Source: WENN

Real Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes and her seemingly massive ego has been a popular topic of conversation lately.  We’re not sure if it’s her blasé attitude or her need to constantly remind everyone how “rich” she is, but our girl appears to be rubbing folks the wrong way. Just last month rumors surfaced that the Glee star got all Hollywood during Bravo’s Upfronts and put up a fuss about posing with advertisers. During the premiere of Tyler Perry’s Peeples, former Miss USA, Kenya Moore chatted it up with HipHollywood about her co-star’s perceived growing ego and had quite a bit to say when she was asked about the difficulties of remaining humble while in the spotlight.

”What I’ve learned in my 20 years of being in the business, you have good years, you have bad years … you may do one movie one year, and none the next three years. That has a way of making you really humble,” Moore expressed.

“When you have a career, and you go through those ups and downs, it really teaches you that this is not guarantee.  You can see the same people going up as you will going down. So you just have to have a bit of humility and understand that you’re blessed to be in the situation that you’re in. And just hopefully, you’ll be able to continue to be blessed,” she continued.

Ironically, Kenya’s chat about humility and the inconsistency of the business came only days before it was announced that NBC canceled Leake’s show The New Normal.

Turn the page to check out footage from her interview. What are your thoughts on Kenya’s advice? Is she practicing the same philosophy she’s preaching about?

(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Looks like America’s (or at least Bravo’s) favorite housewife just lost a storyline. NeNe Leakes’ much talked about role on The New Normal has come to an end. NBC recently dropped the show due to low ratings. So what’s next for reality television’s biggest success story?

Leakes’ IMDb profile gives no hints of future work outside of her current gigs on Bravo and The New Normal creator Ryan Murphy’s hit show Glee. That’s not to say the outlook on NeNe’s career is bleak. Far from it.

According to OK! Magazine, Leakes is the highest paid housewife in Bravo’s history, grabbing a $1 million paycheck (plus bonuses) to appear on season 6 of Real Housewives of Atlanta. It’s unclear whether this figure includes her salary for her upcoming spinoff, I Dream of NeNe, chronicling her wedding with ex-husband Gregg Leakes. And Glee is set for two more seasons, though the scope of NeNe’s role in the series is unclear.

NeNe joined Housewives to advance her acting career. She’s succeeding in using the show as a launching pad. She is seen as the queen bee of the show’s revolving cast of women and a template for other reality stars to follow. But can she make her success last, or is she destined to be a pop culture footnote?

Ryan Murphy, whom she calls her fairy godmother, has been her sole co-sign in Hollywood. Her work with him is the only time we see NeNe not playing herself. And let’s be honest, even when she’s reciting a script, she’s still being sassy, neck-rolling NeNe.

NeNe’s one-note performances aren’t necessarily a weakness. You don’t have to be Viola Davis to have a successful acting career. Character actresses, performers who specialize in playing eccentric or unusual people rather than leading roles, are paying their rent every month. Shout out to Rosie Perez, Jenifer Lewis, and Loretta DeVine.

Love her or hate her, NeNe Leakes is an entertainer. Now is the time for her to prove she can hold her own without famous fans giving her gigs. Leakes is at a crossroads and there are a few roads she can take:

1. Tyler Perry Avenue. Outside Madea’s Christmas slated for the end of this year, Mr. Perry has been hanging up the dress in favor of giving other actresses a chance to bring boisterous characters to the screen. Atlanta is small. I’m sure NeNe can bring up her open schedule over cocktails. Or ask best buddy Kim Kardashian for his number.
2. Black Rom-Com Way. From Baggage Claim to The Best Man reboot, black romantic comedies are making a comeback. Ms. Leakes would fit right in as the mother-in-law, aunty, or sassy coworker. These things write themselves.
3. BET Boulevard. The cable network is surely feeling confident from successes in scripted television like Real House Husbands of Hollywood and The Game. NeNe might even be able to land her own show.
4. Token Drive. It’s 2013 and every network show needs a Black character, the sassier the better. NeNe’s proven more than once she can hold her own in an ensemble cast.

