Cindy Adams gets Real Housewives of New York City star Jill Zarin to open up in her column today, and she discovers that each of the cast members got paid only $8,000 for the first season. But next season, they'll be paid a bit more. "The first season I could about buy myself a Birkin bag," Zarin said. "Now I can buy the bag, get my hair done, and go on vacation." The fabrics guru said that producers had already talked to other socialites about joining the cast, too:

"I can tell you it was two months of negotiations, and I know they were warming up other possible ladies. Like, as a backup plan, they'd already done casting and audition tapes. I heard maybe architect Campion Platt's wife, Tatiana, and Jana Bullock, who's a social type, in case [chef] Bethenny Frankel, Countess LuAnn de Lesseps, [jewelry designer] Ramona Singer, all of whom I brought in, and that other one didn't come to terms."

"That other one"? Splendid. She's referring to Alex McCord, whom she apparently loathes.

"I do not speak to those two. First of all, he drinks too much. And is very insulting. And they are not invited to my July Fourth party in the Hamptons, which is very big and which is my fifth annual and which everybody wants to come to. She and I will keep doing the show, of course, but I will have nothing to do with her otherwise."

This next season cannot start soon enough.

THE REAL CATFIGHTS OF NYC [NYP]