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Posts tagged ‘john salley’

Basketball Wives Season 4 Reunion, Part 2, Recap and Review

(Disclaimer: I use profanity, so if you are offended by such language, please do not read. Oh, and the below contain spoilers, so if you plan to watch Basketball Wives Season 4 Reunion, Part 2, and don’t want to know what happened, do not read any further.)

Well, we are back for part 2 of the Basketball Wives, Season 4 reunion. We start the show off with a clip of Jennifer, backstage, having a polygraph test administered. Meanwhile, on the set, John Salley starts things off by “lightening” the mood with clips of Chad and Evelyn. Their storyline this season was their pending nuptials and general relationship issues. They show a video montage of their conversation about Twitter Hos, Chad’s birthday gift of a car, and Chad suggesting that they change things up during the ceremony with him walking down the aisle instead of the bride – They stopped short of him discussing whether or not it would be appropriate for him to wear a white dress when he is a confirmed ho, and whether or not ivory is really his color. I honestly don’t remember half of those clips, but maybe that is because their segments bore me to tears. No, I will NOT be watching their spinoff. I am positive said some canned shit about how wonderful their relationship is going, but I seriously forgot to pay attention.

Keeping in line with the theme of “romance,” John moves on to Royce, naming off all the “mens” she has been with since the show has been on the air. Dwayne, Brian and Desmond. Royce says that she and Desmond are “good” and they are still together. She says she decided to stay with him because it wasn’t the “right” time to walk away from the relationship. She is not going to make her decision on whether or not to stay with someone based upon what the public wants and she is staying with him for the things he does right, not the one thing he did wrong. I have a feeling it has been more than “one thing,” but whatever. It’s her choice to stay with him.

Next, they show the clip of Royce doing her ugly “cry” while she was arguing with her father. John says he’s a father and his daughter is in the audience. He tries to speak for Royce’s father, from his perspective, and I could not care less. He also calls his daughter a crybaby, which I am sure made her feel great.

“My daughter is here, and she’s a crybaby like you, as I call it,” said Salley.  “As a father, his job is to expect you to be great, and when you do things that aren’t, his job is to correct you.  There’s no reason to correct you if you were doing what you’re supposed to be doing.” -John Salley

To all of that, I say stfu.

But for real, where are the tears?

They end Royce’s little segment with showing a clip from Royce’s production that she had a role in. Apparently Kesha and Tami both have seen the play and thought she did a good job. John said that a compliment from someone who can act, like Tami, “says something.” ::rollseyes:: To her credit, I will say that Royce seems like she did an OK job. I mean, it seems the role she was playing was a stereotypical black chick. She was cute though.

After the break, they start in on the Tami and Kesha clips from Tahiti. They show the one where Kesha is coughing, where Tami said that Kesha couldn’t sit up front because her purse was right there, and finally the clips of her getting fucked up, taking shots and drinking before she goes in on, and straight up BULLY, Kesha.

John asks Tami if she was looking for Kesha to fight her back. Tami says no, that she was looking for Kesha to stand up for herself. She says all she has ever seen from Kesha is her talking behind people’s back and running away from confrontation. Kesha reiterates that she said she COULD have done these things, not that she wanted to. That’s cute. Kesha is expecting Tami to know what words mean.  Tami goes on to say Kesha, “If you want to go off on me, I’m going to give you a chance.” Kesha just has nothing to say to her and this is where Tami informs Kesha that she needs to live life according to Tami’s rule, which means that if you don’t want to talk to me, then don’t talk about me during interviews about the show, or to other cast mates. Thus spoke Queen Tami. Kesha says she hasn’t talked about Tami in months, but she regrets telling Suzie anything. Suzie gets her one moment to speak when she is going off on Kesha, claiming that she didn’t tell Tami anything, and that she refuses to take the blame for it. Tami, after thanking Suzie while in Tahiti, backs Suzie’s claim up and says that she didn’t tell her. Shaunie says that Suzie gets a bad rap. Hmmm, could it be because Suzie always has something to say and she’s always running back to tell people what others have told her? Geez, I don’t know! Could it be THAT?

It says a LOT that they had not one isolated thing to recap about Suzie this season. Not one thing. I think it’s time for you to get a life, dear Suzie. Being a town crier isn’t working out so well for you.

