The new faces on ‘The Real Housewives of New York City’

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If three’s a crowd, eight’s a soiree — a perfect fit for these Manhattan social butterflies. Bravo has announced that the third season of “The Real Housewives of New York City” will feature two new women. That’s right. Screen time for Bethenny, Jill, Ramona, LuAnn, Kelly, and Alex -- heck, even Simon! -- will have to be divided to make room for the newest faces of the popular franchise, which also includes Orange County, Atlanta, New Jersey and, now, Washington D.C.

Here’s a briefing on the newest ‘Housewives’:

-- Sonja Morgan, a single mother of a 9-year-old daughter, is a fixture in New York society and often finds herself hobnobbing with European royalty and first-rate designers. She’s modeled in Paris and Milan (watch out Kelly!) and worked for restaurants across the city as a consultant and manager. Morgan “loves art, decorating, gardening, skiing and visiting France every chance she gets — be it for her charity work or just for pleasure.”

-- Jennifer Gilbert, married with three children, owns and runs Save the Date, an event-planning company, and is co-owner of Portamee, a baby-carrier company. Impressive? Wait. There’s more. Ernst & Young named her entrepreneur of the year when she was 29. And she is a graduate of the Birthing of Giants program at MIT. [An earlier version of this post mistakenly referred to MIT as MIT University.]

Production has begun on the third season -- which is sure to feature more drama as even more women juggle their social calendars and their egos -- and is set to air in 2010.

-- Yvonne Villarreal

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