Shade of the Week: NeNe Leakes
It’s time for NaeNae to go bye-bye.
Has there ever been a full-time Housewife who’s missed as many episodes as NeNe Leakes has this season? The Rich Bitch is a glorified guest at this point in the season and in a time where Bravo is trying to phase out the Queen Bee mentality across the franchises, it isn’t looking good for her future on the show. To make matters worse, whenever NeNe does appear on screen, it’s just an overhyped 30-second scene of her talking about her spiritual journey with one of the three people who are willing to film with her: Kandi, Marlo and her “life coach” who’s really just being paid to listen to NeNe complain about her life and agree with her on everything.
The only time NeNe has actually been an “asset” this season was during the Toronto trip, but even then she only lasted 24 hours in the company of the other women. As unlikeable as NeNe is, when she’s in the mix fighting with the other women, the show is good, so if she stills wants to hold her Bravo job, she needs to have lunch with these women and show up every single week, or else they should just send her on her way. I don’t blame the producers for cutting her out of half the episodes this season, if she’s not involved in the group dynamic then we don’t need to waste our time checking in on her talking about how much she hates everyone in a dramatic wig. This isn’t Life of Leakes, it’s The Real Housewives of Atlanta, so act like it. You can’t be half pregnant, you’re either in it you’re out and at this point, it seems like the Rich Bitch is out.
I don’t give a flying fuck if NeNe leaves, in fact, I’d prefer it. NeNe started off as one of the most loveable, animated characters who everyone rooted for, however, after fame and money got to her head, inflated her ego and turned her into a raging narcissist, she’s basically become one of the most hated Housewives I can think of. NeNe is only friends with someone if their head is implanted firmly in her rectum and if not, she finds a reason to hate them and spend an entire season ignoring their existence until she decides she wants to be friends with them again. It’s boring, it’s tired and she needs to get out of her own fucking way.
The worst part about NeNe is that she doesn’t even try anymore. She used to light Kim, her wig and her cigarettes up like a Christmas tree during the early years, however, now when she “feels” like everyone is turning on her, she shuts down and just passively sits through the season and reunions doing absolutely nothing. The Rich Bitch is at her best when she’s friends with the majority of the cast but has an enemy that’s an easy target for her to yell at, whether it’s Kenya, Phaedra, Claudia, Porsha or literally any other cast member at a point in time, however, now the roles have reversed and NeNe is the ood man out.
If Vicki Gunvalson, Tamra Judge, Bethenny Frankel and Lisa Vanderpump are all no longer on Bravo, then it’s time NeNe goes the exact same way. If she’s going to participate at 30% then she’s more unnecessary than a silent letter. It didn’t have to be like this, for the majority of last season everyone loved NeNe but after she decided to get mad at all the ladies for petty things going into the reunion, she was on a deserted island that she built herself. Apart from the fact that she’s a generally horrible human being, there has been way too much Linnethia in the press lately, for my liking. Seriously, shut the fuck up and take a seat on your white couch, in your white house with white walls. If she’s struggling to find a storyline maybe she can hire an interior decorator to introduce her home to a color other than beige.
The one thing I like about NeNe is her relationship, or lack of one, with Kenya Moore. These two are the alphas of the Atlanta Housewives, so seeing them face off is like watching Mufasa and Scar fight it out to the death. They’re both fighting for the same position, however, with NeNe basically out of the picture she’s handing it to Miss Twirl on a silver mother fucking platter. NeNe hates Kenya more than she hates her natural hair, and even though she spits on her in an upcoming episode which is fucking disgusting, I can’t wait to see every frame of it.
Isn't it a coincidence that as soon as NeNe had no friends on the show, she suddenly became fast friends with Wendy Williams who she’s hated for years because her ego is too fragile to take a little criticism? If NeNe was still well-liked by her cast, and the fans, there’s no way she’d be lunching with Wendy in New York every week, however, she wants to turn her image around and getting Wendy to tell the world nice things about her every day will do just that. NeNe is using the talk show host for clout, relevancy and her PR skills. How did Wendy become her defacto spokesperson? Every single time a NeNe story breaks, Wendy has to call her up, get her side of it and tell the world. Can’t NeNe just send a tweet and skip the middle man? It makes no sense to me, but nothing really does these days with the Rich Bitch.
I love Wendy more than a fat kid loves cake, however, her “announcing” NeNe was quitting the show was a total publicity stunt. If you’re a fellow Wendy Watcher, you’d know that she loves to talk about her famous friends but always makes sure not to reveal any details about what they talk about. So why would she wake up one day and suddenly just announce such internet-breaking news, when she’s never told us anything else like that before.
It’s a PR dream, it gives her show publicity and in theory, garners sympathy for NeNe with fans tweeting about not wanting her to quit, which sends a message to Bravo that we need her on the show. However, I can’t recall seeing one nice tweet, Instagram comment or even a fucking telegram begging for NeNe to stay, so the plan didn’t really work and just makes it easier for Bravo to fire her, since it’s already out there that she wants to quit. In my mind, there’s no way she can come back for another season after the clusterfuck of a one she’s given us.
After Wendy announced to the world NeNe was leaving, she also said she’s going to share a “heartbreaking secret” about her life with us. Well, can she hurry it along because I’m losing patience? Unless Gregg is fathering another child, I’m not interested in this secret, so NeNe, her wig, and her latest nose can keep it. The Rich Bitch also decided to hire attorney Lisa Bloom after a string of bad press about her. I’m sure Lisa has bigger and better things to do than help Linnethia come across as a good person.
Between Yovanna coming out to claim NeNe lied about SnakeGate the entire time, to LoveBScott revealing NeNe was the one who leaked the article to the press, the Rich Bitch looks worse than Kim Zolciak’s season one face. She’s manipulating plots, leaking stories to the media, fighting with Andy over a dumb WWHL photo and just making things up to make Cynthia Bailey look bad. When those things start happening you know it’s time to hand in your peach and call it a fucking day.
