Ever since Joseline Hernandez launched herself into superstardom years ago as the wild child cast mate on “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta,” she’s made it no secret that she used to spend her nights stripping in Miami strip clubs. However, for years, fans have thought that Hernandez’s first introduction to reality TV was after her stripper days ended and she joined the “LHHA” cast alongside her husband, Stevie J.
As most “LHHA” fans know at this point, before she was known to the world as Joseline Hernandez, the reality TV star went by the name of Shenellica Bettencourt and was a dancer at places like the famous King of Diamonds strip club alongside her cast mate Jessica Dime.
Hernandez later left her stripper life behind after she met Stevie J and she moved to Atlanta to launch her music career and start up what has now become one of the most fiery relationships in reality TV with Stevie.
However, according to media reports, what most fans don’t know is that Hernandez was first tapped to do a reality TV series in 2007 by a production company who wanted to create a stripper-themed reality series for Showtime.
A pilot for the series was filmed at Miami’s Diamond Cabaret and reports claim that the show was supposed to be a rival to HBO’s popular “Cathouse: The Series,” which chronicled the professional lives of female sex workers at the famous Moonlite BunnyRanch, which is a legal brothel in Nevada.
According to the reports, Hernandez agreed to appear in the pilot under her Bettencourt name, but only after she demanded that she receive $400 in cash from the producers.
But what’s also interesting is that sources claim that producers for the show feared that if Showtime did pickup the series that the strippers would have to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to prove they were mentally stable enough to appear in the series. Unfortunately for the strippers, it seems like the producers believed that most of them, including Hernandez, wouldn’t pass the evaluation.
Ironically, most of Hernandez’s current “LHHA” cast mates have claimed that she’s crazy. However, that seems to be exactly why fans love Hernandez so much.
