Finally watching "The Queen Of Versailles."  My friend Tess and I constantly swap around sites about mansions ("this is the kind of place I'm going to get" we joke) so natually this movie popped up.  I'd actually been meaning to watch this for a long time and finally decided to do it tonight.

Part of it sort of feels like an unfunny  white trash version of Arrested Development with the whole riches-to-rags story.  This family had seven kids, were insanely rich, and were building a one hundred million dollar mansion that was a replica of Versailles (or more accurately, the top three floors of a hotel in Las Vegas) with the fortune being made from the time share business, but then the market dropped and they lost a huge chunk of money.  And I believe this happened WHILE the documentary was shooting, that it wasn't actually intended to be about that and they just sort of rolled with it.

This is bringing up all sorts of opinions about wealth and lifestyle from me which I'm sure would bore you all, but one thing I noticed (outside of the fact that cartoons seem to be playing every time they go into the guy's home office) is that every time I see people in reality shows (or even Entourage for that matter), it seems like I've never seen anyone in a mansion know how to LIVE in a mansion, like, I don't think the size of the house naturally upgraded according to their needs, so they don't know how to use the space.  It kind of looks like a kid wearing his dad's suit, you know what I'm saying?

Oh my god, I see more dog poop in this movie than I do on my daily walks!  And all indoors!  I think that in addition to making you think more about money, about the state of the haves and have nots and financial regulation, I think it'll ALSO make you appreciate the "pick up after your dog" law in a far more favourable light.  It actually makes reminds me of the ACTUAL Versailles, since they didn't have lavatories in there, PEOPLE would just poop in the halls.  I can't believe I didn't think of that earlier.