Real Housewives of Vancouver star boosts security after receiving threatening texts

I don't watch much reality TV (Pawn Stars and American Pickers are my guilty pleasures) but I understand the word reality probably should be in air quotes.

However, it looks like someone is confusing "reality" with reality when it comes to the Real Housewives of Vancouver.

One of the show's stars, Jody Claman, has gone to the police and hired bodyguards after receiving threatening text messages, apparently over her relationship with one of her fellow housewives, the Globe and Mail reports.

Claman, who owns a boutique in tony West Vancouver, is portrayed as the show's villain. The Globe says she received several text messages over a single day last month from someone describing themselves as "a very close friend" of her TV nemesis, Mary Zilba.

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"Your [sic] done! Enjoy you deserve everything coming your way lolol Sweetie crack heads have nothing to lose and can't wait to meet you," the first message said, according to the Globe, which obtained the texts from Claman's lawyer, Brian MacKay.

Another text read, in part: " Its [sic] terrible what u hear on the news these days about plastic covered garages ball pin hammers mutilated humans who would do such a thing .. Tying people up beating them then dropping their carnage off at the hosp.. Wow, I'd hate to be involved in any of that."

Another text message, sent the same night, read, in part: "The show can not protect you. I am in the REAL world and [this] behavior [sic] does not fly. Trust me. You will regret ever crossing her."

Claman would not explain what incident might have led to the nasty texts, apparently due to the series' confidentiality agreement, but confirmed she had reported the texts to police and has hired a bodyguard and driver.

"I was terrified," she she told the Globe. "I'm a big girl but I have a family and I have a five-year-old and this is just too out of the realm of a reality that I find normal. And that's what scared me. And I felt it was the responsibility of the producers to nip it in the bud and they called the RCMP."

Claman said police and the series production company tracked down the sender, who apologized for sending the threatening messages. But she's retaining her new security and said the messages implied the sender had gang connections, citing phrases such as "Do some research on my past no one talks to my friends this way."

MacKay said his client is really afraid but "I put more trust into the police, and certainly gang members aren't really interested in … cat fights."

Neither Lark Productions, which produces the show, nor West Vancouver police, would comment. MacKay told the Globe the phone where the texts originated belonged to a woman who is not one of the housewives but is also associated with reality TV.

That woman's publicist also refused to comment.

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Inevitably, I have to ask myself whether this is a ratings-driven publicity stunt. The first season of the show is over but its blog is reprising episode highlights in preparation for some "reunion" episodes.

But there's nothing about the threatening texts on the Real Housewives' Facebook page, where it might have been exploited, which suggests they weren't scripted.

But who knows these days what's real and what's not, especially on reality TV.