Real Housewives of New York City: Go Behind the Scenes of Their Sexy Photo Shoot

The Real Housewives of New York City has kicked of their fifth season of the hit Bravo show by replacing three original cast members.

Heather Thomson, Carole Radziwill and Aviva Drescher have joined veterans Ramona Singer, LuAnn de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan. To help celebrate, the ladies came together for an exclusive photo shoot with Us Weekly.

PHOTOS: NY Housewives' cattiest moments

"I have to tell you, adding three new girls and losing three definitely changed the dynamics for the season," Singer told Us in behind the scenes video footage of their shoot. "Part of it is sad, but to tell you the truth, I embrace change. And this really is a phenomenal season because when you bring three new women into the group -- boy, do things happen!"

"I'm always happy to have new friends," Morgan said. And the Countess agreed. "I would say that I connected the most out of the three women, almost immediately, with Heather," she revealed. "We really got along really well."

Ramona Singer, LuAnn de Lesseps, Aviva Drescher, Caroline Radzwill, and Heather Thomson attend the Bravo Upfront 2012 on April 4, 2012 in New York City.
Credit: Cindy Ord/Getty

VIDEO: LuAnn tells her daugher she wants to have another baby at 47

But the original ladies still have their share of arguments with each other.

"If she wants to be a weekend mom that's her business. Probably I shouldn't have said anything, but the truth is the truth." Singer, 55, said of the amount of time the Countess, 47, spends with her French wine distributor boyfriend, Jacques Azoulay, 37. "She's passive aggressive, LuAnn. She pushes my buttons and tries to insinuate things about me that are totally not true. So, when I get upset I get 'Ramotional!' I can't help it, sorry!" 

PHOTOS: Real Housewives' biggest fights ever

So, what do the new cast members -- think about the show? Watch the video and tell Us: What do you think of the revamped Real Housewives of New York City?

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Pierce: ‘Desperate Housewives’ is still sexy, smart, fun

Carlos (Ricardo Antoniio Chavira) and Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) divorced and remarried during the course of "Desperate Housewives." (ABC/RON TOM)When Marc Cherry created "Desperate Housewives," he didn’t have a handle on two characters — Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) and Carlos (Ricardo Chavira). They were just sort of "generalized yuppies."

Until he saw similarities between Longoria and the "brilliant" Rue McClanahan, who played the vixen Blanche on "The Golden Girls."

"No matter how selfish or vain her character acted, you still loved her," said Cherry, who was a "Golden Girls" writer/producer. "One day, I was looking at little Eva Longoria and I went, ‘I think she could get away with that.’?"

Longoria wasn’t thrilled that her character started talking about her own beauty. "The more self-involved and vain and selfish and egotistical she became, the funnier she became," said Cherry, adding it was a "big shock" when Gabrielle and Carlos "became our go-to comedy couple because they were both so despicable to one another that it became just a joy."

And "Desperate Housewives" has been a joy for fans for eight years. Soon after its debut it became pop-culture phenomenon, attracting 25-30 million viewers. It was smart, funny, sexy and surprising — an unlikely mix of soap opera and sitcom.

As was the case with Gabrielle and Carlos, even its creator didn’t always know where the show was going. "Sometimes you’ll take something and some [actor] will come along and then it just it pops," Cherry said. "We’ve had times where we maybe cast the wrong guest actor. Some of the plot twists got maybe a little convoluted, so storylines didn’t go."

Yes, the show hit a sophomore slump. A season-long storyline involving new neighbors, secrets and murders never gelled.

But Cherry learned from his mistakes. Although the show never regained all those first-season viewers, it actually improved over that first season, as the plotting got better and the comedy stayed strong.

Cherry took a chance between the fourth and fifth seasons, jumping the narrative ahead five years — and it was a smashing success that re-energized the show.

After Sundays’s penultimate episode (8 p.m., ABC/Ch. 4), "Desperate Housewives" will wrap things up Sunday, May 13. It will be the ending Cherry has planned since the series launched, more or less. His writers,"started adding things. So it definitely got better. But the last act, I’ve had it down for quite awhile now."

And he insists he’s going to make a cameo appearance in the series finale. "Try to stop him," Longoria said with a laugh.

"I’m going to do a Hitchcock," Cherry said, who looks like a writer, not a performer. "And the hair and makeup people will go through more hell that day than they’ve ever gone through with this cast, just so you know."

Scott D. Pierce covers television for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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