In the end, we just go over the same bullshit that has already been discussed into the ground. Tami only takes responsibility for not delivering her message properly and insists that she is not a bully. Now, this is the same – bitch, bitch, and mo bitch – who told Jennifer, during the very same taping, that she was a bully because she “intimidated” Ashley. Now, Jennifer didn’t make Ashley cry, nor tremble in fear, but somehow what Tami did was not bullying, but what Jennifer did was. Bitch don’t have one ounce of introspection. She still insists that she took Kesha’s items to do her a favor.

Kesha suggests that Tami reads her blog to gain some knowledge on what it means to be a bully, because she fits the traits A to Z. You can tell that it annoys Tami that the crowd claps when Kesha says this because she bristles as she says that Kesha is quick to try to make a person look bad. Kesha says that she doesn’t have to try to make Tami look bad, she does it herself. I consider that statement to be a fact.

Now, Tami claims that she went to Kesha’s room after everything died down to tell her that she didn’t mean to come at her the way that she did, and that the whole thing was over within 15 minutes. Kesha wouldn’t know that, of course, because she had already left. So, basically, Tami expected Kesha to hang around and hope that the next time she saw Tami, she wasn’t going to be a belligerent asshole. Oh, and I call bull on that 15 minutes thing. I also call bull on her going to Kesha’s room to talk to her and that Kesha had already packed and left by then – if we are going by that 15 minute time frame. We all saw her on the beach talking to Evelyn and Shaunie about it. It is just another tale Tami has weaved to try to make herself look better. But, like the weaves she wear on her head, it is an epic fail.

To wrap this all up, John asks Kesha if she regrets leaving early, and if she wishes she would have stayed.

“No, I didn’t feel safe. I just wanted to go home.”

That about sums it up.

Now it’s time to welcome Jen back to the stage, and I presume, get the lie detector test results.

Jen says she feels a little violated by taking the test, but it was OK.

Oh wait… we aren’t done with Tahiti. They show some more clips, Kenya and Evelyn’s confrontation. Evelyn and Jen’s arguments. Whatever.

Somehow, they manage to make the conversation about Jennifer and Nia again. Basically, both Shaunie and Evelyn are 100% against Jennifer exercising her rights to pursue charges against Nia.

Shaunie says, “We are talking about someone who was your friend. What she did was wrong, and we take it very serious, but I wouldn’t want to see any of you go to jail over a mistake. Maybe you go file a report to scare the hell out of someone, but you have proven your point. Why can’t you let it go?”

Jennifer says that it didn’t happen to them so how are they going to tell her what she should be doing. She brings up the fact that Nia was all on Twitter bragging about it, but NOW she wants to apologize to get Jennifer to get her to drop the charges. The apology doesn’t seem genuine to her. And, it’s NOT genuine Jennifer. Shaunie IMPLORES Jennifer to put herself in Nia’s shoes, and Jennifer said she would never hit someone like that, so she cannot put herself in her shoes. Come on, Jennifer! If you try hard enough, I am sure that you can get yourself to hoodrat level. Do you want to go through life knowing that you never even tried? What will you tell your children pets?

So after the break, they show Shaunie’s favorite moment from this season, and of course, it was when she surprised her daughter Mimi? with Mindless Behavior for her birthday. (fitting name for how these “women” have behaved this season) I gotta say, I like how John paused when he said he hadn’t seen Shaunie’s daughter since she was a little girl, and that she has gotten ((pause)) “taller.” Most people would say “bigger” in that instance, not ever meaning it in a bad way. So, I guess I give him credit for catching, in that moment, that some people would take it a bad way because of her size. It is always a shame when people make fun of people’s kids, and people do make fun of that little girl. Going to give her an eating disorder, leave the kids alone!

Anyway, Shaunie claims her kids come first  and that she thinks it is important that they show what their  lives are really about. They show the mammogram scenes next. Just another attempt to make it seem like this season was somewhat substantive.

Polygraph Test Results:

EVELYN

Question 1 – Do you believe Jennifer wrote the blog in question.

Answer – Yes

Result – True

Question 2 – Do you believe the charges Jennifer filed against Nia were premeditated?

