Christmas decorations. I kind of dipped my toe in that water. Here's the candles, people love it.

[10:31] Robert Bannon: Yes. People love anything Bluestone Manor.

[10:34] Dorinda Medley: So we're talking to all kinds of, you know, I think it's really important whenever, you know. My whole thing is slow and steady. You know, don't rush up the mountain, you know, trying to get, yes, climb it carefully so you end up at the top unscathed as possible. But people love it. I mean, and there's so many things you could do. Like someone called me the day and said, "Would you do Bluestone Manor Detergent?"

[10:56] Dorinda Medley: I'm like, oh, maybe Lucy Manor Kitchen stuff, wavy, you know, there could be a salad dressing that goes along with my YouTube, you know. So, but I'm just kind of slowly, you know, developing it's really beautiful and it's clean and classy and it just looks great. And then if you want to have fun, if you go to DorindaMedley.com, then you have the fun line of all of your merchandise with taglines from the show. So you can decorate your house in all of your Bluestone Manor and Blue Stone, and then you can take your tote bag, like this one's my favorite. I'll tell you how I'm doing not well, bitch. You can buy it. That is best selling sold out. It was sold out for a while. I know. I know. This is everything.

I have to that reminds me, I have to reorder that stuff. You know, it's uh you know, I realized the other day it's kind of time that I I get I gotta get some help. Like I'm a little overwhelmed. Uh you think you you're I'm very bad at releasing control, right? So and as Richard always said, you can't get to the macro macro if you don't let go of the micro. And I'm very much of a control freak like that. But I think it's time to sort of let go a little bit, you know what I mean?

[12:07] Robert Bannon: Sure. And you I mean you're moving, you're running multi-businesses, you're filming your shows, you're doing everything. You have a lot you have a little bit going on, Dorinda.

[12:15] Dorinda Medley: A little busy. But it's good. Being busy is good. And you know, I'm actually doing um I'm going to Variety Magazine has is hosting a dinner in May for the 200 women they kind of pick, they curate for a dinner. And I found out yesterday I got picked. So I was so honored that, you know, I was able to sort of take a pause or whatever it is from the housewives for a minute, but keep developing my platform and keep developing something bigger than that. Not that I don't love the housewives. I love it. Appreciative of everything they did. But I think sometimes you gotta be a little careful. You don't get stuck just in that one place.

[12:51] Robert Bannon: Yes. And you know, build it out.

[12:53] Dorinda Medley: So yeah, I've been very blessed like that. Well, you know, speaking of the housewives, um, I read the a book about the housewives. I was reading about it, and I saw that like there in the beginning when you started with anything, I'm sure there's a little trepidation and and and nervousness about it. You have a big giant career, you have a family, you had family, you've been through good times and bad times, uh, you know, correct break and and everything. What has it been better than you expected? Has it been that blessing in in certain ways?

[13:21] Dorinda Medley: Oh my god, yes. House rice was the first thing. You know, listen, after Richard died and Hannah went to college, I was sort of like a toothpick in the ocean. I'm like, what? You know, like I always say that's why you gotta be very careful about not writing the your end chapter because you have you know, sometimes you read a book and you think you know what the end's gonna be, and then you get to the end and you say, I had no idea. You have to treat life like that. Like if someone told me twelve years ago Richard would be gone, you know, in and you would be on the real house rice in New York City, I would be like, What are you crazy, right? But it ended up being such a blessing because it really was an opportunity for me, a to work through my grief, right?

And B, it was very therapeutic in that way, and B, I didn't have to be Dorinda Sincal or the daughter. I didn't have to be, you know, Mrs. Lynch or Mom or Mrs. Medley or anything. I could just be for the first time Dorinda. Like it, don't like it. Hannah was in school. Like, and that's why I never did it really until she was grown. You know, anytime they'd ever asked me or suggested coming out as a friend, it didn't work in my life because my sort of focus was Hannah.

[14:28] Robert Bannon: Sure.

[14:28] Dorinda Medley: Or my husband or you know, my household. But it really ended up being such a great therapeutic. I've grown so much as a woman from it.

[14:37] Robert Bannon: Well, everything happens in its time. And you're perfect. You are so perfect on it. You have given so much joy. Amongst the many other things you do, I know that you have been at your own exercise guru, and I know that you you were very open and honest about your listen, the COVID, I call it my COVID 19 is real.

[14:58] Dorinda Medley: Oh my god, when Nutra System came to me, I'm like, uh, you know, my Jason, my one of my people that agent that helps me get thing, you know, gets me deals and stuff or presents me with deals. He said, Nutra System wants to speak to you. And I'm like, Why? Okay. I said, This is both it's he goes, No, no, it's a great company to work with. I said, I know, but why me? And then I stepped on the scale and I thought so when when they my for initial meeting, I said, I am both pleased and horribly offended that you would want me as a spokesperson. I did to Stacey. She laughs so hard. But guess the truth of the matter is I gained like twenty pounds during COVID. But you know what the problem is, the great thing about New York is it keeps you sharp because you're always buttoning something or belt to something. You know, please don't matter. I was dressing like a hippie, letting it all hang out. They lost the waistline. I think I lost it for a second.

