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From left: NeNe Leakes has blossomed into a bona fi de network televi- sion star, with recurring roles on Glee and The New Normal. This year Jennifer Hudson will get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Omarosa Manigault appeared in the
fi rst season of The Apprentice in 2004, and was catapulted into instant reality stardom. Everybody talked about Omarosa, and she became the “woman America loves to hate” (she claims the show’s producers really made her look bad). Even though Donald Trump fi red her, she was the real winner of that season. Since then, she has appeared in more than 20 reality shows, including Fear Factor, The Surreal Life, Girls Behaving Badly and her own reality show The Ultimate Merger. Even the Donald couldn’t get enough of
Manigault. He invited her back for Celebrity Apprentice, and she will be back again this year in an all-star edition of the show. In her real life, Manigault serves as an adjunct professor in the MBA program at Howard University Business School. In 2011, she received a Doctor of Ministry degree, and you can fi nd Reverend Omarosa preaching at the Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, where she serves a higher power than Donald Trump. Jennifer Hudson was another runner-up
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who made good. Hudson actually came in seventh on season 3 of American Idol. (What were they thinking?) Two years later she won the Academy Award for her fi lm debut in Dreamgirls, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award, A Golden Globe and an Image Award. Her fi rst album sold over a million copies and brought Hudson her fi rst Grammy Award for Best R&B Album in 2008. Since then, she has appeared in the Sex
and the City movie and in The Secret Life of Bees, and has guest-starred on the NBC series Smash. In 2009, she and fi ancé David Otunga, a professional wrestler and former reality star, welcomed their fi rst child. A year later she became a spokesperson for Weight Watchers and lost an incredible 80 pounds on the program. To go with that new fi gure, Hudson developed a fashion line for QVC. Her second album, I Remember Me, debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 165,000 copies in its fi rst week of release. And this year she will get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Take that, American Idol. NeNe Leakes is not only the “realest”
housewife in Atlanta, she has blossomed into a bona fi de network television star, with recurring roles on Glee and The New Normal. Leakes also had a shot on Celebrity Apprentice, but walked off the show after butting heads with fellow reality diva Star Jones. Leakes is now the mother of two sons,
living in the upscale suburb of Duluth, GA. She is the founder of the Twisted Hearts Foundation, an advocacy project to create awareness about domestic violence against women. The title of her autobiography says it all: Never Make the Same Mistake Twice. Let’s admit it: Right or wrong, we watch
reality shows because the plots, characters and subject matter are riveting. While there is much to criticize in reality TV, there is much to celebrate as lives have been transformed. At least we know now we don’t want to horde cats or wrestle alligators. That said, the reality of it is that reality TV has created some of our most memorable rags-to-riches success stories, and The NAACP Awards congratulates Friday’s nominees.
Watch the 44th NAACP IMAGE AWARDS Friday, February 1, at 8/7C on NBC
LEFT: GETTY IMAGES
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