LeAnn Rimes and husband Eddie Cibrian get close at the Greenwich Hotel.(Photo: Todd Plitt, USA TODAY)
NEW YORK — There's a spacious, crisply made-up mattress in the center of a Greenwich Hotel room on the fourth floor, across from which celebrity spouses Eddie Cibrian and LeAnn Rimes are sitting.
She glances over. "We should do it on the bed," she says of the interview.
But wait, isn't that something that a Real Housewife — perhaps Cibrian's ex, Brandi Glanville, a buxom presence on the Beverly Hills installment of the franchise — would do?
"I am actually a real housewife. I'm a housewife," says Rimes. "When I'm home, I cook. I do housewife-y things. I love to go on RealSimple.com and pick up a recipe and hang out in the grocery store for hours. I go home and have a glass of wine and cook."
If you can't quite picture Rimes as the stiletto-clad kitchen contessa, neither can we. And in fact, it's why she and her husband are now starring on their own series, LeAnn and Eddie, premiering Thursday on VH1 (10:30 p.m. ET/PT). "We wanted to be home with the kids. That's one of the reasons we explored this whole world," says Rimes. "This is us taking our lives back, in a way."
Their lives have certainly been played out for public consumption. Rimes was with her first husband, Dean Sheremet, when she met Cibrian, who was still with Glanville. Rimes, 31, and Cibrian, 41, went public as a couple in 2009, got married in April 2011, and are now co-parenting his sons Mason, 11, and Jack, 7, along with Glanville. Still, it's easy to see why Cibrian wants this public forum, given that Glanville's show covered, among other plot lines, a lengthy saga involving a waitress who allegedly bedded a married Cibrian.
LeAnn Rimes gets some love from husband Eddie Cibrian as they promote their new reality series, 'LeAnn and Eddie,' in New York.(Photo: Todd Plitt, USA TODAY)
Plus, it combines bank and brood. "We wanted to work together. When we sat down and took stock of everything that's happened over the last five years — it's been a one-sided story," says Cibrian. "If we scripted this, it would be an incredible sitcom. This show is a satire of what has happened in our lives."
Here's how they've navigated the treacherous tides of reality TV:
DO set up boundaries and decide what's fair game — and what's not. In one episode, Rimes hits her head while Cibrian carries her. In another, she's bloated after using steroids to treat her voice after she lost it on tour. But Glanville won't be on Cibrian's show — and, most adamantly, neither will their boys. "There's no point and no benefit for the kids to be on any kind of show," he says. "They're never on camera."
DON'T act normal. Just be normal. "You do forget the cameras are there," says Rimes. "You do see how we are as a couple." Rimes says it took her about a day to get used to being filmed. To help things along and make her mother, who's not a performer, feel at ease, Rimes would joke around with her to make her forget about the lenses and lights surrounding her. "We'd start making her laugh and you'd get this magical thing," says Rimes.
DON'T airbrush your reality to the point where it stinks of fakery. Both Cibrian and Rimes are producers on the show, so they decide what's in or out. But they opted to let ridiculous and heartfelt moments stay on air. "We didn't shy away from anything," says Cibrian. Even some tough moments. "Eddie is making a decision of whether or not to take a job. He's really given up a lot of work to be home with his kids, and there's something that's really emotional about that for me," says Rimes.
DO have fun, and keep it as classy as possible. "Just enjoy it," Rimes says. "We got to work with our parents and friends. It was fun to be able to interact with them. My mom is hysterical. His parents are Cuban. My mom is Southern. Everyone seems to get along." Looking back, says Cibrian, the plan was to do six episodes. Then, VH1 asked for more. "We could cut some embarrassing moments out, but we kept them in," says Cibrian, referring to a future episode dealing with Jackson Pollock and bathroom humor.
DON'T talk smack about bothersome people. Including your exes, even if they trash you. Cibrian says he won't dig into any divorce issues, and says that he and Glanville manage to co-parent amicably these days. And he has no intention of behaving in a manner that would make his kids cringe when they finally see an episode. "It's not invasive. It's not exploitative. It's not train-wreck TV," says Cibrian. That being said, personal travails will be addressed as needed. "If it's within the story line we're talking about, you get to see how we would deal with it. That's really it. There's no malicious attacks." Adds Rimes: "Nothing that we say about ourselves, or others, is untrue. We wanted for people to laugh with us — they've been laughing at us for a long time."
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