Answer: Yes

Result – True

Question 3 – Do you miss your relationship with Jennifer?

Answer — No

Result – False

JENNIFER

Question— Are you jealous of Evelyn’s relationship with Chad?

Answer – No

Result — False

Question — Do you miss your relationship with Evelyn?

Answer – Yes

Result– True

Are they serious with this bullshit? First of all, what kind of question is, “Do you think Jennifer wrote her blog?” WE DON’T NEED A POLYGRAPH TO TELL US THAT SHIT! Shouldn’t the question have been to Jennifer? And, who really cares if Jennifer is jealous of Evelyn’s relationship? Who even knows if the results are accurate for that matter?

Shaunie goes into her, “I’m above all of the drama,” voice and states that life is too short, they’ve been through too much and it’s not worth it. I’m – SO – over Shaunie.

John then gets up and forces Jennifer and Evelyn to hug, and they do, and they cry ,and this all just looks like the most contrived bullshit I’ve seen on television in a long fucking time.

John sits back down and pats himself on the back as if he’s actually accomplished something. Riiight. Let me tell you something, you can weep for the past and the relationship you once had with someone, but it does NOT mean that you can just go back to the way things used to be. I’ve experienced this enough in my life to know that you can’t let the good times in the past cloud the judgment of your present.  I would keep someone like Evelyn at arm’s length.  Just remember how eager she was to let the world know you fuck dudes you don’t know without a condom. AND SHE WOULD DO IT AGAIN.

The show wraps up with John asking Shaunie about her meeting up with her spiritual leader. Of course, Shaunie could not just come out and say that she met with him because the show was getting so much negative feedback, so instead she pretended as if the pastor’s words resonated with her . She then proceeded to jump down the throat of the viewers for being “judgmental.” She says we don’t get to see everything and we take things so personally and that we don’t know them like that. Well DUH ho, ain’t that why you are an executive producer? You can’t tell me that there is not a way to edit the show to make you look more positive, IF YOU ARE BEING MORE POSITIVE! And do you really want to intimate that the viewers have no lives because we talk about the show negatively? You give us negativity. This means you are going to get negativity in return. Now, isn’t that just common sense?

In a last ditch effort to leave a positive impression on us, they pieced together every single positive clip they could find of the season to show us just how fun loving, lighthearted, and easygoing the women truly are. You know, beneath all of that backstabbing, bottle throwing, fish hiding, bullying we saw 98% of the time. ::sighs:: There went 10 seconds of my life I will never get back.

For all of the people who are trying to get this show off the air, there will be a season 5; and, I will be watching. I am curious to know just how the boycotts will affect their ratings, however. Sometimes boycotts have the exact opposite effect, which is why it makes more sense to simply stop watching a show you don’t like, versus drawing attention to it with national calls for boycotts. Besides, this is just “Reality” TV. There are more serious issues that need our energy! Obama/Biden 2012!

Well, that about does it for this recap. Thank you for reading. If you like what I have to say, please follow my blog and share with your friends. Ciao!

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Basketball Wives Season 4 Reunion Review, Part 1

CLICK HERE to read my Part 2 recap of the Basketball Wives Reunion.

To start the show off, we have clips from each of the women, from backstage, stating what their expectations are.

Royce: It can be a mess. I’m prepared for anything.

Kesha: I hope everyone can conduct themselves as ladies.

Kenya: (cheesing it up with wild eyes) I don’t know what to expect, this is my first time doing this!

Suzie: I am just expecting pure chaos.

Evelyn: I don’t know what to expect.

Tami: What you want to happen and what will probably happen are two different things. To be honest, I’ve been dreading this day.

Jennifer: I know there is going to be drama. I’m not excited about that. I want to be drama free.

Host John Salley is back to host the fourth season, Basketball Wives reunion. He welcomes us to a, “high speed chase down memory lane,” and goes around introducing each of the women, minus Jennifer. Shaunie gets the most applause. She must have her handlers in the audience “padding” them.

John explains that Jennifer is backstage, and would join them later. They have her up on a screen and he speaks to her briefly.

John starts things off with Evelyn. He hints at a surprise, to be revealed later in the show, suggesting the audience will be surprised. He goes on to express his shock at the level of animosity between Evelyn and Jennifer and wants to know if she thought that they would be able to clear things up during the reunion. Evelyn says that they have had plenty of time to resolve it, and it has not been resolved so far and probably won’t be.

