Around 4 p.m. Thursday I was enjoying a leisurely bite at La Duni NorthPark (the chips and salsa were calling me, as was a frozen limonada mango) while trying to get a little bit of work done. Suddenly I was interrupted by a commotion to my left. I looked up and saw a couple of women being vocal about something. I noticed that one was quite tall, another had ample make-up, and they seemed to be dressed fashionably (though I am no expert).
Then I noticed a couple of people standing nearby, a man and woman, who appeared to be with the women but didn’t seem to fit the same mold. Upon inspection, I noticed the woman giving directions to the more fashionable, vocal women, and she and the man were wearing earpieces and walkie-talkies. Security detail of some sort, I wondered? I looked at the tallest woman, who resembled Venus and Serena Williams. I craned for a closer look … nope, not one of the tennis stars.
One by one they disappeared behind the doors of La Duni’s private back room. When a regular La Duni customer walked up to the door and reached to open it, the man rushed up behind her saying, “No, no, no, no, no, no … !” So when my server returned, I asked, “What’s going on in there?” He told me the vh1 show “Football Wives” was filming. I’d never heard of it, so asked whether it was a reality show or something soap opera-esque, akin to the British drama “Footballers Wives”. “From what I’ve observed, it’s a reality show,” he told me, smiling. So they must be Dallas Cowboys’ wives, I assumed, until my husband turned on the pre-season game last night and I realized the Raiders were in town. Hmmm …
No word from vh1 on who the wives are, but this Sista Sports blog post explains why Pilar Sanders, wife of retired Cowboy Deion, is likely part of the cast. The show is a spin-off of vh1’s “Basketball Wives”, starring Shaquille O’Neal’s ex-wife, Shaunie, and six other wives, fiancees, girlfriends or exes of players on various NBA teams, so it’s not likely that the women on “Football Wives” will be attached to players from a single team.
How did they end up at La Duni? Restaurant chef-owner Dunia Borga says she received a call from the show late Wednesday afternoon. “They wanted to come in and have tea at the restaurant and film it, so we did our regular tea menu for them,” Borga says. “No biggie.” The only hitch was that most specialty teas must be booked at least three days in advance, so Borga and her staff spent early Thursday morning scrambling to make the pastries. Hopefully for the wives, “pastries” included La Duni’s fabulous quatro leches cake.
