this past week she co-hosted the red carpet of the emmys on E!. it was great fun watching the annoying mr. jay get upstaged by nene. it was even more fun to watch nene not shift gears because of her new surroundings. she was as "refined" as she is on her 'real housewives.'
i could just imagine lisa wu and sheree eating chips and being totally annoyed that they were not on the carpet. i mean, they are the ones who know the fashion world. (if this is your first time reading my blog, i am being sarcastic.)
i was celebrating nene's keep it real success and then all of a sudden a flash of nell carter went through my mind. i guess it wasn't really nell carter. it was nell carter as her character in 'gimme a break.' big, loud, sassy. then the flashes kept coming...
monique (pre-"precious"), louisse beavers, effie white, etc.
ms. leakes falls into a long line archetypal mammy characters that america has fallen in love with. she's nurturing, even with kim's kids. she's loud, sassy and tells it like it is.
and i love it.
there's a part of me though, that wants to see lisa and sheree get their own little piece of the pie. for me, that would actually be a forward step. they are "soulful," but in a much different way than nene is. ironically, there success hampered by their chiseled features and silky hair. i root for them in the same way i root for aisha tyler. not everybody has the capacity to suck their teeth, roll their eyes and necks as nene and monique, but there's room for all of us right?
my gut tells me that sheree might actually have a better go of things if she embraced the gays. she's a bitch, has high cheekbones and created the BEST catch phrase of the year, "who gon'check me boo?" she could have a good three year run at pride festivals just off of the catchphrase alone.
all this nell carter talk has me wanting to bump my 'ain't misbehavin' soundtrack.
I guess thats a good way to reframe Nene. My only reference to her is this Season of the show, I never saw the first season.