RHOA Season 3 Finale: High Drama/High Style

A million dollar dream wedding planned.  A couple of days before,  you dont have the cash to pay the bar tab.  No cash for wedding bans. Just months before you discover your fiancées business is failing taking your life savings with it.   Your close friends and family are suddenly not as excited as you about the pending nuptials  Your always supportive  sister and mother aren’t keen on this marriage and contemplate hiding your marriage license to prevent it from happening.

This was the centerpiece of  the final show ( Season 3) of The Real Housewives of Atlanta .  RHOA is the most successful show in the Housewives franchise and the highest rated reality show on Bravo.

Friendamees, Ne Ne Leakes and Kim Zolciak avoided each other at the wedding vowing never to speak to each other ever in life.    Mr Trouble de jour “Dwight ” attempts to make up with NeNe.   The newest Mommy  The Steel Magnolia “Phaedra Parks” tearfully returns to work.   Sheree Whitfield auditions for a  part in a movie and becomes the Diva we want to slap.  Finally Kandi  Burruss ‘s underlying  resentment toward Kim easies a bit as they agree to let the professionals hammer out the details on their music relationship.

BRAVO’S HOUSEWIVES FRANCHISE

Five upwardly wealthy woman

First it was the Housewives from Orange County(premiering in 06), then New York(4/08) , Atlanta(7/08), DC(5/10), finally Beverly Hills(10/10).

As we have seen in Real Housewives of DC ,NJ and BH real life  media events help propel the shows.   November 24,2009 cast member Michaele Salahi and her husband Tareq crashed the White House Party where they met President Obama and took pictures with Vice President Joe Biden 

Teresa Giudice (the famous table flipper from Patterson) who normally kept tens of thousands of dollars of cash in her purse and was known for her lavish spending.  Has filed for bankruptcy,she and her husband is 11 million in debt. Finally the hourly real life drama of Camille and Kelsey (Frasier) Grammer continues to play out in the media.   (This weeks rating of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills-Reunion show has exceeded Atlanta).

If I had to choose, my favorite franchises would be in order, Atlanta, NY,and NJ . Dc was a major yawn and one drama filled party wasn’t enough to keep me interested in BH, besides,those pulled overly made faces on BH is a bit too much.   The long running Orange County Blondes is pretty dull.

From Kelly Ripa to Anderson Cooper who gushes over NeNe Leakes, Atlanta is by far the most entertaining.   Real is the word people often use to describe Atlanta.      I think its simply the cast, people of color are often more raw, demonstrating more emotion, than you would find in Orange County and Ny.   When Teresa Guidice turned over the table in RHONJ it was on, this season you knew it was just a matter of time, before the woman (or a women) was going to jump on Danielle.  Dont mess with those NJ Italian girls.

Bravo, if your reading this (of course you are) people like spicy.   here are a couple of recommendations for future franchises.  Real Housewives of Miami-featuring Cuban and Puerto Rican women.   The Real Housewives of San Antonio featuring  Latin women.  The Real Housewives of  San Francisco featuring Asian women.

INSIDE RHOA(the cast)

Model/Actress Cynthia Bailey along with Pheadra Parks are the newcomers of the cast.    Before the drama with Peter, I didn’t think she was a fit for the cast (too nice) but the tightly wound Bailey with her friendship pact has some deep secrets.   Her new husband failures will be a big cloud over this new marriage.   Tapped out, her mother bailed them out for the bar tab at the wedding.  Will we find the couple living in public housing in season 4?

Pheadra Parks (The Steel Magnolia) is a perfect new cast member.  She thinks she’s all that, but her game is weak. She doesn’t have Sheree’s confidence.  An Attorney,she is  the managing partner for  Parks Group.   Her relationship with the truth is questionable from her childs due date, to her husbands record.   After hearing chatter about her child ,she went after what she thought was low hanging fruit, first Cynthia and later the “white girl” Kim.  Kim proved she was not the one!

Grammy winning ,writer,singer,record producer,Kandi Burress, joined RHOA last season.   She rewrote and  produced fellow cast member Kim Zolciak’s “Tardy for the Party”   the song reached number 3 on I-tunes dance charts.

The 34 year old  is the youngest cast member and the most focused housewife and the most grounded.   Last season, she was engaged to Ashley Jewell, her mother did not approve of  Mr Jewell due to his having six children with four different women.   The couple ended the relationship and remain friends.  Mr Jewell was killed outside an Atlanta strip club.   There are some who believe Kandi hasn’t fully recovered from his death and has thrown herself in to work.  Producing other acts.   Kandi  is currently  touring with Fantasia and Eric Benet.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNsPUZGqeSM&feature=related

Sheree Whitfield, After participation in one of the most memorable fights on TV season 2.   Miss Diva could be counted on starting something.  But this season she has been relatively silent.  The Diva’s ship is without direction, what happened to She by Sheree?  Her settlement from her ex former Atlanta Falcon Bob Whitfield was much less than she expected. She talks the talk, but we have often wondered if she could back it up.   Will she return next season hmmmm?

The Real Housewives of Atlanta originally was to be about five black housewives. Kim Zolciak was liked by the producers of the show and here she is.  The term “whatever” comes to mind when describing Kim.  She is a  feather, incredibly finding success where ever she lands.  She has an affair with a married man (Big Poppa) and does well.    She can’t sing, and has a mini hit, she has an short affair with a woman which makes the tabloids and sells more records .  She is a 42 year old women with the mind of a 2o something. ?With the exception of her children ,her appearance and her cigarettes, she doesn’t take life seriously.   Her attention span is that of a 12 year old.

Wanting to lose some weight, before the tour with Kandi.  Kim contacts some instant weight  Guru and invites her friends to join her…. This session cost 3000 for the session, which involves some lights.   As she is lying under the lights Kim orders a Pizza and soda.  (you gotta love her)

Black people don’t intimated Kim, as Phaedra discovered.  Yes I am a nurse!  Bam here’s the papers.  She gives  as  good as she gets.   Her approach to life is trying.   After her short lived lesbian affair she moved on to Atlanta Falcon Defensive End Kroy Biermann (25) and they are expecting a child this summer.

Kim and Nene are Friendamees , they need each other.   They keep it real and raw, every season they end their friendship vowing never to mention the others name ever again.

Nene Leakes, She’s loud, she’s brash, she will push over a table and choke you, it’s anyplace, anytime, anywhere for Nene.   She IS the personality ,people love her, people hate her and she keeps it real, she is the one you will talk about.   She’s raw takes no prisoners and makes no apologies.   Her realtionships resonates with millions from finding her father,  raising a rudderless 2o year old , her struggles with her husband.   When she was confronting her emotionless husband ,with tears in her eyes and said “You done me wrong!” you could feel it.  You can feel her struggle to hold on to her marriage after her husband publicly betrayed  her.     Can you imagine the show without her?    She will appear on the Celebrity Apprentice next month..

Season 3 RHOA reunion show is scheduled for Feb 13, 2o and this year Bravo is adding  :The Lost Footage Show on  Feb 27.  Check your guide for time.