Atlanta's Sunday Paper Names Kim Zolciak of the Real Housewives of Atlanta 2008 Person of the Year!

Atlanta's Sunday Paper www.sundaypaper.com has named the infamous Kimberly Zolciak one of its Person of the Year 2008 for a year when there was no comic relief at all!!

“The Real Housewives of Atlanta” delivered the channel Bravo one of its biggest hits in recent memory, averaging 1.3 million viewers per episode to rack up the network’s best freshman series numbers since “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” in 2003. And it gave Atlanta a watercooler bonanza, with plenty of petty squabbles (NeNe Leakes’ rivalry with imperious diva Sheree Whitfield) and conspicuous consumption. But the most vital component of the show’s success was Kim Zolciak, the single mother of two whose relationship with a mysterious sugar daddy known only as “Big Poppa” sparked equal amounts of gossipy speculation and exasperation.Leakes may have emerged as the show’s breakout star (and tabloid fixture, given her recent housing troubles), but it was Kim who kept us talking—and rolling our eyes. Who could forget her tacky wardrobe change in a gas station parking lot in the first episode? Her straight-faced assertion that she was 29 years old? Her sharing a bed with her two daughters way beyond the appropriate cut-off age? And let’s not forget her, shall we say, ambitious country-music aspirations. How bad was her singing? After appearing on the show to offer advice, super-producer Dallas Austin publicly distanced himself from Zolciak, setting the record straight that he is not working with her on an album. Kim’s mix of covetousness, connivance and cluelessness even drove the normally collected Lisa Wu Hartwell to rip into her castmate during the show’s reunion special. Earlier this month, Bravo picked up the Atlanta “Housewives” for a second season. If they’re smart, the network brass will make securing Zolciak’s return their top priority.—K.F.M."