NeNe has a large fan base, sufficient talent, and enough star quality to keep pushing her acting career forward if she chooses. What do you think Ms. Leakes next move should be? Should she keep her house in Hollywood or stick to reality?

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C. Cleveland covers professional development topics and entrepreneurial rebels who blaze their own career paths. She explores these stories and more on The Red Read, Twitter (@CleveInTheCity) and Facebook (/MyReadIsRed).

Some celebrities just tower over the rest. Standing at 5 feet and 11 inches or more, these 15 women command attention whenever they walk into a room.

WENN

Model turned mogul Kimora Lee Simmons put her stature to good use. Standing at an even six feet, Simmons got her start in modeling early on. By the time she was ten years old, Simmons was 5 feet, 10 inches tall. Her mother enrolled her into modeling classes at the age of 11 and soon after Simmons found herself in Paris. Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, Simmons was picked on because of her ethnicity and height. The 37-year-old mother of three credits modeling with giving her the confidence that she has now: “[Modeling] was a real turning point for me because everything that people considered weird about me before, well, suddenly Karl Lagerfeld said it was OK. He’s one of the biggest names in fashion, so all of a sudden it gave me a validity and introduced me to a whole other world.”

Image Source: WENN.com

Well, this is actually a bit of a surprise.

As she continues to make her mark in Hollywood, Nene Leakes has hit a bit of a stumbling block: NBC has decided to cancel The New Normal after just once season. Nene has been part of the cast from the beginning.

This does come as a bit of a shock because not only had it received critical and fan acclaim, it wasn’t doing horribly in terms of ratings. The Huffington Post reports that while ratings did consistently drop, they maintained about 3.39 million viewers. Yes, it debuted to more than six million viewers but new shows almost always hit highs and lows.

Leakes played Rocky Rhoades, a former production assistant of one of the main characters, as well as all her family members when they popped up on the show.

While she is most likely very disappointed, Nene kept it very professional by tweeting:

Twitter

That’s right Nene, say all the right things because we know she’s a hustler and her next opportunity might be right around the corner.

For now, she still has her recurring role as “Coach Roz” on Fox’s Glee which has been renewed for another two seasons. We don’ t know if her character will be around that long but she can ride it until the wheels fall off. Plus, we know she isn’t going anywhere as HWIC (Head Wife In Charge) on Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Good luck to Nene and the entire cast as they make their next moves!

Source(s): Bravo, TooFab

A couple of days ago we reported on Real Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes’ appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, during which she dogged out her RHOA co-stars (past and present).The New Normal star had a lot to say about her former co-star Sheree Whitfield and was not above calling her former friend “evil” and a “b****.”

“Sheree is the one person, out of all of the girls, that I will never have anything else to do with. I think Sheree is very evil. I think she is very mean and she is a true b**** and that’s not cute. To be honest, Sheree and I had an argument before the cameras started rolling… I felt Sheree wasn’t being a good friend. She would always want information from you but she would never really tell me anything.  She never would tell me about stuff. She was super secretive and I hated that about her. Sheree just wasn’t a good friend and I just didn’t want her in my circle. I didn’t want anything to do with her,” NeNe said.

TooFab caught up with Sheree on the day the show aired and asked her what she thinks of the comments NeNe made about her. Sheree responded:

“That sounds like the pot calling the kettle black. But, I’m flattered that she’s still thinking about me so much. I haven’t been on the show in a year and she still has that much of me in her brain. I don’t think about her. I don’t talk about her. I think that’s sad, but I wish her the best in everything she does.”

When asked why she thinks NeNe has buried the hatchet with other housewives but continues to feud with her, Sheree offered a rather interesting response.

“We have a lot of history. I can say when someone knows your baggage and knows all of your dirt… it’s probably that. And I’m not afraid of her.”

Turn the page for footage from Sheree’s interview. What do you think of her response?

So now that NeNe Leakes is the highest paid of everyone in the Real Housewives franchise, she’s doing what she does best–throwing shade. The reality TV personality and actress showed up on Watch What Happens with Andy Cohen to dish on the different Housewives, including former star Sheree Whitfield (whom she called a b**ch), Lisa Vanderpump (saying she looked a little too thin these days, probably from Dancing With The Stars), and of course, Brandi Glanville, from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, who was married to actor Eddie Cibrian before he had an affair and left her for country singer LeAnn Rimes.

