Peach Buzz

New 'Housewife' is 'open-minded'

When "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" stars Kim Zolciak and Kandi Burruss popped by the Q100 studios Thursday morning to promote their joint birthday party Friday tonight at Aja in Buckhead, the drama wasn't far behind.

Still, for fans of the inexplicably popular Bravo reality series, it gave listeners an opportunity to get acquainted with Burruss, a former member of the 1990s R&B group Xscape and co-writer of the TLC hit single, "No Scrubs."

Burruss will join the cast when the show's second season premieres July 28.

So how did the singer-songwriter get talked into doing the weekly televised train wreck?

"I watched the first season and was a fan of the show," Burruss explained. "I went into it open-minded."

Naturally, Zolciak's memorably awful stints as a singer during the show's first season became a topic of conversation. Buzz readers will recall that Zolciak was shown on-air being mentored by Atlanta producer Dallas Austin and tutored by Atlanta vocal coach Jan Smith who later compared Zolciak's voice to an attractive house —- with a cracked foundation.

"It was an inaccurate portrayal," said Zolciak. "I saw [Jan Smith] a lot and I spent a lot of time in the studio with Dallas. They just aired the crazy footage."

The "Housewives' " public birthday party (with Bravo cameras in town, natch) is tonight at Aja in Buckhead. There's free admission before 10:30 p.m. After, there's a $20 admission. Go to www.kimandkandi.com to RSVP.

Marcus makes a splash on Twitter

Sure, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus was born 80 years ago this year. That doesn't mean you can't teach an old entrepreneur how to tweet.

On Thursday, on the Georgia Aquarium's Twitter page, the founder of the world's largest aquarium surprised the Twitter-verse by popping up on the social networking site for an informal Q&A session.

Among the newsy tidbits Marcus passed along: "Construction of the new dolphin exhibit is going great and on time, we'll be open in Nov. 2010."

Regarding a question from a Hoover, Ala., sixth-grade science teacher regarding free admission for school kids, Marcus responded: "100,000 kids come every year subsidized. No freebies, we need to pay the rent."

Of his first foray into tweeting, Marcus told followers before signing off: "I'm an old guy and only learning today how this works. Thanks for all the questions and the support, gotta go, but I'll be back."

Anoop in the ATL

AJC "American Idol" blogger Rodney Ho was busy multitasking Wednesday night at the Amos Lee concert at Variety Playhouse when he bumped into one of folks he's been covering all season.

Explains Ho: "I ran into [former "A.I." contestant] Anoop Desai by pure coincidence at the Variety Playhouse! He was waiting for a beer, hanging with some local friends here in Atlanta, almost exactly two weeks after he was eliminated from the show. I asked him if he had decided what he was going to sing during the tour. He wasn't sure.

"When I told him I had my laptop so I could live blog about the 'Idol' results, he asked me to inform him of the results."

Rodney reports that "Anoop Dawg" also showed up onstage for the finale with Amos Lee: a cover of Van Morrison's "Crazy Love."

Overscene

He's become a fixture of late on Atlanta's music scene and on Wednesday night, pop star Gavin DeGraw performed to a packed house at the W Hotel in Midtown.

"Y'all getting liquored up in here tonight," he called out to the crowd, which responded affirmatively.

"Good," he said, "the more liquored up you are, the better we sound."

The event, part of W's Wunderlust concert series, attracted folks who are seemingly at many of the hotel's party events, "'Real Housewives of Atlanta" NeNe Leakes and Lisa Wu Hartwell. Former "Bachelorette" DeAnna Pappas, "Real Housewives of New York" cast member Kelly Bensimon and Collective Soul's Dean Roland also turned out.

Celebrity Birthdays

Comedian Don Rickles is 83. Singer Toni Tennille is 69. Country singer Jack Blanchard is 67. Singer Gary Glitter is 65. Drummer Chris Frantz of Talking Heads is 58. Singer Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind and Fire) is 58. Drummer Alex Van Halen of Van Halen is 56. Actress Melissa Gilbert is 45. Singer Enrique Iglesias is 34.