What’s the Beef Between Apollo Nida and Peter Thomas?

200 Peachtree Grand Atrium

On the next episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta, we will see Peter and Apollo get into it at Kim’s Baby Shower. Y’all are gonna need to grab some sweet tea and a sandwich for this post. I’ve got a lot to tell you to set the stage for the upcoming show. So everyone get comfortable. I’ll wait.

First of all the baby shower takes place at 200 Peachtree , better known to most of us as the old downtown Macy*s building where the Great Tree was lit every Thanksgiving night. Now of course it is at Lennox where we have problems like this. Suffice it to say that the Grand Atrium is huge and if not Beverly Hill Shi!Shi!Shi! it is still so over the top for a baby shower, we can’t see planet earth. When Cynthia makes her grand entrance and approaches Kim, you can see a headshot of Kim on display,on display,on display in the background. Who has headshots at a babyshower? Kim is wearing a long gown with a train of sorts that Sweetie is seen carrying as they both head outside to smoke to get some fresh air.

Cynthia and Peter are shown arriving by car and driver to the baby shower as if they are hitting the red carpet. They arrive hours late and twenty minutes before the shower is over. In the car, Peter is heard asking if Nene is going to be there knowing full well she is the only one who likes him. When he finds out she is not he mutters “Hope we don’t get thrown out!” on his way in.  One would think that Peter would be on his best behavior as he walks into the lioness’ den. But Peter, doing Peter, before his rear end even hits the chair goes after Miss Lawrence , an Atlanta hairstylist with vocal aspirations, about his tendency to wear ladies pumps.  Kandi tries to politely change the topic asking Peter what he has been up to and he brings up the fact that he is opening Bar One, his newest lounge attempt, in a few weeks. He mentions he will be having a grand opening and Kandi, riding the razor of tension at the table, says “I’ll be there with my bells on”. It seems like a safe topic until…

Phaedra says “I ain’t gonna be invited ’cause Peter don’t like me”. That sort of hangs in the air for a moment and Peter says “Actually honey, I love you” which causes Apollo to start talking about an interview Peter gave to Uptown Magazine and things begin to unravel.

Peter says “anybody who takes jabs, I take jabs back.”  This is where the sordid backstory becomes important and Tamaratattles has the whole explanation for you. But I warn you, it is long. Are you ready?  First of all back during season three, the tea on Peter was that he has five children from previous relationships. That’s a whole lot of baggage and Phaedra was rather outspoken about it last season saying she did not want “a man with a bunch of crazy kids everywhere. Lord sent me somebody with no baggage, somebody clean. Apollo ain’t got no kids.” She also offered to hook Cynthia up with someone more suitable saying her friends were the “creme de la creme” of Atlanta. Yet, Phaedra married a convicted felon six months after he served his prison term. Go Figure.

Now let’s take a close look at the article Apollo refers to, as well as Uptown Magazine in general. Peter Thomas Entertainment Group (PTEG) has very close ties to Uptown Magazine. What is PTEG? Who knows. There is a shell of a website, and a shell of a facebook page but neither give any information whatsoever. There is an advertisement run as an article in Uptown Magazine about a weekend getaway to South Beach  sponsored by Uptown Magazine and PTEG.  There is also an old Linked-in account where Peter lists his three previous attempts at running a bar and claims to be the General Manager of Uptown Magazine among other things. Now just because someone puts something on their Linkedin resume, doesn’t mean it is true, and far be it from me to throw any shade; but, there are clearly ties between Peter and Uptown Magazine. They have several articles about Peter and Cynthia including a behind the scenes look at the their wedding in a separate issue.

Let’s talk about two of those articles. First, the one Apollo took issue with at Kim’s baby shower. When asked by Uptown Magazine about the ladies of RHOA Peter has this to say:

I say anything I f—ing feel, because I don’t feel I need to answer to anybody but God. People are going on Andy Cohen’s show and being all careful—I don’t give a f-ck. If they ever put me on that sh–, I’m gonna say exactly how I feel, and that’s what people wanna hear. If he asks, “What do you think about the guys in Atlanta wearing heels?” I’m gonna say “That sh-t is not cute.”If they say, “What do you think about the other Housewives?” I’m gonna say I can’t stand Phaedra’s ass. I think Kim is crazy as f–k. Nene has a big-ass mouth, okay? And Sheree’s not cute! She thinks she’s cute, but she’s not cute.” And this is ON the record. The only one I like is Kandi, and she’s too soft. That’s why she got played with Kim. And that’s how I truly feel. ~ Uptown Magazine  Jan 31 2011

Peter tries to act like he just lightly jabbed Phaedra but he went for her in print harder than any of the others and she was the first one of the crew that he mentioned. Apollo pretends like he had not read the article but everyone at that table had read it. Trust. So Apollo is getting heated already and then out of nowhere Peter throws another jab, “I ain’t gettin’ pulled over”.  Which brings us to another backstory.

Apollo counters with repeatedly saying,”Get your money up!!” referring to Peter’s numerous financial failings and it’s on like popcorn.  Or is it? These previews tend to be very disappointing once the actual show airs. Apollo is still running around town getting his fancy haircuts from Manute the barber and not in jail so apparently, Peter lives.

Speaking of Jail, Peter did a couple days in the pokey last June. I wonder if that will air this season. Here is how Peter describes the jail time. 

I spent 17 hours at this very disgusting jail here in Atlanta and eight months later they send the request to go to court to my condo but I was no longer living there so it’s non transferable. I got pulled over for a tag being one day expired and I went to jail the second time for 17 hours because there was a bench warrant for my arrest that I knew nothing about. Three years later we have our day in court on the 20th of June. And the security guard that took her outside and the head cocktail girl that was in the kitchen all testified. The judge heard both sides and decided that what the girl was saying just didn’t add up and she found me completely not guilty because the district attorney just didn’t have a case.~Uptown Magazine July 5, 2011

I suggest you click that link if you are not totally burnt out by reading this far because Peter gives a long rambling explanation about how the alleged victim was not pushed but slipped on a wet floor. It’s…interesting.

So now you have the backstory needed to watch Sunday’s episode with an informed eye. Let me know what you think of Peter and Apollo and what on earth Cynthia and Phaedra see in these two in the comments. As always, please follow me on twitter for updates. [email protected]