The Celebreality Interview - Beverly

If you’re expecting remorse or an apology from Beverly after what went down on Charm School, you’re about to be surprised. Bev says she has no regrets for getting physical with Brittaney Starr, even though it caused her to be kicked off the show mid-episode. Fascinating! Never before have we had this much to talk about with someone who appeared so briefly on one of these shows (though Lady Tribe came close!).  Below, Beverly talks about her rivalry with Brittaney Starr, the accusations that she’s a “bad mother,” and where she is with the whole “angry drunk” thing.

What do you think about being characterized as “the angry drunk” in the show’s opening scene?

On some of the episodes of Rock of Love, you’d see that I was drinking and get angry, but usually it was warranted. I didn’t just fly off the handle for no reason at all. I generally held my tongue for as long as I could, but it would come out when I was drinking more heavily than normal. I don’t know that I’m necessarily an angry drunk. I can be if I’m in the right situation and I keep being provoked and nothing steps in between what’s provoking me.

What’s funny is that they slapped you with this label, and then you pretty much lived up to it. You were drinking immediately.

It is Charm School, and there needs to be a progression. I went in there thinking I was just going to drink wine and not get too obliterated during this whole thing, but then I thought, oh it’s the first day: I’ll take some shots, I’ll have fun with the girls. It had been a while since we’d seen each other. I figured I’d party and have fun, and then chill out for the rest of the time.

So it was a conscious, character-building decision setting you up for your arc?

Right. There needed to be something. Everyone was wondering, “Why is she on Charm School?” I was kind of wondering myself at first, too. And then that’s what I was told: “You drink a lot and you tend to get angry when you do.”

It’s ironic that people thought that but you ended up being the one girl to get kicked out before the expulsion ceremony.

I thought that was ironic as well. It was pretty funny. I’m getting all sorts of messages and whatever. People hate Brittaney Starr, so I’m getting all sorts of props for everybody. Then there are the random messages here and there: “You’re trash. You’re horrible. You need to have your kids taken away from you.” I’m like, OK, whatever, delete. I’m really not that type of person in real life. It takes the right situation and the right amount of alcohol to get me that worked up and angry to where I’ll do something like that.

What was it about Brittaney that got you so worked-up and angry?

It carried over from Rock of Love, but you didn’t really see that, so nobody really understood why I was so angry with her. She got kicked off the Pink Bus because nobody could stand her, and she ended up moving over to the Blue. She took my bed, and I told her she needed to get out of it. It got heated and she was basically like, “I’m staying here, leave me alone, you’re crazy, blahblahblah. I thought you were one of the real ones on the show, and now I see that you’re just as fake as everybody else. When I heard you on the phone with your kids the other night, I thought you were a good mother and a good person. But I don’t know how you can come on a show like this and abandon your kids like that. You’re a horrible mother.” I just looked at her like: “Oh, you so don’t even want to go there with me.” At that point, I knew if I hit her I was off the show. It was like: fine. You keep the bed, I’ll take it back when you’re eliminated. She got eliminated that night, so that was the last time I saw her before Charm School. So, it carried over from that. Obviously, everybody had their own issues with her. So we get there and everyone starts confronting her and she’s acting just as loony as before. We start drinking and I start in on, “Why are you gonna go there with me? You don’t know me. You don’t know how I am. You don’t know anything about me and you’re going to pass judgment on me as a mother.” It escalated from there. You saw us get into it in the room and then out by the pool, I honestly drank so much that I hardly remember it. The only part I remember is grabbing her hair.

Do you regret that things escalated to a physical level?

Hell no. Not with her (laughs).

But it got you kicked off!

Yeah, it did, but there can only be one winner anyway.

So it was worth it?

Yeah! I’m gonna say it was worth it.

Is this typical of your life? Do you get in physical altercations regularly?

No. I cannot tell you the last time I’ve been in any physical altercation and I certainly haven’t started one before. That’s not typical, but if anyone gets mad enough and someone says the right thing to push the right button, anything can happen.

I assume that what Brittaney said about you being a bad mother is something you heard before.

Mmm hmmm.

What do you say to that, besides, “Mind your own business”?

