Bravo adds Younger, Richer, Hotter Wild Card Housewife to Mix

If you bought a pool table online from Pool Tables USA, chances are, you could be shooting pool on a table named after Alexis Bellino, the young, “hotter, and potential Real Housewives’ “wild card” Bravo producers added to the season five mix of the The Real Housewives of Orange County.

The “Alexis” from Pool Tables USA

It’s season five of Bravo’s Real Housewives of Orange County with the addition of the newest Housewife, 32-yr-old Alexis Bellino, a stay-at-home mom of three. It’s rumored Alexis will replace original Housewife Jeana Keough. We hope those rumors aren’t true as we’d miss Jeanna’s dry wit and even temperament.

Alexis may be a “stay-at-home mom, but the location of where she lives, Newport Coast, an exclusive enclave at Newport Beach and home to celebrities such as Kobe Bryant and Nicolas Cage, means Alexis could be an actual Housewife who truly does live the lifestyle that the producers of Real Housewives, Bravo TV, has tried to convey.-Viewers would be surprised to learn the extent of the “allusion” of the “good life” that Bravo has lent to the series and the other Housewive’s “lives”.

Alexis is married to 47-yr-old Jim Bellino, an entrepreneur whose businesses include flipping houses, and a pawn license. In an interview with the OC Register, Alexis stated that Jim “used” to own an “$8 million a year” pool table business. Upon further research we discovered Jim Bellino founded AAA Wholesale Billards in 1997.

AAA Wholesale Billiards
2721 S Grand Ave
Santa Ana, California

And Wholesale Billiards in 2003:

Wholesale Billards
2714 S GRAND AVE
SANTA ANA, CA

When we tried the link the site was no longer in operation. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, we were directed to the indexed Wholesale Billards site which contained the inventory sold by Wholesale Billiards including the Alexis and Bellino pool table collections. In the address header, Wholesale Billiards was joined by Pool Tables USA.

Two of the collections at Pool Tables USA: The Alexis and the Bellino:

Bellino Pool Table Collection

We then discovered Rectivity Inc. – Pool Tables USA, founded in 2005, and the same address as Bellino’s original pool table business: AAA Wholesale Billiards. Business Week reported Rectivity, Inc./Pool Tables USA had an an involuntary petition for liquidation under Chapter 7 in 2008. We also discovered where the state of California had listed Rectivity’s business status as “forfeited”:

The business entity’s powers, rights and privileges were suspended or forfeited in California 1) by the Franchise Tax Board for failure to file a return and/or failure to pay taxes, penalties, or interest; and/or 2) by the Secretary of State for failure to file the required Statement of Information and, if applicable, the required Statement by Common Interest Development Association.

Rectivity Inc. – Pool Tables, USA
2721 South Grand Avenue
Santa Ana, CA 92705
Founded in 2005

From Businessweek.com:

Rectivity, Inc., doing business as Pool Tables USA, Inc., operates as an online vendor of pool tables, poker tables, and matching game room collections. Its products include pool tables and matching furniture, poker, bars and stools, game tables, lights, massage chairs, and accessories. The company is headquartered in Santa Ana, California. On December 10, 2008, an involuntary petition for liquidation under Chapter 7 was filed against Rectivity, Inc. in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California.

Pool Tables USA was bought by Meritage Retail Network, Inc., and continues to do business online where the Alexis and Bellino pool table collections are still available.

On September 9, 2009, the site Celebrity Real Estate News reported that the Bellino’s exclusive Newport Beach home was up for sale. Celebrity Real Estate News has two of the properties Jim Bellino purchased this year to “flip”.

According to the OC Register, 32-yr-old Alexis has three kids with husband Jim Bellino: 3-yr-old James and 2-yr-old twins Madison and MacKenna. Alexis is a native of Hannibal, MO, and moved to southern California 8 years ago, five of which she’s lived in Orange County.

The Bellino’s current home is located in the super-exclusive Newport Coast enclave of Newport Beach. Alexis is 32 while Jim is 47. Last season, and, in this season’s first episode, Gretchen Rossi, 31, caught a lot of flack from Housewives Tamra Barney and Vicki Gunvalson for living with fiance Jeff Beitzel, 54. It will be interesting to note whether Alexis, who is 15 years younger than husband Jim, will get the same reception as Gretchen, who was 23 years younger than Jeff and constantly referred to as a “golddigger” who “preyed on old men”.-Which is kind of funny as Housewives Jeana Keough is 54, Lynne Curtain is 52, and Vicki Gunvalson is 48.

In an interview with RealityBlurred.com, Alexis stated that she’d known Gretchen for “several years” and that she’d known several of the other Housewives from “social events”. Here’s a link to a photo with Gretchen and Alexis “on a boat” with several friends at RadarOnline. Another photo at Bravo Fan of Alexis, Gretchen, and Lynne Curtain by a pool in their bikinis.

One look at the pool photo, Alexis’ “lifestyle” at Newport Coast, her marriage status with three kids, and her age, and it’s apparent why Bravo invited Alexis to be the next Real Housewife: a potentially huge shift in the dynamics of last season. A dynamic that included Vicki and Tamra’s forged friendship which was used to ride roughshod over new Housewives Gretchen and Lynne. Lynne, who was labeled a ditz, crazy, and “on drugs”, was ineffectual in dealing with the boorish behavior of Tamra and Vicki, while Gretchen, 31, was blindsided by the ever-growing animosity and vitriol from the two older Housewives. Jeana tried to stay above the fray. Even so, in the first episode of this season viewers learned that the long term friendship between Vicki and Jeana may have ended.

This season, the new dynamic: the addition of the stunning Alexis, the same age, and a friend of Gretchen’s, who has a lifestyle “above” Vicki and Tamra’s, coupled with Gretchen’s $2.5 million settlement from her deceased fiance’s estate, viewers could see a seismic shift in the Housewife powerbase with Vicki and Tamra relegated to second-tier status. After last season’s antics of Vicki and Tamra, it’ll be interesting to see the new dynamic in play.

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By LBG

Image – Wild card
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