John asks how Evelyn feels that Jennifer is backstage, and not on stage with them. Evelyn thinks that is best because a lot is going on, legally, and it has just become “something big.” She says that she and Jennifer will never be friends again.

John mentions the controversy surrounding this season, specifically in regards to the violence and Shaunie. Shaunie says that it has been a personal struggle for her since she is not one to fight. Not that she is perfect or anything. She admits to getting “out of character” at times, and seeing aspects of herself that she does not like.

Sidebar: Shaunie is a producer and she always seems hyperaware of how she appears on camera. It is like when someone decides to record a conversation with someone else without his or her knowledge. The person they speak to are candid and honest, while the person making the recording is reserved and measured. That is Shaunie.

Shaunie went on to say this season was bananas, and that there was more bad than good. Although there were mostly bad moments, there were also good moments such as Tami and Evelyn going to get their mammograms and her daughter’s birthday party. She acknowledges that the show needs more of a balance, with the good and bad, and “now” everyone is on the same page in that regards. To me, she made it sound as if she always wanted this balance, but no one else was on that page with her until this year when they received the negative backlash. At any rate, Shaunie says that they now have their act together. Amazing how that happened overnight.

Next, we are shown a video montage of Kesha and Kenya’s integration into the crew. We see Suzie and Evelyn watching Kenya’s horrible YouTube video; Kesha telling Kenya that she is not ready for Beyonce status, and how she does not want to be part of something that isn’t going to be done right; and, the confrontation between Kesha and Kenya (hosted by Evelyn and Tami) where Kenya pretended she was going to kick Kesha’s ass, and Kesha ran off.

John jokes that Kesha is fast and then asks Kenya if she feels that she is starting her singing career too late in life, and if she thinks it is realistic. Of course, she does. She says there are no limits on dreams. The age you are, the stage you are in life, does not determine what you can and cannot do. (Although I agree that there are exceptions to the rule; Kenya is not that exception. She has no discernible talent that I can see.) John asks Kesha if she has any words of wisdom to bestow upon Kenya at this point. Kesha and Kenya both say no. We all know that Kenya does not like hearing the truth!

It is Tami and Kesha’s turn and we are shown clips of Tami asking if Kesha is white; Kesha’s subsequent conversation with Evelyn regarding how she felt about the way that Tami asked her that; the Bitch, Bitch, and more Bitch dinner (with Kenya laughing like a cracked out hyena); Kesha’s “I could have said” clip; the clip of Tami going off on Kesha in Tahiti; and a clip with Kesha saying that she could see humanity in Evelyn and Shaunie, but there was nothing human about Tami. She says that Tami could not be nice, even if she was swimming in a pool of sugar.

After the video montage is over, John asked Tami what got her going about Kesha. Tami directed her comments towards Kesha and said that if she has something to say to her, she is open to hearing it. She went on to say that Kesha made things ugly between them with the way that she took her comments. John wants to know if it would have made a difference if Kesha would have went directly to her. Tami claims that it would have made a difference.  We all know that you cannot prove a negative, but we can find at least one example with someone going directly to Tami, and Tami still being sour about it and wanting to end the friendship– Royce!

Tami went on to say “my bad” regarding the “stuff” in Tahiti. She acknowledges that she was disrespectful and that she should not have gone off in that manner, that she should have been able to articulate herself the way that she was articulating herself in that moment. However, she is still not apologizing for her blatant hypocrisy for her message – that Kesha only talks about Tami to Tami.

John makes a comment about Tami’s anger management working; and I laughed. Does anyone think that this is anything more than an act from Tami? It was John’s way to segue into the clips with Tami at her therapy sessions. John asks Tami if she thinks therapy  is working. Tami says yes and that she is trying to deal with some deep-rooted things, but she is not trying to make excuses for her behavior because she takes responsibility for it, apologizing again for doing the wrong thing in Tahiti.

Now, we are moving on to Kenya’s comment about Evelyn being loose. We see the clip, with Kesha telling Evelyn what Kenya said; then the clip where Sakara cosigns Kesha; and clip of the bottle-throwing incident at dinner.

