PLUM Divas, Kandi of ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’, Tamar Braxton of ‘Braxton Family Values’, Evelyn Lozada of ‘Basketball Wives’ and Chrissy Lampkin of ‘Love & Hip Hop’ cover the June/July issue of VIBE’s Sexy Issue.
All of these women are Divas in their own right and I’m sure this was very interesting and candid interview because when you have four women who individually are overdramatic in their behavior [at least that’s all we see on tv] already, and then you group them together to discuss the state of their reality shows and the controversy surrounding each one, from it’s portrayal of women overall [especially our young ladies], the growing petition [by change.org and others] to boycott their shows [which many people believe has a negative impact] you can expect a whole lot of opinions and honesty from each one of these women.
Check out a few excerpts of their interview below:
Evelyn lozado on Star Jones “Enough Is Enough” petition that started on twitter following an episode where Evelyn was captured hurling across a table to attack her co-cast member/former friend Jennifer Williams.
Evelyn [laughs] I think she’s going to have to get a whole lot of names. Actually, I like the petition and I like the controversy because I’ve learned controversy is good. But I think she’s irrelevant. And she’s using our coattails to get relevant again. Nobody gives a f*ck about her!
Kandi shared sides with Evelyn and weighed her opinion on the matter:
She may not be violent, but I’m sure she goes off on people in her day-to-day. I just don’t think it’s fair to block somebody from getting money
Chrissy talked about the success [increase of ratings] of her show [Love & Hip Hop]and she’d expected it to grow so fast.
I knew when they put that punch and kick in the trailer that would catch people’s eye. People watch reality TV for train wrecks. People wanna excuse their own bulls— and tune into yours [….] was easily angered because I signed up for something that was supposed to be about girl power and women embracing each other in this crazy world of hip-hop. I thought it was gonna be more of a support thing instead of Gladiators
Chrissy point fingers at the producers saying that they are the orchestrators of it all.
They would always bring somebody to challenge me. I would knock ‘em down and they would bring somebody else. [The producers] would go as far as telling the new girl, ‘Chrissy thinks she’s Queen Bee around here so we need you to step up because nobody here has a strong enough personality. We need you to shut it down.’ They were feeding people this negative energy from the door. I have no reason to lie.
Kandi shared her personal success from being on Real Housewives Of Atlanta
Being a part of Housewives brought me so many opportunities that I would’ve never imagined. With the Kandi Factory spin-off, it was a dream of mine to be on one of those shows developing artists, and here it is, I [have] my own show.
When asked about wheter they feel their role models, Evelyn and Chrissy responded the following:
Evelyn: As a parent I didn’t raise my daughter to look up to somebody on TV as a role model. I want her to look up to her mother, her family as role models. Also, I have nieces who watch the show and love it. So I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place because I’m being me but now I’m coming to the realization that I can’t do… I wouldn’t want my nine-year-old watching this, but their parents do. So I said to myself recently, “Young girls are watching the show. I really need to check myself.” Before reality TV was what it was, I had full control over my daughter’s television because you never know what they’re showing. Every parent isn’t like that. It’s not for me to judge but we’re talking a lot about sex; sometimes there are sexy scenes. I think it’s a little inappropriate, but regardless, I don’t think children should be looking up to reality TV stars as role models.
Chrissy chimed in to say that she hopes that she has empowered women who watch the show.
I guess if somebody is afraid to speak their mind and wanna stand up for themselves, then yes. I want people to realize that they can have whatever they want. You can be respected in your relationship exactly the way you want to be. It’s up to you to go get it.