[15:55] Robert Bannon: You back?

[15:56] Dorinda Medley: I did. I'm sorry. I'm back. So you know it really got me on my game. And it and I lost like 17 pounds and I've kept it off.

[16:05] Robert Bannon: Well you look amazing. You always look amazing. But um but I know that that struggle for real and I when I saw you there I was like what a perfect I mean firstly you and Marie Osman are probably the two are so beautiful. And can I tell you something I love I love the Nutrisystems family. They're great. Yes they're really they came up to Bluestone Manor we did a shoot like it's but nothing is nicer than when a pro you do a project and it fits with where you are and you're like and then you like all the people you work with. It's not just a corporate thing. Like you really like I still talk to them you know what I mean we decided to part our way we did it for two years. We decided to part our way this year we're gonna talk about doing something in 2023. But literally like I have new friends in the world and they're my Nutrisystem family. You know what I mean? So that's what's so nice about that.

[16:52] Dorinda Medley: Well I love that that's beautiful well aside from Housewives and aside from all of Bluestone Manor and the bourbon and the and the bags and all of that I just have to say from um a lot of people get a platform and notoriety and and fame and and they don't do anything great with it. But I just want to say that after reading about you and following you you've done so much good you are so charitable and people don't even know born this way foundation Ronald McDonald's house all these gallas and and donations and everything you do and you are such an admirer of the arts I know I you go to see a lot of theater you support a lot of art and as an artist and as a teacher and as somebody you know, I just want to say thank you for using your powers for good.

[17:34] Dorinda Medley: I love it. And I I love I just did an incredible thing with the LGBTQ uh with a company called uh I think it was called oh God and Craft or something. Anyway, they did a great event at the AMC. And you know what's so funny because I haven't seen anyone for so long that you forget that energy when you know we forget that everybody's so happy to see, oh my god, it's you that it's so much fun to be able to connect with people at that level and you know, know it's gonna help out in some way or attach yourself to things, you know, maybe it helps, it makes makes people happy. Um, you know, it's a good use. I believe in a good use of your time, and I've been doing a lot with God's Love We Deliver lately.

I just love that organization. Who love it. Again, anybody that has the time or who needs to make the time, they should volunteer at God's Love We Deliver. First of all, it's an incredible establishment, but it is fun. Fun. And you never know who's gonna be underneath that little cap, you know, when you're scooping out the food. And you know, I did a great delivery one day with a couple of the people and this guy came downstairs, it was his birthday, and they make these mini birthday cakes for them. And the guy came downstairs, he was literally it was like he couldn't believe he saw them. He's like, First of all, you're the only person people I've seen the whole week. And second of all, he was gonna say he says, No one has celebrated my birthday for ten years.

I was like, That's it, I'm dead. I want to move in with you right now. Like, push on over, come and live with me. So, you know, these things have such a domino effect. We don't know. I say always my mother always said to me, You know, I waitressed for years at Red Line in. And I remember when people were mean to me, or people were, you know, said comments that were inappropriate. Like they don't realize that you then get in the car and go home and you bring that energy to your house or to your partner. Or to you know, so everything in life has a domino effect. So I think random acts of kindness, being aware, giving back. You know, you do it as much for, but you also do it for yourself because you want to know that you're making a place in the world that maybe someone feels a little better about themselves if you were involved with them. You know what I mean?

[19:47] Robert Bannon: Well, and you do, and you make a millions of people have enjoyed watching the hijinks on the show. Millions of people have been inspired.

[19:54] Dorinda Medley: Not always the whole point.

[19:59] Robert Bannon: Yes, exactly and thank you for all that you do for the communities that you're a part of. And I'm such a fan of you at you as a businesswoman and and as a as a boss. So it was a real honor. Everyone, make it nice is available now. You can get it on Amazon wherever books are sold. You can go to DurindaMedley.com. You can get your signed copy under in the medley.com. And um we'll be following you.

[20:28] Dorinda Medley: There you go. On IG at Dorinda Medley, you'll find out all the information. My show is a joy. You're a joy. I hope to meet you and see you in New York one day. I'll be at one of your signings. You're the best. Thank you. Bye-bye.

[20:43] Robert Bannon: Well, if that wasn't entertaining for you, I don't know what will. That's as best as I can get you. Broadway Podcast Network here on the round table. We don't dising discriminate against any guests. You could be from Broadway, you can be from TV, you can be from film, you can be a politician, you could be uh who knows what you're gonna be. A reality housewife. And you can welcome yourself onto the round table. I thank you so much for being here. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. We have another show coming for you uh this week, and then we're taking the rest of the Thanksgiving weekend off. So I hope you enjoy it, eat your turkey and rest and enjoy because we're coming to you with a big old Christmas holiday Hanukkah extravaganza for the month of December. Make sure you follow me at robertbannon.com and you go to Instagram at Robert M. Bannon. Till next time, I'll see you again real soon. Bye, everybody.