Last week, on Part 1 of the The Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 12 Reunion, Teresa Giudice insulted her brother.
She repeatedly demeaned Joe Gorga until he stormed off of the stage, declaring that he was quitting.
On Part 2, in the immediate aftermath of that, Andy Cohen all but ordered Teresa to go make nice with Joe.
She didn’t exactly do a great job on her own, so Andy stepped in again.
Perhaps some people would like to be called a “bitch boy” who is “like a Housewife” for getting involved with ongoing drama.
Joe Gorga is not one of them.
Despite Teresa’s claim that she was “not putting him down,” no one else actually believed that.
“Well, you did just put him down,” Andy countered.
He told Teresa: “You’re demeaning him by saying, ‘What are you even doing here? You’re in the women’s drama.'”
Andy then all but ordered Teresa to make things right before Andy and the show — and Teresa herself — lose Joe forever.
“He’s my baby brother, I’ve always kissed his ass. This is why he’s used to it,” Teresa claimed.
“Okay, good,” Andy replied. “Well, go kiss his ass some more.”
Teresa followed Joe backstage, but the two did not agree — with Teresa insisting upon a double standard where Luis Ruelas is free to speak but Joe is not.
“That’s not the same!” Teresa loudly asserted. “He’s gotta f–king defend himself.”
Joe then very fairly asked: “But why is he doing that? For you, right? So then, he’s a bitch.”
At this point, Teresa got on one of her favorite topics: Margaret.
Teresa suggested that she wouldn’t be insulting and demeaning Joe like this if he would tell Margaret to “shut the f–k up.”
This was going nowhere. Teresa was doing everything but “kissing ass.”
Thankfully, Andy arrived backstage, having heard the screaming.
“We want him to be here,” Andy reminded Teresa after she repeatedly attacked her brother’s masculinity.
“You all have been living your lives on television, this family for years,” he noted.
“And,” Andy told her, “we’re trying to get some resolution here, believe it or not.”
Joe then reminded Teresa of what he had been advising all along, informed by both common sense and his many years of experience on reality television.
Simply put, if Luis would just talk about the allegations directly — with Margaret giving him a great excuse to do so — the chatter would die down.
Just like with Denise Richards on RHOBH and countless other examples, the refusal to talk about a topic becomes a bigger story than the initial scandal.
Andy chimed in, reminding Teresa that Luis appearing on the show and dating Teresa meant that this would be discussed no matter what.
Even if Margaret had never breathed one word about Luis, it would be Andy’s job to ask all of this now anyway.
Joe and Teresa finally began to hash things out … but Teresa’s insistence that she hadn’t insulted Joe made Andy snap.
“He’s telling you how he feels,” Andy pointed out, “so you should listen!”
The two did make peace, with Joe telling Teresa that he wants a relationship, but reminding her that “you’ve said some nasty things tonight.”
Teresa even offered an apology. If only this sort of peace could last.