I don’t know where anybody can get off judging anyone else’s ability as a parent. That’s especially when you’re not in the situation and you have no idea what’s going on. You’re watching something on TV and you’re hearing whatever’s being said on TV. People think I don’t have custody of my kids, and that’s not even true. The kids do live with their father, but we have joint custody. There are various reasons for that, the main one being that he was staying in the house and in order for the kids to stay in the same school, they needed to stay there, too. It’s not because I’m an unfit mother. People saw me on Rock of Love and said, “Look at how she drinks! What a horrible mother.” Well, I obviously don’t act that way around my children. There were lots of things on Rock of Love that I didn’t get involved in because I didn’t want them to have to answer for stuff I’ve done. As far as Charm School goes, I don’t want my kids to have to hear, “Your mom’s psycho!” or whatever. For the most part, they’re like, “Go mom!” They saw what happened. They saw what she said and knew what happened before. I tell them, “That’s not how you should normally handle things. It was because I was in a controlled environment with cameras around. That’s the only reason it was OK. If you’re not in that situation, you can never, ever act like that.”

Well, I do think a good point in there somewhere is that moms are people, too. Becoming a mom doesn’t make you the Virgin Mary.

I’m not perfect. I’m not some saint who will do no wrong because I’ve had children. I try to be the best mother that I can and do what’s right for my kids. You put anyone under a microscope as a parent and DFAS could probably come and take anyone’s children away. You know? People make mistakes and people do stuff that just looks bad. You can’t please everybody. All I can do is stay true to myself and do what’s best for me, my family, my children. Anybody who doesn’t like it can kiss my ass.

Do you resent Ricki Lake for expelling you?

No. She had no idea who we were at that point. Brittaney Starr went in there telling her I punched her in the back of the head. Come on, I saw the tape. That’s Brittaney Starr for you: egging someone on and then playing the victim, like always. “My hair’s my favorite thing about me”? Who says that? She’s going to pass judgment on other people and then turn around and be that shallow?

It did open up the door for absurdity. Another hilarious thing about the situation is that you threatened to grab her, she told you to, you thought about it…and then you did it anyway!

I guess I was at that drunk point where I was like, “Well, I told her I was gonna do it. She’s telling me to do it. All right!” She gave me her permission. I mean, s***. You don’t want someone to pull your hair, don’t act like a dumbass. Don’t tell them to do it.

Ricki said that she hoped you got something out of this experience. Did you?

Ha! Yeah, I got something good out of it. I got to yank Brittaney Starr by her hair and throw her down! That was good for me.

On a completely unrelated note, you looked fantastic on this show. Did you lose weight between Rock of Love and this?

Whenever anyone sees me, that’s the first thing they say: “You lost so much weight!” It’s like, yes, I know I looked enormous on Rock of Love. Thank you!

I would not say that.

No, I did. I started out OK and then at the end, after the alcohol, I think we all gained a ton of weight. So I did lose some weight between the shows, but not a ton. And I guess I didn’t last long enough on Charm School to get swollen again from drinking.

Did losing weight have anything to do with seeing yourself on TV?

Well, I came home from Rock of Love wanting to lose weight, but when the show came on, it was definitely more motivation to hit it harder and lose more weight, especially when I found out I was going to be on another show. I was like, “I’ll be damned if I’m gonna go on TV again looking fat.”

What’d you think about the Rock of Love Bus Reunion? You were on stage for a while, your ex husband showed up to face the questioning and none of it made it to air.

I was livid. They made such a huge deal about him coming and it was a big thing to get him there. I had to convince him and he finally does it for no other reason but me. He drops what he’s doing, comes out and then they don’t show any of it! It’s like what the hell is that? You’re going to show Constandina and Brittaney Starr and edit me out? Maybe it was boring. Maybe they wanted us to come out swinging and hating each other, so maybe it wasn’t worth it to put that out there. They didn’t even show my interview before he came out. I think they wanted me and the Blondourage to get into it, but they were like, “No, Boots is cool!” And the whole thing with the drummer, it was like, “Well, I saw it. I gotta eat my words. What can I say?” I guess they didn’t get as much drama out of my segment as they were hoping.

Irony strikes again! Are you OK, Beverly? Are you doing OK with your drinking now that you’re back to living your normal life?

Things are good, things are good with the kids. I’m trying to move to L.A., and I’m in the process of how it’s going to be feasible with the kids. Everything’s fine. I’m not some raging alcoholic who can’t do anything else because I need a bottle in my hand all the time. So no, I do not have a drinking problem. I do not need a sponsor calling me for anything. I appreciate everyone’s concern (laughs), but I really am OK.

Keep up with Beverly via her MySpace.

Related content
Charm School with Ricki Lake show page
Charm School videos and extras

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 10:56 am