Kelly Ripa was noticeably absent from her morning talk show this morning avoiding the soon to be gone Michael Strahan and Real Housewives of Atlanta Phaedra Parks will be in court over a book on her and Apollo.
Kelly Ripa Pissed at Michael Strahan… Absent from Talk Show
We now know how a live talk show host throws a tantrum. Well, that’s what people are saying is happening with Kelly Ripa, being that she did not show up for her gig today on Live with Kelly and Michael. Ripa won’t be back until next Tuesday at the earliest.
Sources say, according to TMZ, her absence may be the first of many. Apparently, she was blindsided by Michael’s announcement and by blindsided I mean pissed. And by pissed I mean she was outraged. The source says that Kelly feels a certain kind of way because she wasn’t given any notice about her co-host’s departure.
The upset goes deeper than Kelly not knowing, though. The whole “Live” crew is reportedly mad with daddy Disney, who they say kept everyone in the dark as to the shift in personnel.
I guess it didn’t help the situation when Strahan, along with Ana Gasteyer, appeared on “Live” and tried to de-escalate the situation (I assume) by making light of his leaving.
“Good morning, everybody. Kelly is off today… Yes, I am leaving this show… I’m going to go over to GMA full time… Which is going to happen in September. And it’s the same channel… I’m always available to guest co-host because I consider myself to be a part of this family forever.”
This looks like a potentially messy situation.
Black Book Club Wins $11 Million Wine Train Discrimination Lawsuit
Remember the ladies who were kicked off of a Napa Valley wine train last year because they were “too loud?” Well, they filed a discrimination lawsuit and recently settled for a large sum of money; $11 million to be exact.
To refresh your memory about the situation, they ladies were asked to “quiet down” by a train employee because they were “offending other passengers.” When the train stopped in St. Helena, they were escorted through every passenger car by a police officer.
Since the incident, the story caught national attention for the nature of The Napa Valley Wine Train’s actions. The women have not been quiet about the treatment they received nor how it made them feel either.
Eleven black women and one white woman, members of the Sistahs of the Reading Edge Book Club came to the “amicable settlement” six months after filing the lawsuit.
“African-American adults are more likely to be shushed at, stared at, and kicked out of places where white people perceive that they do not fit…We hope that other businesses learn from this case and implement diversity and sensitivity training for employees,” said Waukeen McCoy, the group’s lawyer.
Now that’s a settlement.
Phaedra Parks Going to Court Over Husband’s “Business?”
It looks like we weren’t the only ones wondering about Phaedra Parks’ involvement (or lack thereof as she claims) in her husband Apollo Nida’s business dealings. She reportedly has been implicated in his federal criminal activities and is heading to court to answer for her part (if any).
She painted herself on the show as a humble wife and mother who had no idea her husband was involved in some pretty bad stuff. My question has always been how could she not know what he was doing, not even a little bit when she’s a lawyer… and his wife?
As the story goes, one of Apollo’s former “associates” Angela Stanton, says that Phaedra had knowledge and was heavily involved in forgery, theft, and other illegal activity. In her tell-all book, Lies of a Real Housewife: Tell The Truth & Shame The Devil, Stanton claims that Phaedra ran a scandalous enterprise with her husband and maintains that Phaedra is the actual mastermind behind everything. The crazy thing about it is I can believe that she was the brains of the operation. I mean, she knows the law and knows what to do and say. Stanton wrote,
“Phaedra was this crooked attorney who knew how to commit crimes against the federal government. She also knew how to get away. Phaedra Parks had studied the law extensively, and learned how to manipulate the cracks in the system.”
Parks filed a defamation suit, and Stanton countered. Phaedra is in court April 20th to try one last time to get the countersuit dismissed.
She recently wrapped up season eight of the Real Housewives of Atlanta in which we saw her take the next steps in resolving her marriage to Apollo, whom Stanton says went to jail for instead of his wife.