Leakes had a few words for Glanville, calling her a trainwreck and claiming that she opens her mouth to say things she should keep to herself way too often:

“Brandi’s just a train wreck. Just a wreck. She’s just off the chain, she’s off the hook with a lot of the things that she has to say, just so talkative…she thinks she’s a gangsta, or something. She thinks she can get in people’s faces and say whatever she wants to say. I like her when she’s not drinking. Brandi and drinks don’t work for me.”

Of course, word of her comments made their way to Glanville and she got in touch with RadarOnline.com to clear the air and to remind Leakes that “she doesn’t even know me.”

“It doesn’t affect me. She doesn’t even know me. If she wants to sit down and hang out with me and my boys and come have dinner, come on over. Get to know me first. Then she can say what she wants about me.”

“At the end of the day, at least she’s talking about me. It doesn’t matter if she’s saying good or bad, she’s talking about me.  And I am gangsta! Why can’t I be gangsta? Because I’m white, skinny and tall?!”

However, Glanville admits that the last time she ran into Leakes, she had too much too drink and might have said a few random things.

“I was totally tipsy…we were all just having fun. So I said I was gangsta. It’s NeNe…I could care less. I don’t know her. I enjoy her on the show and I think she’s really good TV, but as I was watching the show last night I felt like she was drinking her own kool-aid a little too much. It takes a village and we’re all in this together. Everyone on the show brings something different and they’re all important roles.”

But will they all be making $1 million for a season of Real Housewives? Me thinks not. But what do you think about what both women had to say? Was Leakes disrespectful, or is Glanville the one out here clowning?

Nene Leakes has never been one to mince words when it comes to telling how she feels about certain people, but every now and then the reality TV star and actress still catches us off guard with her straight-to-the-jugular comments about her “Real Housewives of Atlanta” cast mates, past and present. Sheree Whitfield is the latest victim of Nene’s tongue lashings after the “very rich b****” appeared on “Watch What Happens Live” with Andy Cohen Sunday night. Although Nene said initially she and Sheree “had a cool relationship,” her current relationship with the brains behind Chateau Sheree couldn’t be further from that. She told Andy of her former acquaintance:

“Sheree is the one person, out of all of the girls, that I will never have anything else to do with. I think Sheree is very evil. I think she is very mean and she is a true b**** and that’s not cute. To be honest, Sheree and I had an argument before the cameras started rolling… I felt Sheree wasn’t being a good friend. She would always want information from you but she would never really tell me anything.  She never would tell me about stuff. She was super secretive and I hated that about her. Sheree just wasn’t a good friend and I just didn’t want her in my circle. I didn’t want anything to do with her.”

Though during the same epiode Nene said that when Kim left the show she felt like the series wouldn’t be the same without her, she definitely didn’t feel the same way about Sheree leaving the RHOA franchise.

“Sheree needed to go,” Nene said. “Sheree brought a lot of negative energy to the cast. I felt like she brought this weird, negative energy every time she walked in. She only had business going on in her brain.”

Well, damn. Nene might not be lying about that last part though. Sheree is pretty much the only housewife with absolutely nothing going on, but I’m still trying to figure out how Nene got all this power when it comes to the show. Yes, she’s been a part of the cast since the beginning and is definitely one of the most entertaining cast members, but doesn’t just about everyone bring negative energy to the group? How did Nene become the be-all, end-all voice on who’s the worst cast member and who should stay or go? Andy must just be trying to keep his talent happy.

Source: Twitter

On Sunday night Bravo aired the Real Housewives of Atlanta: Secrets Revealed special, during which fans were offered an inside look at never-before-seen RHOA footage. As with any Real Housewives of Atlanta episode, drama was being stirred up. In one particular instance, Kenya Moore was the one who seemed to initiate the drama. The episode showed footage that was left out from Cynthia and Kenya’s golf outing that aired earlier this season. During the outing, Kenya told Cynthia that when she and Porsha first met, Porsha implied that there may have been something more than a platonic friendship shared between NeNe and Cynthia.

