There are few Bravo relationships that I understand less than that of Dolores Catania and her ex-husband, Frank Catania. The former married couple seem to now be a packaged deal on Real Housewives of New Jersey, despite being broken up for 20+ years. Of course, the two share two adult children together and I totally admire their friendship, even though they aren’t romantically involved. But their closeness is like nothing I’ve ever seen from a divorced couple. Frank has even said that he’s her soulmate.
Now it seems that Frank isn’t loving that Dolores has her attention elsewhere. At the RHONJ reunion, Frank took a little swipe at Dolores’ new boyfriend, Paul “Paulie” Connell. Frank said Paulie looked like the lovable spaceman Buzz Lightyear from the Disney movie Toy Story.
As reported by Page Six, Paulie seems to be taking it in stride. The Instagram account The Holy Bravo DM’d Paulie to ask him what he thought about the comparison. He replied, “I was kind of sad!! TBH. Now everyone knows I’m a real superhero.” Paulie also dished it out by posting a pic of Mr. Potato Head to his Instagram stories. He then tagged Frank and said that if he was “Buzz Connell” then Frank would be the other Toy Story character.
Even though Paulie laughed it off, Dolores wasn’t happy about the comment during the reunion. After Frank said it, she yelled at him,“You son of a bitch! You’re a f–king jerk-off.” Looks like Frank definitely hit a nerve there. Frank then tried to explain to reunion host Andy Cohen that he’s not too keen on Paulie. He stated, “Listen, me and Paulie don’t exactly see eye to eye. Paulie I don’t think understands mine and Dolores’ relationship.” Frank added, “Dolores is happy. That’s all that matters to me. But I get defensive of our relationship.”
Dolores responded, “Give it some time. Let us get established in our relationship so that he can be secure to meet you. We [Dolores and Frank] are a lot to handle, so understand that.” Frank went in for another jab and replied, “I 100 percent do … I just expected more from him because he’s a superhero.”
The former spouses recently discussed Paulie and had quite the differing viewpoints. Dolores gushed, “His name’s Paul Connell. He’s amazing. I admire him so much. He’s an awesome guy. He’s from Dublin, Ireland, so he’s not a Jersey guy.” Frank was less than enthused. He shared, “I’ve met him once. He was nice. [But] quite honestly, Dolores seems to be keeping him away from me. I seem to be hitting some walls. Because I think he has a little bit of an issue with me.” Dolores insisted, “They’ve met. I have no worries here.”
Regardless of what Frank thinks, Paulie is clearly smitten with his new lady. When he joined Dolores for a Zoom call with Page Six on May 11th, he had nothing but sweet things to say. Paulie said of Dolores, “What you see is what you get. There’s nothing put on with her. People ask me, like, ‘Hey, is the show real?’ I’m like, ‘It’s very real. That’s how honest she is.’” He concluded “She’s just a very genuine, good person, and it’s just nice to have somebody that supports you and has your back.”
TELL US – DO YOU THINK FRANK IS JEALOUS OF PAULIE? DOES PAULIE SEEM LIKE A GOOD GUY FOR DOLORES? WHO IS HOTTER – FRANK OR PAULIE?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
