A "Real Housewife" Cracks "Vogue"

That would be NeNe Leakes.

Vogue, which is obsessed with Glee, has a feature in its new issue — the one with Keira Knightley’s silver forearm on the cover — about Glee creator Ryan Murphy’s latest show, The New Normal. What is new (but not normal) about the photos in this story is that NeNe Leakes appears!!! Leakes, who skyrocketed to fame and occupies a place in all of our hearts thanks to her stupendous work on the Real Housewives of Altanta, might be the first Real Housewife to grace the pages of Vogue which is *particular* about the people they shoot. Looks like they stripped her of her stretch satin and excess jewelry and eye makeup and put her in a nice Stella McCartney dress and some torturous-looking shoes. Of course they shoved her to the side of the photo but who are they fooling? My eye goes straight to her anyway because she is GIVING IT. Let’s take a closer look at their NeNe make-under.

3. NeNe in “Vogue”:

Shot by Mario Testino.

4. NeNe not in “Vogue”:

Here she is at an event in L.A. for In Touch on September 6, dressed like a keyboard. I’m guessing this is not the kind of dress Vogue would endorse.

Image by Valerie Macon / Getty Images

And here she is presenting a “shoe” she “designed” on August 25 in Atlanta. The shoe looks like something any Kardashian could pull out of their ass. In other words: probably not Vogue. (And I guess I go hard on NeNe here because I have higher expectations of her than all the other reality stars I semi-pay attention to. If anyone can differentiate themselves in terms of reality TV stardom, it’s her clearly!)

Image by Wilford Harewood / AP

The one thing Vogue might have let her keep is that contrasting bottom eyeliner, seen here on NeNe speaking at a The New Normal panel in L.A.

Image by Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images