The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has featured a lot of actors over the years. Currently, three of the seven Housewives — Kyle Richards, Lisa Rinna, and Garcelle Beauvais — were all actors before they became reality stars. But, now, the show has a new connection to the entertainment biz. New Housewife Crystal Kung Minkoff is married to Rob Minkoff, a director of several popular animated films, including The Lion King.
Being behind one of the most beloved children's movies of all time might not sound like a situation ripe for Real Housewives drama, but the potential is there. In the season 11 premiere, Rinna and Kyle meet Crystal at her house, and during a tour, Crystal shows them the original casts that were made of the Lion King animated characters. In her confessional, Rinna says of the moment, "People don't normally name drop themselves, but he's iconic, honey. It's The Lion King. Hello!"
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On top of that, later on in the episode, Crystal gets sassy about the people she knows — and doesn't know — in Beverly Hills in her own confessional. Throughout the episode, some of the cast members talk about how they have so many connections in common with Crystal. Then, during a party at Dorit Kemsley's house, Garcelle tells Crystal that she knows her husband through her acting career.
"It's common to know people in Beverly Hills through other people," Crystal says in her confessional. "But if you don't know someone, they might not be worth knowing." A producer then asks Crystal if she knows Dorit, and Crystal quickly says, "No." That just has to be foreshadowing of some future drama, right?
While the first trailer for the season doesn't mention anything brewing between Crystal and Dorit — that could be still to come — we do see that she gets into it with Sutton Stracke. "You're an inappropriate, awkward person, 'cause you're jealous. Period," Crystal tells her at one point. In a response that was one of the most talked about trailer moments, Sutton exclaims, "Jealous of what? Your ugly leather pants?" The preview doesn't give it away, but could she be suggesting Sutton is jealous of that Disney money lifestyle?
That's unclear for now, but we do have some other information about Crystal and Rob already. They've been married since 2007 and have two young children together, Zoe and Max. Also, as noted in the premiere episode, the couple have quite a large age gap. Rob is 58 while Crystal is 35. As Kyle mentioned on the episode, though, age gaps are nothing new in this group. Just ask Erika and Tom Girardi.
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As for their careers, in addition to co-directing The Lion King, Rob also directed the first two Stuart Little movies and The Haunted Mansion, among other films. Meanwhile, Crystal is the founder of Real Coco, a coconut water, milk, and creamer company, which she co-owns with her brother, Jeff Kung. In addition to co-owing the drink company, Jeff is also a pop star in China, as noted in Crystal's Bravo bio. It sounds like there's plenty to look into when it comes to Crystal. I can't wait to see her offend someone by bragging about Stuart Little ephemera.
But, for now, we'll just have to see how things shake out for Crystal, her many Los Angeles connections, and her leather pants. The first episode had her suggesting that Dorit might not even be "worth knowing" — a very promising move from a brand new Housewife.
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