NeNe Leakes who’s reportedly pulling in the highest salary of $750,000/season on The Real Housewives of Atlanta knows a thing or two about leveraging your personality for bigger paychecks. Certainly known for having a big mouth, the reality star can still pride herself in remaining non-violent during her four seasons on Real Housewives. As the conversations continue around VH1’s love-to-hate show Basketball Wives, NeNe had her few cents to add. During an interview with Vibe magazine she was asked,
I don’t know if you’ve been keeping track of Basketball Wives. What’s your take on whether it’s gotten out of hand?
“It’s gone way too far. The truth is the truth. It has just gone too far. Too many fights, my God! I can see if there was one here or there. And I always say to people when they say something about reality, you can say whatever y’all want about reality TV, Atlanta Housewives, we don’t do that. We definitely have had our verbal fights, but never physical fights.”
NeNe continued to echo what many viewers have grew tired of, “I can’t believe the fighting and the bullying. It looks bad. It really looks bad. I don’t like when people say it affects Black women or the Black community. I think it affects all communities. I think it looks bad on women; it looks bad on everybody. It’s just so sad; it’s so crazy to me. When I look at it, I just can’t believe it. And, you know, I’m friends with Jennifer [Williams] and she’s on Basketball Wives. I can’t believe it. I almost, you know when I watch, I’m like, “How much do they (get) paid?”
It’s no surprise that many reality stars, like NeNe, have used their respective shows as a platform to create more lucrative ventures – some are more successful than others (see the Kardashians). NeNe, with her experience to back her up, rightly claims that the behavior of the women, namely Evelyn Lozada and Tami Roman will hurt more than it will help,
“….And then I think about—they can’t want to do too much in their careers. A good ole argument, everybody likes that every now and then to tune into, but you couldn’t be trying to have too much in your career because that stuff, it don’t work. You can’t represent a product and be that way. That just doesn’t work. That’s one of the reasons when I’m sitting on my show, I’m thinking I’m just tired. Because at some point this can’t even help my future. You know, you would want to think that it would help your future.”
NeNe makes a few good points. Yes, Evelyn Lozada is releasing the first book out of her scheduled series but her show with Chad Ochocinco is already being boycotted with sponsors pulling out and if the first book tanks due to the backlash, a second will likely not follow.
What do you think of NeNe’s points on Basketball Wives?
