This was posted Monday, January 9, 2017 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Peter Thomas knows if he wants to stay in "Real Housewives" is come up with a way to get some of the ladies up to Charlotte, where he lives now.
He decides to invite Kenya Moore to host his new Club One nightclub and also brings along Todd Tucker, Kandi Burruss' husband.
Kenya tells Cynthia Bailey, Peter's estranged wife, and says she will only go if Cynthia comes along. Of course, since this is "Real Housewives of Atlanta," Cynthia decides to "crash" the party and not tell Peter ahead of time.
They had seen each other exactly once in seven months as they plan a divorce. "It was extremely emotional," she said, when they reconnected. "It's so weird to be at Club One and seeing Peter, who looks really good, by the way."
He said he didn't invite her because he didn't want to feel like he was "trying to force something." She would have preferred he asked but she was okay with it.
Matt Jordan and Kenya are on a break after all the anger-related incidents of recent vintage. At first, when Peter asked if it was cool to fly Matt up, she said yes. Then she changed her mind and had his ticket cancelled. Matt was peeved, expressed his displeasure on social media and drove up instead. At first, she wasn't sure if she was going to appear at the event.
"She's nervous about him coming," Cynthia tells Peter given that the nature of Mat's messages to Kenya were threatening.
But she does end up showing up. Matt looks into Kenya's car window and the driver tries to close it. Matt smacks the driver. Not a good look.
"This is a point where you have to let it go," Cynthia tells Kenya.
Matt tells Peter he feels manipulated. "Walk away from this," Peter advises him.
It appears this is really over. The trailer shows him breaking more glass at her home and Kenya wanting to stay with Kandi.
But is it really over?
I saw them together a few weeks later at a Cynthia event holding hands.
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Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Johnie Winston III worked for Kandi for four years but was let go earlier in 2016. But she kept hiring him to help with event planning, including her fourth annual Bedroom Kandi convention for her consultants. (It's like a sex toy Mary Kay convention.)
He posted on social media right before the convention a picture of Kandi and him that included a line about being real vs. being fake. If you want to set off Kandi, you question her "realness."
Johnnie, at the convention, said he felt she could have been more straight with him when her manager DonJuan Clark fired him. "You have your side company. Whenever you get good and ready, you put your side business business ahead of me," she said. "It was business. It was DonJuan who was supposed to let you go."
He wished Kandi had done it. "I don't have to have extra conversations with you," Kandi said. "I'm f***** paying you every week." Then he questioned his pay. "If you accept the pay, you do what you're supposed to do," she said, noting that working with her was helping his event planning business.
Kandi to the cameras: "Who the hell does he think he's talking to you?" One thing is for sure. This is the last Kandi event he's doing.
Johnnie then goes to attorney Phaedra Parks to explore a lawsuit regarding his long hours without adequate overtime pay or benefits. "Slavery has been abolished for 150 years," she said. "They ain't running a 'factory.' They're running a plantation!"
He was also hurt when explored partnering with Kandi for a restaurant, then found out she was doing it without him.
"You have a great case," she said. But she said this is not her expertise and passed him on to another attorney. She also didn't want to get involved directly.
Indeed, in late October, more than two months after this episode was taped, Winston sued Burruss and her Kandi Koated Entertainment in late October, alleging she didn't pay him proper overtime pay for more than two years. (Details here.)
***
Since everyone else on the show is buying a new house, it seems, so is Porsha. She is trying to be the "new," less naive Porsha. (She eventually buys a new mansion in October. This episode was taped in August.)
While she's doing so, she is staying temporarily with her mom again. She has her boyfriend Todd visit "quietly." It's been ten years since they dated and she wants to see if they can "rekindle" the spark.
It seems to work.
They even throw the "love" word at each other, along with whipped cream.
***
Sheree Whitfield has tried a clothing line and acting. Neither stuck. Her latest venture: novelist!
She meets with publisher Selena James to plan one of those thinly veiled fictionalized "tell all" that include bits about her own life and those of her so-called "friends."
One of the fictionalized friends "Paris" is clearly NeNe Leakes. And a version of her ex-husband Bob Whitfield is included. He wants an advanced copy.
Sheree, who is in crazy good shape already, tries parkour with a trainer. This involves doing all sorts of gymnastic leaps and jumps over an urban environment. In a gym, it's an obstacle course. She brings Bob over to help him get into comparable shape. (He is clearly overweight.) The two of them struggle with the parkour but they appear to be getting along well.
TRAILER NEXT WEEK
Marlo Hampton pops up again and calls Kenya "NeNe Junior."
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