Last week, I heard the men of "Real Housewives of Atlanta" are working on a spin-off show of their own.
Perhaps that's why they are working so hard to generate drama this season themselves.
Take Peter Thomas (Cynthia Bailey's hubby) and Gregg Leakes (Nene Leakes' husband).
Peter had gotten into NeNe's face a few episodes ago when NeNe acted like a jerk at Kenya Moore's fundraiser for her. At at the time, Gregg said nothing.
But now Gregg feels it's time to clear the air with Peter. He believes Peter was inappropriate going after NeNe, that if he had an issue, he should have just gone to Gregg.
Gregg says if he tries that again, Gregg might have to get in his face: "You not only disrespected my wife but you disrespected me."
He claims Peter came up to NeNe all crazy but in fact, NeNe heard Peter was upset and came up to him.
This argument devolves quickly into a verbal curse-fest and almost a physical altercation. Gregg has rarely gotten angry on the show so this behavior is highly unusual.
The women show up.
"You need to stay out of women's business," NeNe says to Peter. "You are causing problems. What we do as women are between us. You have to stop rolling with the women! You have to stop being a damn b****!"
There were a couple of other meaty story lines, too:
- Last week, we had a bit of a cliffhanger when Phaedra Parks walked in on Apollo Nida and Kenya Moore yappin' away - in a public setting. She looks tired and peeved. But before Phaedra has a chance to give Kenya some lip, NeNe and Porsha Stewart pop in and Phaedra decides to leave and go to bed. (Kenya, in last week's episode, wanted Apollo to apologize for spreading supposedly false rumors about her. He wasn't terribly apologetic and even said he could have slept with her if he could. Truth.)
Eventually, Kenya and Apollo shake hands and agree to be 'friends," whatever that means. Porsha and NeNe tell Apollo what he did was wrong. "I'm not a child. I don't need someone to hold my hand," Apollo says in his defense. "At the end of the day, I didn't do anything inappropriate."
"Apollo has to respect his significant other to get respect," NeNe says to the cameras.
Phaedra, away from Kenya, calls her a "wilted up whore... She's like 'Single Black Female.' I wish a shaman could invent her a man and give her a life."
Previously, Phaedra had explicitly told Apollo to not talk to Kenya outside her purview. He, the stubborn type, doesn't know that this is a pretty solid boundary she had set and an easy one for him to follow. He chose not to follow it because he has pride and a desire for independence. He's oddly willing to jeopardize the trust of his wife to make a point. Or something like that.
The next day, Phaedra explains to Apollo that there should be no "friendship" between him and Kenya, especially after that exercise video copycat nonsense and the inappropriate flirting. She doesn't trust Kenya. She had previously told Kenya to stay away from her man, which she ignored. "Once a snake, always a snake," Phaedra says.
He tries to make it up to her by holding her a surprise birthday party, where she is blindfolded and hits a pinata that is packed with condoms. (Amusing side notes: Gregg grabs several and pockets them. And Porsha hit the pinata so hard, she knocks down the top of the cake.)
The party appears to cheer Phaedra up.
Later, Kenya holds a "make up" session from that nasty couples night several episodes back. ("The one you f***ed up?" Peter cracks.)
Kenya has the ladies answer random provocative questions. Porsha says she likes he sex both rough and romantic and "older" lovers are better with the romantic because they're slower. NeNe, for whatever reason, takes exception to this and calls her comment 'ignorant," when in fact that was just her experience. NeNe later calls Kandi ignorant by asking if NeNe was menopausal in her 40s. Todd defends Kandi by saying NeNe is insulting in her delivery. NeNe is unapologetic.
Later, with the guys gone, Kenya confronts Phaedra. Phaedra says Kenya has crossed the line so may times, she has considering kicking the "dog****" out of her.
"I know you don't want to be my friend, but you can't speak for your husband," Kenya says.
"Home wrecker, really?" Phaedra says, then calls her a "manipulative, ratchet-type of chick" to her face. Phaedra has to be pretty peeved because she almost never insults people to their face. (Behind their back? All the time!)
"I never tried to f*** your husband," Kenya says.
"I don't trust you," Phaedra says. Kenya doesn't trust Phaedra either. They agree to end it at that.
As an aside, Porsha threw herself in the fray for a moment.
"This is a married couple's situation," Porsha says, noting that Kenya has never had one. So what does she know about boundaries?
So when Kenya repeats the claim that Porsha's marriage was arranged and she was Kordell's beard, Porsha just calls her a low-down, dirty liar. "You will never know the conviction of a wife," Porsha declares.
"Next time," Kenya advises, "don't get married for a check."
***
NeNe shuts down any conversation about Marlo Hampton, curiously absent from this trip to Mexico, despite Kenya's goading. Since Marlo became friends with Kenya, NeNe became oddly jealous. Kenya is not impressed with NeNe's shutdown because it's not NeNe "keeping it real." For once, I have to support Kenya on this one.
QUOTES
"Kenya and Apollo have Angelina and Brad's chemistry" - Miss Lawrence
"I don't do married ex-cons." - Kenya
TRAILER
Cynthia is really upset that NeNe called her husband the b word. Porsha wants higher billing in the play.
RATINGS
Last week's 18th episode of the season drew another solid 4.3 million viewers, above the season average of close to 3.9 million. The 18-49 rating of 2.0 is the same as that of the "American Idol" results show (which says as much about the fall of "Idol" among younger viewers as it says about the appeal of "RHOA.")
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