Hear No Evil
Terea Giudice thinks Strippergate has been blown way out of proportion.
To all my Jewish friends, L'Shanah Tovah! The kids are off school for Rosh Hashanah, and we enjoyed a long weekend together. We all went to the Sons of Italy Italian Feast and Carnival in Tappan, New York. I signed books while Joe took the kids on the rides. He outlasted them all except Milania -- she is like the Energizer Bunny! The kid is never tired! She tired us all out!
I see our visit made headlines again, and for such a ridiculous reason! Joe was playing with a little boy's toy gun and I told him, "Put it down before someone takes a picture of you with it! I can just imagine that headline!" Surprise, surprise, that was exactly the headline, that Joe "pointed a gun" at me. He didn't point it at me, but whatever. I guess I should embrace the publicity, but I don't think I'll ever get used to it. Ah Marone, what can you do?
My heart was racing all over again watching this week's episode. I think you can see I was sincerely uncomfortable at this strange guy trying to talk to me about Melissa's past. (We all know I'm no actress -- that's actually what finally got me fired from Celebrity Apprentice!) It was very weird because the guy Angelo didn't really do anything terrible, he wasn't rude or aggressive, so I couldn't really say anything more than I did. I think he really did think I knew about her past -- which I didn't, I still don't, and I, like the rest of America, don't care! -- and when he saw I was upset, he apologized right away. But I didn't want anything to do with anyone talking about my family, so I left (and I was downstairs, not just around the corner! I couldn't hear Angelo and Kim D. at all!). I even told Kim D. to shut the f--- up! (Sorry, Kim.) The whole situation just felt weird, so I took myself out of it. I can't keep track of all the people Melissa has pissed off in our town, but I am not going to be a part of it.
The one thing that does still sadden and confuse me is why my cast members, especially my own family, were back then and still are so ready to believe I would "set Melissa up." First of all, I don't play like that. For better or worse, what you see with me is what you get. I don't scheme and plot and try and twist people's minds and opinions about things. I don't bash people on Twitter, have my sisters and mothers and daughters pick fights with people on social media, I'm just not about that. You know who does that sort of thing. They always have and they always will. I yell and fight in person when I'm mad, but thankfully, that's rare. The rest of the time, I parent, I work, I write, I cook... I'm busy, I'm happy, and I enjoy my life! I wish the other ‘Wives would spend half as much time taking care of their kids as they do getting into fights on Twitter. We'd all be so much better off, don't you think?
Second, I have nothing to gain from exposing Melissa. She is my parent's only daughter-in-law, she goes by our family name "Gorga." Why would I want anything bad out there about a Gorga? She's my only brother's wife, the mother of my godson, and my daughter's godmother. She may not have any family loyalty toward me, but I have it toward her and I always will.
Until the day of the fashion show, I had never heard of this Angelo guy or even Lookers. (Sorry, I don't hang out in places like that and never worked in one. I worked at Macy's!) Just a week after the show in a taped interview, Angelo said the same thing: that he never met me before and I had nothing to do with it. You can read the transcribed interview with Angelo here.I'm just so over all of this backwards, made-up drama. (Whoever created the Alice in Wonderland picture with Andy as the Mad Hatter, I love love, love, it!) By this point last year, everyone in the cast knew that Melissa had definitely been in contact with Danielle and told her private things (lies, actually) about my family to try and purposefully and publicly bring me down. And it worked, since because of Melissa, Danielle knew just which buttons to push at the Season 2 Reunion. I reacted, flipped out, and almost flipped Andy. A terrible day I wish never happened. Thank you, Melissa!
When I found out -- by Danielle outing Melissa on WWHL, not by Melissa owning and admitting it -- I forgave her. I truly don't believe she would forgive me for something that evil, but I did forgive her. I didn't wait for a year to see how I would look on TV to forgive her. I did it right away. Yes, I wanted my family to be whole that bad!
What I don't understand is how Caroline and Jacqueline, who had their own family buttons pushed by Danielle, buttons that ended up in legal cases and drama with their children(!), think it's no big deal that Melissa was working with Danielle this whole time. I didn't get it, but OK... But then to pretend to be so disgusted and upset with a possible/fake/not really "set-up"? What? How screwed up are their priorities exactly?
I'm not gonna lie, I don't really see what the big deal is here. Someone Melissa used to work with said "hi" to her at a fashion show and then left. I don't know what his intentions were, if he thought it was funny, but seriously, big f---ing deal. She used to work at a bar, he worked there too, maybe she danced, maybe she wore a tank top, maybe she only stopped by to empty the trash on her way home from church. Who knows, but again, big deal. The Angelo guy didn't say anything bad to her, wasn't mean or violent, didn't have secret pictures to leak to the press, wasn't involved in a legal case with her... the whole thing was a big fat nothing. The entire scandal is that maybe Melissa danced? I'm sorry, but after all the hype, it doesn't even look like a set-up to me, more like a let-down. I have to say it again: big f---ing deal. Who cares if Melissa danced? As long as she doesn't plan on opening a car wash and recruiting my girls to work there, I don't care.The only thing that made any of this a big deal is the fact that Melissa freaked out, ran into the bathroom, and right away called my brother and said she'd been "set up." What? You'll see my face next week when everyone immediately jumps on the "Melissa was set up" train. I'm so confused. First, because I don't think the big incident was really that big a deal. I didn't like to hear it or be put in the middle of it in a creepy, unexpected way, but it was no ambush. (And I think I know ambush!) The guy said, "Hi, remember me?" and LEFT.
But conveniently the other Housewives, the ones with the matching blogs every week, came to the same exact conclusion right away: Teresa set Melissa up! What, what, and what? And again: what? It doesn't make sense for me to do, they had absolutely no proof, the guy himself denied I had anything to do with it, but the truth doesn't matter to them. They went on Twitter to talk about how they think I set Melissa up, they went to the press, and still, a year later, they're singing the same sad song. This is actually one instance when I'm so glad the cameras were there for the whole thing, because you see what I see. But the worst part is my brother, who wasn't there, doesn't see it. He believed their crazy story right away, still believes it I guess, and we haven't spoken for a year. In the end, who got what they wanted? Not me...
And thank you all for coming out and meeting me this week! I had an amazing time meeting you all at the Italian Festival, and was so honored to be able to attend the Eric Trump Foundation charity invitational, and the Cantor Fitzgerald Charity Day 2012 for NephCure.
For more information about these amazing charities, please visit their websites at:
http://www.erictrumpfoundation.com/
http://nephcure.org/home
And check out my Twitter @Teresa_Giudice and website www.teresagiudice.com for information about my next adventures, where to buy Fabellini and Milania hair care, and more!
Tanti Baci,
Teresa xx
