So Joy Behar has a show on Current (for like the next five minutes because Al Jazeera just bought the network) and Reza, MJ, Asa, Mike and GG were on for half an hour on Tuesday night. I just got finished watching it and it was the best interview with pretty much anyone I’ve ever seen. Joy needs her own show on a major network. This is not the Joy who follows the Barbara Walter’s edict on The View. This is Joy, the person who asks the questions people want to ask not the question from the interviewees PR agent’s list of acceptable questions. And she lets her guests just keep talking themselves into places they should not go. Let me try to recap.

Reza and MJ are sitting closest to Joy and they take over most of the interview. Lilly is thankfully absent. Joy begins by asking how they were cast. I have heard many versions of this story. I could have sworn the original version was that the producers called Sammy. If fact, here’s a link to my original post about Sammy where he relates the producers calling him. So, how did you (Sammy) end up on “Shahs of Sunset”? “One of the first people I came to meet was [Producer] Jesse [Leed]. His girlfriend [Marisa Weber] and I have been friends for 15 years. About 2.5 years ago they came up with this idea. I was the first person [that they called]. We shared a lot of fun nights together in the few years we’ve known each other before he decided to do this show. He was just always on me to do something. I said, “Okay, let’s do it.” That makes it odd that Sammy was the one knocked down to “Friend of the Shahs” status for season two, no? Especially since I heard from more than one reliable source during season two filming that “Sammy is no filming season two.”

Anyway on Joy Behar’s show MJ jumps right in to answer the question and says that her phone rang one day about the show. My guess is that Sammy put them in touch with MJ. Then Reza jumps in and says that MJ invited him over to meet the producers. So basically MJ is responsible for Reza being on the show, and Sammy is responsible for pretty much all of them being on the show. The producers came to MJ’s house and met her mother and her dogs and Reza and put them on the show and according to Reza, “the rest just trickled down from there.” MJ says that she and Reza have known each other the longest and Asa points out that she and Mike have known each other a long time two.

Joy asks about conflicts and says she knows Reza is fighting with GG and Reza says no, he’s good with GG now. I guess that email that he thought MJ should have dumped GG over actually did blow over. GG says it’s weird because they have recently made up off camera so it is confusing to her fans to see them despise each other on the show.

Reza says he and MJ are not speaking. He says MJ didn’t attend Mike’s parents’ brunch because he was going to be there. He says that like it’s such a childish thing to do. Like you know refusing to go on a vacation if GG is allowed to come because GG’s behavior is somehow worse than his. I believe the word I am looking for here is hypocritical. Joy asks what the problem is and MJ says that she thinks Reza is a total jerk who has betrayed him in every possible way and that every single word out of his mouth is mean-spirited with malicious intent. Asa and Mike are in the camera shot and you can tell from their face they are not Team MJ.

Reza says that MJ went to everyone’s house and threw them all under the bus. Reza says that MJ went to Lilly’s house and threw them all under the bus. Okay two comments to that, I don’t believe anything Lilly would have to say to Reza about a conversation she had with MJ. Secondly, Reza throws MJ under the bus at every single opportunity bar none. He is about to do it right here on the Joy Behar Show. I’ll put all the times he does it in red. He does it all over twitter. I think he is projecting his own behavior onto MJ. I’m not saying MJ is blameless, or a saint with her behavior, especially when she is drunk, but Reza does not have clean hands for this argument, sorry.

Out of nowhere, Reza says that MJ wanted to be 34 and that she is 40. When I pause to type, Asa and Mike are smirking. Joy on the other hand explains to Reza that he has no business discussing a woman’s age, particularly on national television and that he is being a douchebag. Then, out of nowhere Reza says that when they were in New York MJ was “drunk in the Range Rover telling us all sorts of stories.”  MJ denies being drunk. I tend to believe she probably was; however, what is the point in bringing that up? It made no sense to the discussion. There was no mention of what sort of stories these were, this was just a deflection because Joy pointed out that Reza was being a jackhole. Then Reza says that MJ was drunk at Rosh Hashanah (which by the way was in September and will be on an upcoming episode) and was “all over his grandmother.”  I suppose that little nugget was brought up to explain why they are fighting. Funny, I thought it was because she took the wrong side in his argument with GG. Reza says Asa and Mike will validate everything he is saying. Reza said they walked into his uncle’s house and MJ attacks his grandmother. I’m assuming he means she was drunk and was exuberant in her greeting. I suppose we will see if we can stick with the whole season. Joy seems to think Reza has lost his mind. She literally says to Reza, “Okay, whatever.” Reza replies, “Well, that’s the root of it.”  It seems like there is a different root everyday. I think a lot of the problem is MJ drinks too much and says what she really thinks about Reza’s narcissism on many occasions. That’s just my analysis.

Joy decides to play therapist with MJ and Reza and they do role reversal. MJ, speaking as Reza says, ” To be really honest, I cannot stand a breath of criticism, and just the most playful digs you made at me last season I took very seriously because my ego is THIS BIG but my confidence and self-esteem? You need binoculars to be able to see it.” Reza speaks as MJ and says, “My wig is on too tight and I drink a lot so sometimes I am not aware of the crap that comes out of my mouth, but you know, I’m a mess.”