John asked Evelyn if she felt that she went too far with throwing the bottle.

Cue the violins.

Evelyn said, absolutely, it was the wrong thing to do. She said that if there was one moment in life that she could take back, it would be that one. (Really? Not that tragic glittering lime eyeshadow?)

Why you crying, though? John wants to know. Evelyn said that it’s because she’s not proud of that moment. She recounts a time that she was driving in the car with her stepdaughters and how they thought it was funny. “It’s not funny,” she says, “I need to set a better example.” But, WILL you set a better example? That is the question.

John offers her some tissue. Evelyn gave him that, “What, you mean for these fake tears?” look and said no.

The separation of Mean and Evil (Jennifer and Evelyn) is the next topic of discussion. We see a clip of their first argument of season 4, where Evelyn confronted Jennifer about the blog that Jen claims she did not write. Then we see the clip of Shaunie’s birthday party, when Evelyn hit Jennifer with her bag.

Before bringing Jen out, John asks Evelyn what happened and if it was really the blog that started it all. Evelyn said it started with the interview that Jennifer did. She went on to say that she is loyal to her friends and that she never talks about Jennifer’s business when giving interviews because it is not her place. “You’re my girl, I have your back. She didn’t respect me.”

John then asks Shaunie if she regretted inviting both Evelyn and Shaunie to her birthday dinner. She said she didn’t because she let them know that each would be there.

Now it’s time to see the Jennifer and Nia confrontation and “fight.” John wants to know if any of the women saw that coming, they all said no. Shaunie says it was a lot of tension, but they didn’t think it would escalate to that point.

John asks Evelyn why she felt the need to jump across the table like and “pop off.”

Evelyn, “Jennifer has the world thinking that Nia is just my assistance. Nia and Jen were friends, when Jen’s accounts were frozen; Nia let her stay with her.” She mentions that, even though Jen made the comment about Nia not having anything, she was still suing her and it’s for attention. She says that Jen waited for the show to air before filed charges. (This does not seem possible considering we see her telling Kenya that she, “do what the white people do,” and got her lawyers on it; and, we saw Evelyn reading the police report to Tami.)

Jennifer makes her dramatic entrance to join the rest of the cast. She has bodyguards nearby, you know, just in case. We see Evelyn “calming her nerves” and taking a deep breath as Jennifer takes her seat.

John asks Jennifer if it feels strange keeping her distance from the group. Jen said no, and that it is what it is. At which point the audience reacted in a very over the top way. It was so over the top that I have to say that that was not their reaction to what she said, at all.

Jennifer wants to set the record straight about Nia. She says that they stayed at each other’s homes, that when Nia was in Miami, she stayed at Jennifer’s place, and when Jen was in New York, she stayed at Nia’s place. She goes on to say that if she really needed somewhere to stay, she could have lived with her mother. With this bit of context, Evelyn chimes in to say that, since Jennifer did not have a car at the time, she stayed with Nia so they could go out during the week. Now, didn’t Evelyn and Nia act as if Jennifer would have been on the streets, dumpster diving and shopping at the Goodwill, if it were not for Nia being there to play captain save-a-ho?

John makes an ignorant comment about Harlem being nice now, since white people live there. Seriously, I have lived in nice, low/no-crime BLACK neighborhoods all of my life. (I’m 33) It annoys me when people imply that black people can’t live in places like this – especially when it’s OTHER black people. But, I digress.

Jennifer claims that she does not have an issue with Nia, but it was her right to file the police report. She corrected Evelyn, saying that she filed the police report the same day and met with the state’s attorney’s office. She says that her lawyers could attest to that. Jennifer does concede that it was below the belt to go in on Nia about her financial status, but after she got smacked she was upset and said those things in anger.

To me, John has been hostile with Jennifer the entire time she has been out there. I get the sense that he really does not like her and when he questioned her about why she didn’t file a report against Eric, he sort of confirmed it for me. John pretty much calls Jen a hypocrite and says that it was a double standard, that she did not go after Eric in the way that she is going after Nia, legally speaking. Jennifer says that Eric threw a drink at her, and pretty much it wasn’t the same thing. John says that the glass hit Jen’s chin, which I don’t recall seeing. Clearly, Eric’s intent wasn’t to hit her, however. His intent was to look like a little bitch in front of millions of viewers humiliate Jen, but not physically fight her in the way that Nia wanted to physically fight her. In the end, Jennifer says that it is because Eric is her husband.

