The following is a very informative article printed in the NY Post (www.newyorkpost.com) on November 23, 2008 -- Good investigative reporting and answers to alot of questions...Read on:
"They're called "The Real Housewives of Atlanta." And although the Bravo reality series purports to depict elite Atlanta women, it turns out that these women aren't exactly high society - and they don't actually live in Atlanta.
In fact, two of the five stars aren't even housewives at all: Sheree Whitfield-who has hired a team of people to create a fashion line, "She by Sheree"-is the ex-wife of 15-year NFL veteran Bob Whitfield.
Wannabe country singer Kim Zolciak-who drinks white wine like a Hummer guzzles gas-is a divorcee who has a mysterious benefactor known as "Big Poppa."
So just who are these so-called elite members of Atlanta society? There's Zolciak, the cast's sole white member whose mystery man is a source of Internet intrigue.
Online gossip mongers have surmised that her sugar daddy could be a music industry icon like Quincy Jones or Sean Combs, hence her "friendship" with producer Dallas Austin.
The most prolific rumor, however, is that her sugar daddy is real-estate developer Lee Najjar-father of a member of the extended posse on MTV's reality show "The Hills," and very married.
Zolciak, as it turns out, is no stranger to scandal. As a teenager in Windsor Locks, Conn., she had a high-profile affair with a police sergeant, John MacDougald.
According to the Hartford Courant, Zolciak was "16 or 17" when the romance began and allegedly a witness in a criminal investigation at the time.
McDougald, a 25-year veteran of the police department, copped to the affair-but insisted that the relationship started after the case was closed.
The scandal helped touch off an internal investigation in the Windsor Locks police department-where allegations of secret tapings, sexual-assault charges and cover-ups flew.
The upshot of unleashing these skeletons in her closet? The Hartford Courant's reporting on the scandal, which unfolded in the summer of 1997, identified Zolciak's age as 19. That nearly proves Zolciak's seemingly ludicrous on-screen claim that she is 29 though, despite her onscreen Botox treatments, her detractors say she doesn't look a day over 40.
Zolciak's new BFF, Sheree Whitfield, knows something about the police, too: In 1989, when she was 19, Ohio native Whitfield-then known as Sheree Fuller-was arrested, twice, for theft, according to Cuyahoga County court records.
Then there's the matter of location. None of these women actually live in Atlanta. Those in the know say the real creme-de-la-creme of Atlanta live in Buckhead, a neighborhood that's home to high-end shops, the Governor's mansion, celebrities such as such as Elton John and Janet Jackson, as well as CEOs and high-powered businesspeople.
"It's the nicest residential neighborhood in the city, by far," says Ben Hirsh of the Hirsh Real Estate Group.
"Buckhead is ground zero for high society, old money and wealth," said Ryan Ward, principal of the Ryan Ward Group at Keller Williams Realty Consultants. Atlanta's northern suburbs-where all the wives live-boast money and mansions. But it's the south's equivalent of, say, Westchester-undoubtedly "comfortable," but lacking the prestige of Park Avenue.
"It's a totally different scene up there than it is down here," says Buckhead resident Missi Wolf, who served on the host committee for the 2007 Jeffrey Fashion Cares event-a major Atlanta fundraiser for the Atlanta AIDS Partnership Fund and the Susan G. Komen foundation, where Oscar de la Renta made an appearance.
"The athletes live up in the northern part of Atlanta. They're very cliquey. I don't mean that in a bad way; all the players stick together."
"It's a different thing," adds Wolf. "It's like watching 'Cribs' or looking at 'Architectural Digest.'"
Not that all the wives live in homes that are even "Cribs"-worthy. Bravo's claim that Zolciak lives in an "exclusive gated townhouse community" is debatable: Myers Park, the townhouse community in Duluth where she lives, currently has homes on the market in the $300,000 to $500,000 range. (According to property records, Zolciak paid $486,000 for her home in January 2006-though it was assessed at only $371,100 the following year.)
Deshawn Snow, wife of Cleveland Cavaliers captain Eric Snow, lives at the Manor Golf and Country Club, a new subdivision in Alpharetta, Ga.
"It's one of those places; it hasn't gone anywhere," says Ward. "They sold a bunch at first, about half. Of the couple hundred [homes] there, 37 are for sale. Many haven't been lived in; a lot are going into foreclosure."
But, hey, at least Snow has a luxurious roof over her head. Gwinnett County records show a man by the name of Gregory Leakes-troublemaker NeNe Leakes's hubby is a real-estate entrepreneur known as Gregg-as having been recently evicted from a rental house in Sugarloaf, the upscale Duluth community that Leakes, according to Bravo, calls home.
Public records show the house's owner to be someone named Shenaz Ali Kajani.
And, speaking of property, two of the wives-Snow and Lisa Wu Hartwell, the wife of NFL linebacker Ed Hartwell and ex-wife of crooner Keith Sweat-have dabbled in real estate, with limited results. According to the Atlanta Multiple Listing Service, Snow's firm, EDJ Realty, has never sold a home, nor does she have any current listings. Hartwell's firm, Hartwell and Associates, fares better: they have one sold home (in October), as well as three active listings.(It is possible, Ward cautions, that these firms have represented buyers in deals.)
Fortunately, though Snow employs a staff to do everything from furnish her house to cook, she has other hobbies to keep her busy, namely, the DeShawn Snow Foundation, which aims to empower adolescent girls.
On one episode, Snow announces the lofty goal of raising $1 million in one evening-something her fellow wives denounce as being unrealistic. Not so, says Lisa Senters, the vice president of sales for Marquis Jet, which offers flight times on the private NetJets fleet, and a fixture in Buckhead's charity scene.
"It's very interesting what people do here, in Buckhead," says Senters, a New Jersey native who lives in the Atlanta neighborhood of Brookhaven, next to Buckhead. "It's very charity-driven. It's knitted into the fiber of society here. That's what people do; that's how they spend their time."
Some events, says Senters, "raise $15 million in one night."
That may be an exaggeration, but earlier this month-despite the financial crisis-the Shepherd Center, a private Atlanta hospital that treats spinal and brain injuries, raised $775,000 in a single evening at its annual "Legendary Party," held at the Ritz-Carlton in Buckhead. Snow was publicly humiliated when her party fell far short of her goal-in fact, she raised less money than what it cost her to host the lavish soiree in her home.
Real Atlanta fundraisers draw the big bucks, sources say. In fact, Senters was so inspired by the generosity and the personalities of Buckhead's elites that she and co-created a television show, "Buckhead Bettyz"-a play on the oft-used term for the nabe's society women, "Buckhead betties."
The sitcom, which was under development with HBO, is currently on hold. Though Senters said she doesn't watch "Housewives," "Buckhead Bettyz" is "diametrically opposed" to the reality show. "Debutantes-they learn manners," she said.
And though the pissed-off-housewife-of-the-week may insist that their current enemy has badmouthed her to "everyone in Atlanta," it isn't true, insiders say. "If you came to Atlanta and asked a group of women in Atlanta [about them], they wouldn't have any idea who these women are," Wolf says. "
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