Joy asks Reza if he does have a big ego and low self-esteem and he brushes it off with a new issue with MJ. He says that MJ lies. They work at an open book company and she has only had one sale in the last year. I will say as someone who sold real estate in the olden days, it was beyond open book, everyone’s sales and listings for the month were posted publicly in the office. It wasn’t so much for the purpose of competition (though it did have that effect) it was so you could see the new listing ASAP and know what had closed.  MJ says that is absolutely not true. I will give this point to Reza but again, he brings up these issues with MJ to deflect from himself.

Frankly, at this point I think I am a better friend to MJ than Reza. There is a story out there about MJ that I have known about for weeks and saw no need to publish concerning a terrible situation she was in when she was barely 18 years old. I could have “broken the story” but frankly I like MJ and saw it as a childhood experience that didn’t need to come out, and if it did it was not coming from me. I don’t even know MJ and I have her back more than Reza. Reza’s anger toward MJ means he throws her under the bus every single chance he gets on national television.

Joy talks to MJ about her mother and her cruel treatment of MJ. MJ says that Reza is a lot like her mother. Joy says in psychology that is called a transference. Well not really Joy. MJ is not transferring her feelings onto Reza because of some psychological issue, she is remaining friends with someone who is highly critical of her because that is what she is used to and what she subconsciously feels she deserves. I imagine the reason she didn’t go to brunch with Mike’s family is because her therapist is telling her to stop accepting Reza’s behavior toward her because it is unhealthy.  GG finally gets a word in and says that MJ is finally standing up for herself. Joy asks for a kiss and makeup and GG says that Reza loves Joy so much he is probably considering it. So Reza kisses a disinterested MJ on the cheek.

Joy then turns her attention on GG, which GG would normally love but Joy is in full therapist mode and asks GG about the root of her anger issues. GG says it’s from a past that she can’t seem to shake and that she is dealing with in therapy.

Joy who clearly doesn’t get that none of these people other than Asa actually live in Iran at an age they have a memory of asks Reza about being gay in Iran. We’ve heard the coming out story before so I will skip it. Essentially, his mother was hurt for a minute but got over it. I’ll skip Reza’s I’m every minority it’s all in meeeee song. Joy then says but you had sex with MJ!  This is something MJ denies. I believe Reza on this one too, BUT AGAIN, who keeps going on TV telling the world he has had sex with his “best friend” when they clearly don’t want that out there?  MJ is angry he would start such a disgusting rumor. I suppose only the two of them know the truth.

Joy asks Asa if it bothers her that MJ and Reza get all of the attention. Joy says Asa is just quietly sitting there “thinking of diamond water, no doubt” and Asa says, “No, I’m going to make about $10 million on that.”  Um, I hope you do Asa. I love you to pieces but put me in the cautiously optimistic category on that. It is a better concept than BLK water… Asa says that MJ and Reza have known each other for a long time and the beef they have they need to work out amongst themselves.

Joy keeps pointing out that Reza wants his own show and wants to get rid of everyone else. She asks what his show would be like and tells her and says that there would be a lot of Asa and Mike with no mention of MJ or GG. MJ gets a dig in of her own saying his show would have to have a ton of cameras and mirrors.  Asa decides to step up to defend Reza. She says, “Say what you want about Reza but he has a good heart.” and MJ replies with “Until he turns on you.”  Asa is smarter than this and I can’t believe that she doesn’t see that last season Reza was putting her down in many episodes and this season he loves her more than his former best friend because we all fell in love with Asa. I think Asa has blinders on when it comes to Reza. And I don’t think Asa has ever had a very close relationship with a gay man. I know she is friends with Reza now but that is not the sort of relationship I am talking about. Some women form especially close bonds with a particular gay man that is, like Asa says sort of like a marriage. It’s a different relationship than the one you have with your best girlfriend or your boyfriend.  I don’t think Asa really gets that because she is not the type that would be in that sort of relationship.  Asa is more of a tomboy in her relationship with male friends. Not to say she isn’t glamorous, but …this is something you have either experienced or you haven’t.

I can’t with them even trying to talk about Iran. Let’s just say they tried. With the exception of Asa, I’ve seen no evidence they are even aware of Iranian politics or what is going on now. In fact their (and I mean all of them) attitude of “Who lives like this?” is rather insulting to what the people of Iran are currently enduring. There references about Iran come from American made movies. Which is understandable because they are all Americans. Reza who has no idea what he is talking about likes to talk about he would have overthrown the government or done some spectacular heroic effort to free Iran if he lived there. I just can’t with that. It’s a reality show so I’ll not get on my political soapbox.

Joy tries to mention Mike since he was just eye candy for the interview, much like he is on the show and of course Reza has to point out that MJ was mesmerized when she saw Mike naked on an upcoming episode that Reza says will not air. I’m going to go out on a limb her and say that since Reza was the one who went through Mike’s kit to get a nail file to bust the lock to see Mike naked, that Reza was pretty mesmerized too. I can’t imagine too many straight females or gay males that would not want to take a gander at mike nekkid.

Joy asks about the money and how they are all rich. Out of respect for my perceived friendships with several of the cast members I am not going to comment on this segment. I know, I am a shitty blogger for that. The bottom is I like them all and wish nothing but the best for them despite the fact we are all suffering from season two syndrome. I will say that Asa’s said that she paid 5K for the coins under her doorstep and they are now worth 30K. Yeah, I know that math is a bit off, but it’s close enough. GG said her father got a scholarship to USC and was a TA. She talks about how hard he worked at “an actual job.”  She somehow didn’t inherit the work ethic.

So Reza threw MJ under the bus ten times in twenty minutes but opened the interview accusing MJ of throwing him under the bus. I see…