The Real Housewives of Atlanta cast is no stranger to nailing down a story line by getting engaged. Kim Zolciak has done it twice with two different guys and managed not only to keep her somewhat boring storyline front and center with the engagements but also scored her own mini-series to cover her wedding in November of last year. Bravo’s endorsement was all over the wedding with their favorite advertiser of the moment, Ciroc footing much of the bill. Cynthia Bailey reluctantly got married at the end of season three with Bravo paying for the dramatic Fernbank Museum location as the backdrop for her nuptials and scoring center stage for the season three finale.

Now there seems to be a catfight happening within the cast of Real Housewives of Orange County between Gretchen and Tamra as the two vie for a Bravo wedding of their own. It seems that Gretchen flipped her lid when she found out that Tamra’s hot young rebound lover popped the question and splurged on a ring. Tamra has always been jealous of Gretchen ever since Gretchen joined the cast and threatened Tamra’s self-proclaimed title of “hottest housewife.” Gretchen, in case you have forgotten is the housewife whose previous storyline was getting herself engaged to a wealthy man with a terminal illness on a previous season. According to TMZ Gretchen made $2.5 million dollars off of that endeavor in 2009 and became insulted that Tamra suggested she was in the relationship for financial reasons.  Guess what Gretchen’s reaction to the news of Tamra’s engagement was?

According to New York Post’s Page Six Gretchen immediately stormed the Bravo offices requesting they pay for an engagement ring and a trip to some romantic destination so that schlub Slade Smiley  could propose to her. Never one to be particularly concerned with the sanctity of marriage, Gretchen is all about one-upping Tamra. She does seem to draw the line at paying for her own ring, at least for now but would have no problem with Bravo picking up the tab her unemployed boyfriend can’t afford.  Gretchen, if you are going to buy a husband, you need to cut back on the handbags and put the money towards something better than the used Slade Smiley version. Hasn’t he slept with every housewife on that show? The dude must have a peen plated with 24k gold because he is unattractive in every single sense of the word and broke as hell. You should get Nene Leakes to introduce you to that John Kolaj dude. He at least could afford a nice ring.

Now we know just how long this little Tamra and Gretchen “friendship” will last this season. As soon as the Tamra’s hot boyfriend pops the question and produces a rock, Gretchen goes right back to being Gretchen. I wonder exactly who made the call to Bravo begging for a freebie engagement ring. I really doubt Slade even had the wherewithal to come up with the plan. Leave it to Gretchen to work whatever angle she could to secure more money and a bigger storyline.  Bravo not coming through with ANYTHING makes it seem clear that this could well be Gretchen’s last season. Unless she falls in love with another dying rich man.