By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com, originally filed January 11, 2015
NeNe Leakes bumped the bee's nest that is Claudia Jordan and the swarm of verbal nastiness came out!
Claudia's spirited but entertaining pique on this Puerto Rico episode may be why she received full-cast membership on the show.
During a dinner with all the ladies, NeNe makes a sideways snide remark about Claudia kissing Kenya's butt and Claude calls her out on it, dubbing her needlessly "immature," "bitchy" and "catty."
NeNe is taken aback momentarily but don't worry: she has plenty of return ammunition: "You want to be the 'It" girl but you're not. You may have the 'I' but you're missing the 'T.' "
She mocks Claudia for being Kenya's lapdog.
But Claudia has a response: "From the woman who is the puppetmaster." (Think Cynthia Bailey before this season.)
"Just because I'm quiet doesn't mean I don't have that fire," Claudia tells the camera. "Bitch. I'm not a puppet! You're about to find out."
Then they start talking career. Claudia notes that NeNe's NBC show got cancelled. "The check didn't get cancelled," NeNe says. "You wish you had what I have in the bank."
Claudia says she pays her own bills and didn't need to be "on the pole."
NeNe defends her stripper past and the fact she went to college, a fact which surprises Claudia.
Then Claudia says NeNe looks 20 years older than her when they are only a few years apart. "When you were my age, you had edges," Claudia says.
(Kandi Burruss, in an aside; "She is reading NeNe like Hooked On Phonics!")
Claudia mocks NeNe's hair ("It looks like ramen noodles uncooked on her head!")
NeNe gets down and dirty: "You need to buy a new p***y," saying Claudia slept her way to many jobs in Hollywood.
"I may have slid down a pole to take care of my child," NeNe tells the Bravo cameras, "but I didn't slide on these men's [you know what.]"
After that, she calls Claudia "a half breed," followed by a "whore." Then she says Claudia's [a word I can't really use on this blog cos is about that "it" spot down there] has left your body."
The good news is this fight, while very high school, doesn't degenerate into ratchet yelling, twirling, cursing or whatnot.
Bravo teases that this argument will be continued next week.
***
Phaedra Parks in the meantime seems to projecting onto Demetria McKinney.
Her personal life is full of problems thanks to her shady husband so she decides to "shade" the newbie Demetria. At a music studio, she begins needlessly peppering Demetria with questions that imply Demetria
1) is too old to be a pop star
2) has been waiting too long to get married to Roger Bobb
3) and perhaps did crack because her "House of Payne" character was on crack.
Demetria takes understandable offense to all this but keeps her trap shut - until Puerto Rico.
Bravo requires these women go on trips together, one or two per season. Why? It forces them to be together and generates some Bravo-patented drama.The excuse for this trip: Demetria has a singing performance in Puerto Rico, funded by Roger Bobb, her boyfriend.
Demetria confronts Phaedra over her shady questions.
"I'm just being real," Phaedra says to the cameras. "Any woman who is secure with herself should appreciate the honesty."
When it comes to Demetria's likelihood of being a pop star, she says she is too old. "You're closer to 40 than 20," she tells Demetria. "I'm just being honest."
"I didn't want your opinion at that point," Demetria says.
They they delve into each other's relationships. Phaedra says she "could care less" about Roger Bobo, then wonders why Demetria brought up her dating life if she didn't want folks commenting on it.
Demetria says the only thing she and Phaedra have in common is the number eight, as in Phaedra's man is going to be in the clink for eight and she's been dating Roger (on and off) for eight. Shade times eight!
Cynthia tries to get Phaedra to apologize. But Phaedra doesn't really want to. What goes for an apology isn't really one. NeNe wonders why Cynthia is even getting in the middle of this since Cynthia wasn't there.
Moments later, the arguments segue into the Claudia-NeNe show, as noted earlier.
***
Gross-out moment of the night: Claudia Jordan's corns on her feet at the doc's office. Yikes! She will need surgery!
Ratings: Last week, the show had its season high of 3.4 million viewers. But that's still below the year-earlier episode's 3.8 million. So far this season, the show is average 3 million live viewers, down from 3.5 million season six.
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