Brandi Glanville Is The Smartest Reality TV Star

It might not always look like it, but being a reality TV star takes work. Just ask Brandi Glanville. Say what you want about The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Celebrity Apprentice star, but if you examine her career closely, you'll see that Brandi Glanville is actually the smartest reality TV star around.

Don't believe me? Brandi cashed in her very nasty and very public divorce with her husband of eight years, Eddie Cibrian, for reality TV gold. Obviously, her husband's affair with LeAnn Rimes before his marriage to Brandi was officially over back in 2009 would have made for tabloid fodder anyway. But after that, Brandi could have easily faded into obscurity.

Instead, she used that bit of drama and fame to her advantage by entering an area of show biz perfect for someone with that type of backstory: reality TV. And she's one of the most recognizable reality TV stars today. They do say the best revenge is success, after all.

However, Brandi's high-profile split from Eddie was only the beginning. The reason she's been able to become such a big star has been all her own doing. Listen up, all you aspiring reality TV stars out there. Just follow Brandi's lead, and you too can be the next person to be famous for being famous.

She's An Open Book

The thing about reality TV is that it puts a microscope on the lives of all of those who choose to participate. Theoretically, that means every aspect of your life is fair game for the camera. The highs, the lows, the offensive, the bizarre, everything. Some people aren't always prepared for this, so when the more unsavory aspects of their lives come out, they don't always handle it very well with cover-ups and non-apologies. But Brandi's not like that.

Nothing is off limits for her. She's never met a curse word she didn't like. She's not afraid to discuss her personal life, which includes bad-mouthing her ex and his current wife whenever she gets the chance, not to mention freely throwing shade at the other Housewives every time she breathes. Brandi owns who she is, and what you see on screen is pretty much what you get. No one can ever take her down for a scandal or a deep, dark secret, because she's probably already beat us to it.

She Knows How To Stay Relevant

Relevancy is the most important thing when you're on a reality show like RHOBH. When you've been on a series like this for a couple of seasons, it's easy for your drama to become resolved, which leaves you without a storyline and usually a pink slip from Andy Cohen. However, Brandi has been able to remain the center of attention for four seasons of RHOBH, which is pretty impressive.

If Brandi is constantly the source of the drama, you can't get rid of her, now can you? What's even more clever than just fighting with the other Housewives is that she always has shifting alliances. Brandi is friends with a cast member one second, and the next, she's dead to Brandi. This aids in turning the other Housewives against each other, too. Yes, Brandi is actually the brilliant puppet master of RHOBH, and you really can't help but watch her.

She's Taking Over Other Reality Shows

Brandi hasn't just confined herself to RHOBH and called it a day. She followed in the footsteps of the great Housewives before her, NeNe Leakes and Teresa Giudice, and starred on the current season of The Celebrity Apprentice. Unfortunately, Brandi was fired in last Monday night's episode, just shy of competing in the final task, but she gave it the old college try.

What's important here is that Brandi is diversifying her portfolio so she has the ability to participate in as many projects in the future as possible and keep her name and face out there. Let's face it. RHOBH isn't going to be around forever.

She's Awesome At Expanding Her Brand — And Promoting It

You can't be a Housewife without having a skin care line made out of the tears of newborns, or whatever these ladies are shilling these days. Brandi isn't too proud to plug her latest products either on RHOBH, but unlike many of the Housewives, they actually make sense for her overall brand. She's a New York Times best-selling author of two books of life lessons, Drinking & Tweeting and Drinking & Dating .

If you've watched RHOBH, you know why these are very appropriate titles. She also has a podcast called Brandi Glanville Unfiltered , where she's basically her usual trash-talking self but with special guests. Brandi has also promoted these other endeavors on episodes of RHOBH, smartly targeting the audience that would be interested in them in the first place.

Her Social Media Game Is On Point

Joining Twitter in 2009, Brandi was a somewhat early adopter of the social network among reality TV stars. To this day, she still shows them all who's boss. She knows how to use Twitter as a complement to her TV presence by promoting her latest projects, tweeting her thoughts on the latest episode of RHOBH, and picking an extra-episodic feud or 12.

At a time when reality TV and the Internet alike are turning regular people into stars, Brandi knows how to rule both screens.

Images: Nicole Weingart/Bravo; realitytvgifs/Tumblr (2)