Entertainment
Reel-ality TV Talk
By Marquesa LaDawn
NNPA Columnist
Before I discuss Part I of the big RHOA reunion , I need to talk about how they looked:
• Porsha – She’s a beautiful lady with a body any woman would kill for. Still, the look did not work at all. Why? Ill-fitting, strange and sort of desperate. The side boob did not work but I liked her makeup and hair.
• Kandi – It seemed too homemade, my girl has got bank, she just needs to look the part. Too much boob, it was overwhelming, she needed a better fit. The hair and makeup looked great.
• Kenya – I have to say, she looked hot! Although, her dress has been done by everybody. Her makeup was flawless.
• Phaedra – Old School look with a taste of country. I don’t think it worked. I heard one podcaster say, she wears appliances as jewelry. I think she dressed well most of the season, but not the reunion.
• Nene – One of her best looks! I loved her hair and jewelry. The suit fit her body very well. I was really proud of her look.
• Claudia – What happened to my favorite new housewife? She looked too simple, not splashy enough. I was bored to tears.
• Cynthia – The Farah Fawcett hair was my favorite of the night. From the waste up, she rocked it. From the waste down, not so much. I can appreciate an A-line skirt, it just looked odd with the top.
The reunion gets a C+ grade, mostly because of Nene’s favorite quote, “You are right, I am wrong.” Nene you were paid to do a job, bring it. You do not have to act crazy but we the fans expect you to participate. I have a feeling next week (Part 2) things will change.
At least, I hope they do for Porsha’s sake. She struggled with providing strong arguments and this challenge shined at the reunion. She could not justify making a statement about Peter cheating among many other not so gifted arguments. But, I must give her credit for outshining Demetria, as a minor housewife. She’s on the couch at the end and Demetria, isn’t.
Another standout this season, my girl Claudia. She’s mastered the perfect argument, which shut down Nene multiple times this season. At the reunion, she continued. Once you throw Kenya and Cynthia into the mix, the other ladies are powerless. Heck, I might as well add Kandi, she has a voice this reunion and it’s refreshing. She called Nene out on not being a good friend.
By the way, Kenya lost the argument trying to shame Porsha about her family history, (Porsha’s father was a historical figure in the Black community). She looked silly since she fights just as dirty. Come on Kenya, stop waiting for an apology regarding the fight last reunion; it’s not going to happen.
I can’t ignore Phaedra and the emotion she shows that a lot of folks do not believe. I get that she’s going through a hard time with her husband in prison, but keeping her boys away from their father is not a great decision.
On a positive note, the ladies looked great and it was entertaining, but I need more steam in Part 2.
There was a lot of steam in NYC – with The Real Housewives of New York.
The cougar thing continues, but fireworks are ahead because a rule being broken. You see, Carole is fooling around with Luanne’s niece ex-boyfriend of 20-something, who is part of the staff. The rule? You know it: Do not mess around with your friends’ staff.
Cougar town continued at Bethenny’s birthday party. I must admit, it got kinda weird. Between, Sonya’s young man and his young friend and Luanne’s young man, it was raining well, very young men. Bethenny not only danced on the tables, she excluded the other housewives, another rule broken, I think. You know B, she couldn’t care less. It was her birthday.
Later in the week, a few of the housewives met for lunch and Heather begins to tell B about Kristen’s feelings being hurt regarding not getting invited. B shut her down in the rudest way. She later admitted on her Bravo blog that she was a bit too harsh.
Another person who needs to own her rudeness is the new housewife, Dorinda. She treated her boyfriend like he was the bottom of her shoe, for, uh, giving an opinion. She was trying to justify keeping him away from her daughter who does not approve of their relationship. This same daughter, 20-something, called her mom’s boyfriend fat, though she didn’t seem too perfect herself.
In spite of all the drama, rudeness and broken rules, they are back and hotter than ever!
Before I go… A quick update on RHOBH star, Kim Richards… After running out of the room, her kids followed and forgot about the microphones. Her son admitted that she still drinks and makes pills. She was busted on live TV. The good news, she going to rehab.
Marquesa LaDawn is a professional businesswoman who escapes the pressures of living in New York City by retreating into the real world of reality TV. Follow me on twitter @realityshowgirl and subscribe to her podcast at www.RealitytvGirl.com.
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Oakland Post: Week of May 7 – 13, 2025
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Oakland Post: Week of April 30 – May 6, 2025
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 30 – May 6, 2025

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Arts and Culture
BOOK REVIEW: Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy
When Bridgett M. Davis was in college, her sister Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Author: Bridgett M. Davis, c.2025, Harper, $29.99, 367 Pages
Take care.
Do it because you want to stay well, upright, and away from illness. Eat right, swallow your vitamins and hydrate, keep good habits and hygiene, and cross your fingers. Take care as much as you can because, as in the new book, “Love, Rita” by Bridgett M. Davis, your well-being is sometimes out of your hands.
It was a family story told often: when Davis was born, her sister, Rita, then four years old, stormed up to her crying newborn sibling and said, ‘Shut your … mouth!’
Rita, says Davis, didn’t want a little sister then. She already had two big sisters and a neighbor who was somewhat of a “sister,” and this baby was an irritation. As Davis grew, the feeling was mutual, although she always knew that Rita loved her.
Over the years, the sisters tried many times not to fight — on their own and at the urging of their mother — and though division was ever present, it eased when Rita went to college. Davis was still in high school then, and she admired her big sister.
She eagerly devoured frequent letters sent to her in the mail, signed, “Love, Rita.”
When Davis was in college herself, Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.
First, they lost their father. Drugs then invaded the family and addiction stole two siblings. A sister and a young nephew were murdered in a domestic violence incident. Their mother was devastated; Rita’s lupus was an “added weight of her sorrow.”
After their mother died of colon cancer, Rita’s lupus took a turn for the worse.
“Did she even stand a chance?” Davis wrote in her journal.
“It just didn’t seem possible that she, someone so full of life, could die.”
Let’s start here: once you get past the prologue in “Love, Rita,” you may lose interest. Maybe.
Most of the stories that author Bridgett M. Davis shares are mildly interesting, nothing rare, mostly commonplace tales of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s with a sibling. There are a lot of these kinds of stories, and they tend to generally melt together. After about fifty pages of them, you might start to think about putting the book aside.
But don’t. Not quite yet.
In between those everyday tales, Davis occasionally writes about being an ailing Black woman in America, the incorrect assumptions made by doctors, the history of medical treatment for Black people (women in particular), attitudes, and mythologies. Those passages are now and then, interspersed, but worth scanning for.
This book is perhaps best for anyone with the patience for a slow-paced memoir, or anyone who loves a Black woman who’s ill or might be ill someday. If that’s you and you can read between the lines, then “Love, Rita” is a book to take in carefully.
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