Recap of episode 7 of Real Housewives of Atlanta season 4

New Real Housewives of Atlanta’s episode is carting out on Tuesday night. The episode 7 of Real Housewives of Atlanta season 4 shows Sheree Whitfield’s court case with ex-husband, Bob Whitfield. How it goes????

‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ recap, season 4, episode 7: E for effort?

A mere 48 hours after the last very special episode of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” featuring Kim Zolciak’s baby delivery, Bravo is carting out yet another new episode on a Tuesday night.

For the first time this season, Sheree Whitfield receives the primary story line this week thanks to a court case with her ex-husband Bob Whitfield.

The way the show is editing it, Bob appears to be doing everything he can to avoid paying child support for their kids. Or perhaps he really can’t. It’s hard to tell. He served Sheree with papers saying he’d like to reduce his child support because his income is greatly reduced.

The two end up going to Fulton County civil court. Phaedra Parks is representing Sheree. Phaedra is aware that Sheree didn’t fully pay two previous divorce attorneys, who both sued her to the tune of $180,000 plus combined. One of the firms even seized her Aston Martin last year to get some of the monies back. Sheree’s rationale for not paying was that she didn’t feel they did a good job.

“It makes me a little leery about representing her,” Phaedra says, with good reason. “I don’t work for free.”

Her staff had to chase Sheree down to get Phaedra’s $5,000 retainer from her. Phaedra is annoyed (”We’re not a courier service. We’re not a pick-up deli!”) but moves forward.

She gives Sheree the option of sending Bob to jail for not paying child support but Sheree is resistant to taking such an extreme measure.

“I believe Sheree is afraid of the court system because her divorce was very tumultuous,” Phaedra says. “She incurred a lot of debt. She did not get the things she thought she should have gotten.”

She tells Sheree to be brave. “You’ve got to be ready to fight,” she says.

Yet Sheree has a blind spot about her own spending habits. She shows off a Porsche she had just gotten (probably leased though I can’t imagine her credit is all that stellar). She carries around $10,000 handbags. Phaedra recommends she dresses down for the court date.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Sheree asks. “How I look – I don’t feel that should make a difference over what’s right and what’s wrong.”

“It’s perception,” Phaedra says.

The morning of the court date, Sheree emotionally breaks down. Phaedra has to calm her nerves by phone, telling her everything will be alright and she’ll do all the talking.

Then the big surprise: Bob arrives in court by himself, no lawyer (to show how broke he is, Phaedra says.) He files a petition for contempt against Sheree, claiming she kept furniture that was his since the divorce. It’s a pretty clear attempt at stalling. “I did go to Stanford,” Bob said to Phaedra with a smirk. Phaedra acts nonplussed but it does work in delaying the case over Bob’s child-support payments. Sheree is annoyed with Phaedra.

“She was outsmarted by an ex football player who was representing himself,” Sheree snipes.

Sheree and Phaedra meet with Kandi Burruss at Wahoo Grill, a restaurant in Decatur. Kandi relates her own woes concerning her daughter and the daddy in court and how tough it was. She cries. Sheree cries. Phaedra does not. This story will obviously continue, though it’s unclear what more we’ll see on that front.

In other housewives developments:

- Kandi hosts her weekly sex talk show Kandi Koated Nights at Sunseeker Studios and brings in NFL player Charles Grant and housewife wannabe Marlo Hampton. Charles dated NeNe Leakes once but it went nowhere. Kandi brings it up, of course, but it sounds like much ado about not much. Kandi is also starting her sex toy line and is trying to lose weight, including some hula hoop work with her daughter and her mom Joyce.

- NeNe and Cynthia Bailey get single scene this week. They meet up at a vintage clothing shop (Eclectic Gal Boutique) and Cynthia mentions that Kandi talked about her date with Charles on Kandi Koated Nights. NeNe is annoyed but even she can’t get too worked up because Charles was truthful. The producers seem to be trying to jimmy something up for NeNe to do that involves somewhat interacting with housewives other than Cynthia.

- Kim is back home from the hospital with the baby K.J. and future husband Kroy Biermann. All appears to be pretty calm except for the dog, who pees and poos in response to the adjustment. We watch Kim’s assistant Sweetie wash one of Kim’s wigs, which she dubs Debbie. We also see Kim’s 13-year-old daughter Brielle act like a spoiled brat, refusing to help out around the house even with the new baby around. Kim blames herself, saying she had spoiled Brielle, the oldest child. Kroy is also apparently doing most of the diaper changes because Kim is grossed out by K.J.’s little peepee.

NEXT WEEK

Kim is moving. Sheree critiques Phaedra’s performance in court. Cynthia fights with Peter over her business. Kandi gets into some argument with Kim and Big Poppa’s name (at least the nickname) comes up. Sheree and Miss Lawrence are scheduled to appear on “Watch What Happens Live” Sunday at 11 p.m. after the eighth episode. (Rodney Ho – ACJ.com)