Eva Levitis the oldest of the ‘Russian Dolls’ on Lifetime’s new reality series which follows families around Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood, is giving the younger women a run for their money. The 56 year old Russian immigrant and mother-n-law of one of the show’s ladies Marina, mother to her husband Michael, spent the first episode primping and practicing her belly dancing to compete in the local beauty pageant for grandmothers. And yes her daughter-n-law Marina was mortified during the show and grabbed the two kids and hubby and walked out in the middle.
Spoke to Eva and Marina who aside from all the chagrin have an amazing relationship and are a close-knit family. Did they have a good time filming and were they concerned about any of the negatives that can come out of doing Reality TV? “We loved it, had a great time. We’re getting used to it.” I feel like when you sign up for it, it will be good and bad. We have an amazing relationship, we are a very close-knit family. I think that if you look at any family there are always going to be disagreements between mother-n-law and daughter-n-law because of the different generations, different opinions and different ways that we were raised. These days are different than being raised in the old Soviet Union and there are a lot of difference and we understand that and were perfectly fine for this and I don’t think there’s going to be any problems. Over all I’m happy but it’s only two episodes so we’ll have to see.”
Added mother-n-law Eva, “I think this show will strengthen our relationship and make us understand each other more.”
Now back to mother-n-law Eva who’s single and looking to date. What does Eva look for in a man? The feisty doll said “I would like to meet intelligent person who likes to go to movies, someone I can talk with. I don’t mind younger man.” Everybody laughs. Chimes in Marina who sounds embarrassed again. “I don’t think she should be dating child, older better.”
And hows does Marina’s husband Michael who owns Brighton Beach’s mega club Rasputin feel about his mom’s dating situation? “He definitely does not want her dating younger guys. He wants to get a matchmaker who is a professional and have her find someone. Really, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with this and he wants me to handle it.”
Would Eva be open to dating someone not Russian? “Well for me I think it’s easier with a person who’s probably from the same area and same culture.”
Does Eva ever go to her son’s nightclub and look for men? “I go there to do bookkeeping and invoices.”
Perfect. Eva needs to keep an eye on the family money.
Check out these feisty ladies when Russian Dolls moves to their new time slot 11:30p ET Thursday’s on Lifetime Television.