The Empress's New Clothes Self-proclaimed fashionista Sheree finally finds time to work on her clothing line. The plan is to design "sexy, beautiful, classy, elegant clothes for the masses," and she's hired a sketch artist, a publicist, a marketing coordinator, and a teenaged assistant (who apparently replaced the incompetent Evette Holyfield from the season opener), to help her achieve this goal. Since she has no experience actually constructing dresses, Sheree also hires a local business to sew the designs based on the sketches. Honestly, it's unclear how Sheree actually contributed to the clothing line other than financing it.
Everything seems to be falling in to place. She recruits two hunky male models (her "eye candy") for the line's quickly approaching viewing party, for which publicist Tiffany has compiled an A-list roster of guests including Atlanta's top athletes, socialites and politicians. The sketches look chic and elegant, and Sheree is excited for the launch of her line, She by Sheree. And then the samples arrive -- in a plastic bag, abandoned at her front door. When she pulls the dresses out, Sheree is shocked to find cheap buttons and elastic sewn into frumpy frocks. The dresses are the same colors as her sketches, but they're poorly constructed and cheaply made -- something you might find on clearance at K-Mart in the Atlanta suburbs, but not on the runway in Milan.
But the show must go on. After yelling at the parties responsible over the phone, Sheree determines that the viewing party will happen, and that guests will still get a taste for her talent thanks to the enlarged sketches displayed around the party. The guests are confused about the lack of fashions present at this fashion line launch party, but Sheree keeps her cool. To make sure do have something to talk about, she invites her almost-ex-husband, Bob Whitfield, to stir up some gossip. "What Bob did for me is he gave me a lot of motivation because he always tried to hold me down," she says. "It makes me feel good that I'm about to launch this clothing line without him and on my own."
Who's Your Daddy? All the planning for NeNe's Big Hat Brunch finally pays off when the ladies arrive in their floppy hats and fly dresses for brunch and mimosas and to raise funds for NeNe's charity, Twisted Hearts. As a former victim of domestic abuse, NeNe has set out to help other women escape abusive relationships. "Many moons ago I was involved in a domestic violence situation," she tells the assembled ladies, including pals DeShawn and Lisa. "I was trapped in a situation where I felt I had no identity. He made the money, I stayed home. And I was beaten and abused verbally, physically, even sexually. It was very, very difficult for me." NeNe's transparency made the fundraiser a success: she walked away with $19,200, just short of her $20,000 goal.
But there wasn't much time to celebrate the victory. Motivated by a letter from a family member claiming that Curtis (the man who had raised her as his daughter) was not really her father, NeNe heads to the DNA testing lab, Any Test (which appears to be located in a strip mall), and makes small talk with the lab technician. "Umm ... That's totally takin' off my lip gloss," she says, laughing, as her cheek is swabbed for DNA.NeNe is in for a shocker when the test results arrive 3-5 days later. With her family (husband Gregg and sons Brice and Brentt) assembled around the table, NeNe opens the envelope and discovers there is zero percent probability that Curtis is her father. "All these years my bond has been with Curtis," she tells her family. "Even though he wasn't like a great father, he always thought of me as his daughter, and I went to school in his name and he gave me away at our wedding. It's devastating after so many years."
Both of these storylines give the loudmouthed NeNe a healthy dose of humanity. Yes she's loud and outspoken and sometimes mean-spirited, but she also has a side that truly cares about others and wants to make a difference. But of course, that obnoxious side had to make an appearance, too. It always does when she's around her sassy gay boyfriend Dwight Eubanks, who shares his thoughts about Sheree's viewing party over pedicures: "You know what I call a fashion show with no fashions? Nothing."
Fashionably Late While Kim and Sheree continue to bond over their immaturity, NeNe seems to be spending more and more time with Lisa and DeShawn. But she remains just as catty. When she shows up at DeShawn's estate to discuss a potential sunset barbecue, she arrives to sparkling water served in wine glasses, but no lemon, which leads to this exchange:
NeNe: Water in the wine glass! DeShawn: Sorry about the lemon NeNe: Oh, DeShawn, don't worry, because I know you wouldn't know how to cut a lemon anyway. DeShawn: Well actually, I would know how to cut it, it's just -- NeNe: You wouldn't know where the knives were ...
DeShawn tells NeNe about her plans to invite all of the housewives over for a sunset barbecue, and she threatens to seat NeNe between Kim and Sheree if she doesn't behave. NeNe says she'll be cordial and nice, but she's "not gonna pretend to like either one of those b------." After a few quick phone calls, all of the ladies have confirmed. "It's time to bury the hatchet," Lisa says.
On the night of the barbecue NeNe and Gregg and Lisa and Ed show up for dinner, but as the sun sets, the group is left waiting for Sheree and Kim, who didn't want to come but also didn't feel the need to follow proper social rules and let the hostess know they wouldn't be attending. Instead, they decide to ignore DeShawn's phone calls. "I don't want to sit around with NeNe and eat chicken," Kim chuckles.
Sheree and Kim may have successfully avoided NeNe this week, but it looks they're going to be thrown together one last time in next week's season finale. -- Chris Willard
Tell us: Will there be a war of women when they meet again? Were you surprised Sheree and Kim didn't show up at DeShawn's dinner? What do you think of NeNe's emotional rollercoaster?Courtesy of Bravo
