Before Bravo started implementing Real Housewives in every state from Jersey to Georgia, there was New York City. And while the cast of catty, wealth-obsessed ladies particular to our hometown has shuffled a bit over the past four seasons, there has been one constant: Alex McCord and her husband, Simon van Kempen. Over the years, the Australia-born van Kempen has emerged as a serious scene-stealer, earning himself the nickname "the first Househusband." Recently, he's been the focus of a series of webisodes on BravoTV.com , and last month he released his first single, "I Am Real." We recently caught up with the reality star and overall Brooklyn champion to chat about some of his recent projects and favorite neighborhood spots.
Hi Simon, how are you? Hi there. Good, good, just getting back from talking to Wendy Williams.
How is Wendy Williams? Does her wig actually look like a wig? No, I don't think it did. When I look at her and talk to her, it doesn't even dawn on me that she's wearing a wig. It looks good. She's also looking great. Since she's been on Dancing with the Stars, she's... she's certainly lost weight. She's looking very good.
It sounds like you've had quite the busy morning. Thanks for talking with me. I want to start with talking about these webisodes. Have you seen the first one?
I have, when you're cooking with your boys? It's adorable. What are they making? The boys, they love to cook. They love to help us in the kitchen. That day, because Alex was making a fudge pie and I was making two big dishes, we sort of took over the kitchen but they wanted to get involved, as well, so they made their “concoction.”
I knew they would end up being used for the webisode, but I also knew that we would have people criticize us for wasting food. And you just can't win. They use a little bit of flour, a little bit of cocoa powder, water, I think a couple of crackers, and some sugar. Basically a little bit of dry food and water. I wrote back to this woman on Facebook, saying, “Look, quite frankly I don't see it's any different than them using fingerpaint and painting when they're toddlers.” Is that a waste of paint? Being creative is not wasteful.
Yeah! Were these webisodes your idea or were they Bravo's? Bravo came to me in December and signed me on a separate contract for these seven episodes. The first one rolled out on April 21st. They'll roll out every two weeks thereafter, and I think the last one will be July 14th. I don't know for certain what the driving force was behind it. Certainly as the seasons of Real Housewives has continued, and the inter-rivalry between Housewives has become the show, I think everyone's kids on the show have sort of stepped back. Let's face it, bitchy women make better TV than well-behaved kids, and I think that as the families, or the children particularly of the Housewives, have stepped back in terms of being aired on the show and part of the shows' storylines, the audience can get pissed off with too many catfights. There were people tweeting me and tweeting Bravo saying that they want to see more good family fun.
From what I know, the boys will be featured in most of the webisodes. They were all filmed in Brooklyn. If we're not at home we're filming in a neighborhood restaurant, just doing everyday things.
Absolutely. I also wanted to talk to you about your single. I am real! I say what I feel!
Did you write that song? No, I didn't. I certainly sat down with the writing team and we talked about who I am, who I really am.
Would I release a single if I wasn't on a TV show and had some notoriety? No. Do I get sick after four years of being accused of being a gay man? Yes, absolutely. One of the things I want to express is that being on a television show has not really changed who Alex and I are. We live in Brooklyn, we have two young kids, we're just regular people who live four months of the year of our lives on TV.
I actually wanted to talk to you about that because we have a huge Brooklyn readership. You're in Cobble Hill? Or Carroll Gardens? We are in, according to the Cobble Hill blog, we're in Cobble Hill. We're in that sort of no-man's land, if you like. We're on Butler Street between Smith and Court streets. Some people say that Cobble Hill ends at Court. It seems that the border -Carroll Gardens starts at Degraw, but between Degraw and Wyckoff west of Smith Street is classified as Cobble Hill, and then Wyckoff to Atlantic between Court Street and Smith Street...I can't even keep track. Cobble Hill blog calls it the DMZ, it can be Cobble Hill, it can be Boerum Hill. Or, we live in BoCoCa.
What are your favorite neighborhood spots to bring the boys to? Do you bring them to bars? Because I know that's been an issue in Park Slope recently.
When Francois was born, we were living in Park Slope. We moved to our current house three months before Johan was born. When Francois was first born, yes, he went to bars. We wrote about it in our book Little Kids, Big City. Even as toddlers, they would go to a bar. But I'm not talking ten o'clock at night. But look, I think there's a time and a place. In terms of our local neighborhood, do we take them to Clover Club? No. Do we take them to Jake Walk? No. There are enough (particularly in spring and summer) outdoor restaurants that also have bars, so you can sit and drink or you can sit and eat.
We love it where we are because we are so close to Manhattan if that's where you need to be. But this area, it really is a village. And that's one of the things we tried to capture in the webisodes. I filmed at Union Market on Court Street, I filmed at Smith & Vine, I filmed at Stinky Brooklyn, I filmed at a great little butcher I go to on Smith Street. We don't have to go to Wal-Mart or Costco or whatever.
It's a phenomenal neighborhood. People ask us when we're moving back to Manhattan, and we're like, "No."
What's it like being the only Brooklyn-based couple on the show? Initially on the show—and this is not from New Yorkers but this is from people who don't know New York City—they would Facebook us or make comments, saying,” Why is Alex McCord even on the show, she doesn't live in New York, she lives in Brooklyn!” So it's been great to educate the country, if not the world, that there is a lot more to New York than Manhattan. And we have always been cheerleaders for Brooklyn. I got to know Marty Markowitz very well, Alex and I have been on stage with him at various places. Brooklyn is phenomenal; and you also can't generalize too much about Brooklyn. Because Brooklyn is geographically large and ethnically incredibly diverse, and there are parts of Brooklyn where we live, the Brownstone Brooklyn area, that are like the Village used to be thirty years ago.
So what’s your exit strategy for all this, when you want to back to your “normal” life all the time?
Very good question. Certainly, having Bravo come to me to do this web series, I treated it as a paid audition, if you like. Let's see what sort of traction it gets…We didn't expect to be doing this four seasons in. I don't think we'll be running away from a Season Five if there is a Season Five. But as the boys get older, they have their input, too. We’ll see where it takes us. We're enjoying it, we're having fun. And we'll let our destiny largely be determined by others.
