Last night TVOne premiered a new Reality TV series. Hollywood Divas is the actresses call to the R&B Divas franchise, and the first cast includes Moesha side-kick Countess Vaughn, Hustle & Flow-ho Paula Jai Parker, Girlfriends Golden Brooks, Real Housewives of Atlanta season one cast-off Lisa Wu and The Hughley’s TV mom Elise Neal.

Obviously, the show will be fueled by the issues in these women’s lives and they jumped right into the deep end filling us in on the private lives of these 5 divas. 

What’s Tea

We saw surprise appearances by other Black Hollywood divas like Shar Jackson and Diffr’nt Strokes child star Todd Bridges. The previews for upcoming episodes shows many other actresses looking for another shot at the limelight. It looks like this show will be a meal ticket for many, but hopefully this will literally put food on Paula’s table, as she revealed that she is now homeless.

Countess is having body image issues and is considering another liposuction surgery, against the suggestions of her castmates. I remember her being on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club season 3 a few years ago and she has definitely gained weight, but what’s more, she seems like weight is the least of her issues. She speaks very slowly now and her eyes say she’s tired— like, of life.

Elise Neal is now a 47-year-old performer looking to stay relevant and remind the industry that she is a multi-talented dancer, singer and actress. She’s working on her pre-Pussycat Dolls burlesque act Assorted Flavors.

The cast clearly hates Lisa Wu, which we saw in one of the final scene of the premier. She walked in and the room fell silent. Lisa is a beauty, and obviously some sort of threat as she’s attempting to break into industry as an actress to help support her family back in Atlanta. I can’t wait to see how she’ll attempt to gain respect because she was a little messy in Real Housewives series.

Golden seems to be the shadiest of them all, pointing out to Lisa how all the other women on the show have a long list of credits. but she seems like she’ll be the tell-it-like-it-is element of the bunch. After this episode I don’t think she was acting in the role of “Maya” on Girlfriends. By the way, what else has she done since? 

My Review

I have to be honest, I’m skeptical of this show’s authenticity. If it is public knowledge that reality shows are “guided,” and these women are actresses, how do we know that what we’re seeing is truly sincere? Within the first 14 minutes of the show three of the stars were shown crying. Hollywood Divas looks like it’s going to be drama on Molly– turnt up! I’m ashamed to say they pulled me in and I plan to follow the season. But check back with me in two-weeks, because that prediction is subject to change.

Hear from Elise Neal

Anyway, I caught up with actress Elise Neal this summer, and she says she’s proud of her representation on the show. She says that she was a little apprehensive about sharing her life on camera as she’s a private person, but feels she was a voice of reason and let producers know when she was tired of filming. Catch the full interview here.