“When I first met Porsha, we talked about your friendship with NeNe. Well, she was gossiping like ‘they seem to have the most unnatural relationship between two women,’ almost like you two might be gay,” Kenya told Cynthia.

In another never-before-scene clip, Cynthia confronts Porsha about her alleged comments. Before even giving Porsha a chance to even fully confirm or deny having made the comments, clearly upset and taken back, Cynthia firmly tells Porsha not to even think about hinting around anything like that ever again.

 “Don’t ever make me feel like you are trying to insinuate anything like that!”

Cynthia also found it necessary to deny the rumors to fans via her Twitter page as well.

Cynthia appeared to be a bit more disturbed by the allegations than NeNe, who simply responded “I hang with the gays, but I ain’t gay.”

What do you think of Cynthia’s reaction? Could this be the real reason Cynthia fired Porsha as her Miss Renaissance Pageant assistant?

Source: WENN

Earlier this week rumors of an alleged prenup between Real Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes and ex-hubby-turned-fiancé Gregg Leakes began to circulate. According to reports, NeNe is demanding that Gregg sign prenup before they jump the broom (again) and Gregg isn’t too happy about it. During a recent interview with USA Today, the very rich Glee actress confirmed that there will a prenup signed prior to her upcoming nuptials and went on to express that she doesn’t really understand why people are making such a big deal about it.

“Yeah, I’m definitely going to have a prenup. I think any businessperson that is smart will have a prenup and that’s why I don’t even understand why people are talking about me having a prenup. I don’t really understand it. A lot of people have prenups, I don’t know why my situation is any different than anybody else’s.”

The New Normal star also revealed that the fabulous “couture” wedding gown that she’ll be exchanging vows in costs a grip.

“I’m going with something a lot different than I wore the first time. This dress is stupid expensive. It’s a big splurge, I could tell you that. It’s couture. “

We’ll all get a glimpse of NeNe saying “I do” in her “stupid expensive” dress in front of family, friends and her gang of reality TV bridesmaids when her wedding special I Dream of NeNe:The Wedding airs on Bravo this fall.

Turn the page to watch NeNe’s interview. Do you think people are making too much of a fuss over her decision to go the prenup route?

Source: WENN

This season of Real Housewives of Atlanta showed a very in love NeNe and Gregg taking the steps to show the world that their bond has only become tighter after officially divorcing in 2011. And this was proven when Gregg proposed to the burgeoning actress and reality TV queen a second time around (and she of course said yes). And now things seem to be going in a great direction. They’ve got their own reality show about the preparation of the wedding in the works (I Dream of Nene: The Wedding), NeNe received a huge raise for the next season of RHOA, and she’s already picked some of her bridesmaids, as we reported earlier today. But according to reports, before we can say the couple will be “happily ever after,” they’ve got to come to an agreement. Aka, somebody (Gregg) needs to sign a prenuptial agreement.  A family friend says they’re bumping heads about him signing one. The source had a lot to say.

According to Showbizspy.com:

“NeNe loves Gregg and hopes their marriage will last this time, but if it doesn’t work out she wants him to walk away only with what he’s bringing into it. She says she earned what she’s got by her­self, and is demanding Gregg sign a prenup or there won’t be a wedding.”

But according to the same source, Gregg is a bit disappointed that she would want him to sign a prenuptial agreement since he doesn’t think he has taken advantage of her in any way in the past to warrant such a move:

“He feels he has always supported NeNe. Their divorce was not about spending too much or stealing from her, so he doesn’t think he needs a piece of paper to show he won’t take advantage.”

But yet and still, NeNe doesn’t want to play the fool. “The prenup is not up for discussion. If Gregg doesn’t sign on the dotted line, NeNe won’t be saying ‘I do.”

Well, we will see about all that, because Leakes hasn’t confirmed or denied any of this information. But with all that she has going on and all the money she has been raking in recently, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea (especially since they have already divorced once). And since Gregg, a real estate investor and businessman, was struggling with his money not too long ago, it seems she just wants to take some precautions since she’ll clearly be the one bringing home a majority of the bacon. So what is a gal to do?

Do you think she should make him sign a prenuptial agreement before walking down the aisle with Gregg again?