When a preview clip of the Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion special hit the web last Monday — full of shrieking, shoving, throwing and animalistic rage — fans were shocked.
So were the housewives themselves, who actually lived through the epic brawl, and have seen the two-part reunion in its entirety.
"I didn't believe my eyes!" Teresa Giudice told UsMagazine.com at Thursday's preview presentation of My Big Gay Italian Wedding in NYC.
In the clip, Giudice loudly threatened nemesis Danielle Staub, screaming "B*tch, I'm gonna pin you down!" She later threw a pillow at Staub — and even shoved the reunion's host and mediator, Andy Cohen.
"I didn't mean to shove Andy," Giudice told Us without explaining further. "I love Andy." Of her other histrionics during the special, she said: "When I'm attacked, I attack back. I don't like to be held back or touched…Listen, I know how to control myself. Just don't hold me back!"
Costar Caroline Manzo's take? "There are no words," she told Us at Thursday's event, shaking her head. "Just no words. I could not compose a rational thought in my head for two days [after the taping]. It took me two days to regroup."
In fact, she adds, "I went to get dinner after the reunion and Ashton Kutcher was [at the same restaurant]. My mind was so completely out of it, I didn't even notice I was sitting next to him. That’s how crazy it was!"
Watching the reunion clips, Manzo says, was "the best lesson in the world. How people have the opportunity to look at themselves from the outside in…I learned that I'm very tough…When I watch [the reunion] I can't help but say 'damn, I'm tough!'"
Along with Giudice and Caroline Manzo, fellow stars Ashley Holmes, Jacqueline Laurita, Dina and Lauren Manzo will perform in My Big Gay Italian Wedding from Sept. 1 to 4; a portion of the proceeds raised from tickets sales will benefit Marriage Equality New York.