It’s time for Tami to jump in with her unsolicited advice.

“I just want you to be consistent and be an advocate for things all the way through. I have witnessed you bully Ashley Walker and she didn’t come back after that. And, now, you are saying you don’t want to be bullied. Acknowledge and admit what you’ve been a part of.”

Seriously? Is this Tami talking? Did I fall down and bump my head? Did someone shoot me up with crack? Meth? Whiteout?

Jennifer said that she doesn’t feel as if she bullied Ashley.

No, for real for real, am I fucking hallucinating? Tami is sitting there trying to explain bullying to Jennifer.  She is saying that, since Jennifer “intimidated” Ashley, it was a form of bullying.

Jennifer reiterates that she didn’t consider it bullying and that she doesn’t feel like she was being intimidating. All of the women, who were there at the time, including Royce, said that Ashley was intimidated.  Shaunie jumps in to say that Jennifer never apologizes for the things that she does. John asks Jennifer if she could say sorry for the blog. Jennifer gave one of those, “if I hurt you,” apologies that I never take seriously, but she managed to get the crowd to give her an applause anyway.

Jennifer goes on to say that she doesn’t apologize for progressing in life and Shaunie says that they all want to see each other grow, whether it is with Jennifer’s lip gloss line, or Tami’s failed, nonstarter hair weave line. Shaunie whines about how hard it is to remain friends, while being on a reality show, because you have to be so careful about what you say hurting someone’s feelings. She says that she thinks being on the show is what ruined Jennifer and Evelyn’s friendship. John said he disagreed, that it would have happened without the show because he does not go two days without talking to his best friend. Jennifer and Evelyn went months at a time without talking. Does anyone really care what John does?

Jennifer tries to explain her withdrawal from the group, saying that dealing with her divorce to Eric was a new situation for her. She said she took a step back from everyone because she had to deal with many things. Like, figuring out how to change a light bulb and how she was going to earn a living. She said that she did try to call Evelyn, and emailed her a few times, but she never responded.

Evelyn says that, back when Jennifer and Nia were still friends, Nia told Jennifer that Evelyn had a problem with her and the time that she reached out to Jennifer, Jennifer said she was busy. They were forced to talk about what was going on, for the show, which is why they ended up discussing it.

So, the big surprise ended up being that Evelyn took a polygraph test. John tells Jennifer she is next, and Jen says that she is game. We won’t know the results until next week.

I watched the clip for part 2 of the reunion, but was done when I saw the same Tami, who told Jennifer earlier that she was bullying Ashley because she was intimidating her, go in on Kesha saying that Kesha “felt she was bullied because she doesn’t know how to speak up for herself.”

People can keep thinking that Tami is actually changing, but I have yet to see any such evidence. Going on the Wendy Williams show and trying to squeeze out of couple of tears, and talking a good game, doesn’t mean that she has changed. 

Well, that’s it for this recap. I hope you enjoyed it.

See you next week!

Something Extra:

Kenya Bell released a “diss record” today, and I am sure that it is purely a coincidence that she did so the day of the much-awaited Basketball Wives reunion. The song, produced by Jazze Pha, is entitled, “Hate Me.” It is heavily auto-tuned and is nothing special. I tried listening to it once to get the gist of the lyrics, but it was extremely difficult. Listen at your own risk!

Here is what I managed to grab of the lyrics:

“I can’t stand that ho,” repeated over and over and over again

“When I pull up in my whip it’s like a video.”

“Them bitches hate me, they make me famous though.”

“If you think you can stop me then yous a silly ho.”

Bitch.Stop

This song is a repetitive, hot mess. The fact that they had to auto-tune her vocals to within an inch of its life displays that she cannot sing. The lack of creative lyrics displays that she cannot write. Her YouTube video displays that she cannot dance. Her tired, cheap wet and wavy weave displays that she cannot style her hair. The fact that she failed to mention one woman directly, or even indirectly, displays that she doesn’t know how to do a “diss record.” Can someone please tell me? Just tell me, please… Moving on.

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