Juliet Brings the Party and the Fireworks

A Fourth of July party in London? Juliet Angus and Marissa Hermer don't see why not. I mean, I totally understand wanting to celebrate your heritage, but getting drunk with Brits in honor of America's independence from the Redcoats is kind of funny. As Caroline Stanbury cheekily pointed out during Monday night's episode of Ladies of London , “You’d have to be stupid not to see the irony in this." Even so, Caroline plays along. Annabelle Neilson, however, does not: She wears all black to the party because "for British, we’re in mourning. It’s our second Civil War.” Just keepin' it real. Annabelle COMMITS to being Annabelle. She is divine.

So, how’d the Fourth of July party turn out? Aside from a squabble sparked by lacy undergarments, it seemed like a nice time. The food looked delicious. It was probably the fanciest Fourth of July party I’ve ever seen (no grocery store bald eagle cakes or generic seedless hot dog buns at this shindig), but hey, like I’ve said before, no shame in their game.

Speaking of shame, Juliet should feel zero shame for that rousing rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. It was magnificent. She did me proud. I salute you, Juliet. Yes, my eyes turned into balls of fire when Marissa goaded Juliet into singing in front of everyone (that might be just me and my hatred of being put on the spot), but Juliet turned it out.

It was a little shaky at first, but Juliet warmed up. She got as silly with it as she needed to. And by the end, she was adding her own firework sound effects. (Okay, there's a chance those were cannon sound effects. Hm. I have to trust my gut, and my gut says they were fireworks.) If your friend asks you to sing a song in front of a gathering of people out of the blue, you either A) don't do it, or B) you commit and pepper the performance with your best firework impression. Juliet went with option B. It was brilliant. And I am mad that the performance in its entirety is not available on Bravo.com. Because I want to watch it again.

We'll just have to settle for this snippet (the very beginning of Juliet's performance starts after Marissa's toast):

The cast might've exchanged nervous glances before Juliet began, but how did the Brits feel about the performance? Did they say anything about it in their confessionals?

Caprice: “That is exactly why Brits make fun of Americans."

Annabelle: “More like The Star Strangled Banner."

Caroline: “I find Juliet refreshing. It’s very over the top, but it’s like car crash TV. You don’t want to watch, but you want to watch."

Yes, they were snarky, but it was the precise level of snarky I've come to expect from all of them. Anything less would be disingenuous. Ugh, I love them. All of them. What a perfect party.

OR SO I THOUGHT. After Juliet sat down, Annabelle said, “I now know the difference between being an American and being English.” Everyone went silent. The firework sound effects were long gone. A tension storm cloud rolled in. The fun was over. And within minutes, the undie drama commenced.

I closed my eyes and replayed Juliet’s rendition of The Star Spangled Banner in my mind. I had to escape to the land of the free and the song of the Juliet.

If you find the full performance online, please let me know. I need this.

Image: Bravo