Hold on to the table

Teresa Giudice of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” is super nice.

Really.

OK, OK. There was the super wicked (and super funny, judging by Caroline Manzo’s reaction) table-flipping incident. And, OK, there was the country club-ambush.

Both incidents will be enshrined into the Reality TV Hall of Fame as soon as VH1 or Bravo, which broadcasts the “Real Housewives” series (there’s four of them!), gets around to erecting one. And both incidents involved Giudice getting loud with — and bullying, some could argue, though we won’t — former cast mate Danielle Staub. The latter incident made Staub retreat in a hail of theatrical sobs.

She found safety in a Bentley.

Ah, the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Giudice, who will be at the Carolina Ballroom of the Columbia Marriott tonight, will speak and answer questions at an event hosted by the Friends of the Richland County Public Library.

“Everybody always wants to know how I got into ‘Housewives,’ ” Giudice said during a phone interview last week. “They just want to know personal things. Whatever they want to know, I’m open to telling.”

See? That’s nice.

Giudice has been a fixture on the “New Jersey” cast, which wrapped filming for its fourth season in October, since the show debuted in 2009. Her behavior on the show is one of the reasons “New Jersey” is a ratings juggernaut for Bravo. Part one of the season three reunion, which aired in October, drew 3.4 million total viewers according to Nielsen Media Research, a stunning number for cable TV.

Most who achieve reality TV fame want to do what Giudice has done: extend their brand beyond the show’s timeslot. “Skinny Italian: Eat It and Enjoy It — Live La Bella Vita and Look Great, Too!,” Giudice’s 2010 book, was on the New York Times best-sellers list. She released a second, “Fabulicious!: Teresa’s Italian Family Cookbook,” in May. Good cooking, the authentic Italian way, requires but five ingredients, she said. That’s garlic, onion, salt, olive oil and parsley. Sounds simple, especially coming from someone who had nine different fish dishes as part of her Christmas spread on TV.

“Buy one of my books and follow the recipes,” she continued. “I swear, not because it’s my cookbook, but the way we cook, it’s very simple. We don’t use too many ingredients. You don’t need all those spices. And the food tastes delicious.”

Giudice will further expand her entrepreneurial skills when she appears on the fifth season of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” set to premiere in February.

The celebrity status has brought scrutiny, particularly of her finances since she and her husband, Joe, filed for bankruptcy during the filming of the second season. The news didn’t leak until the season, which showed the couple spending lavishly, was airing.

“I’m really humble and really down to earth,” said Giudice, whose first language was Italian, when asked if she was a star. “I don’t walk around saying that. I’m still true to who I am.”

Her friends off-camera before the show became a hit are still her friends, she said. Sometimes her friends get upset at how Bravo’s producers portray her.

“I’m still the same person,” Giudice said. “The way they portray you on TV, that’s not who you really are. I’m really, real, and I think my true friends know who I really am. They’re just really protective of me.”

Whether or not the situations on camera are real, Giudice’s reactions certainly seem very real. And those include table flipping. And that happened because she was told, by Staub, to “pay attention.”

“I stand up for myself if I believe in something,” Giudice calmly explained. “If I have to state my case, I have to state it. If I’m wrong, then I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

Was she wrong when she said she didn’t leave her daughter unattended during a christening? Wait, that sounds like a question Andy Cohen, host of the “Housewives” reunion shows, would ask. Cohen, it appears, likes to bait the cast mates into arguments.

“But that’s his job,” Giudice said. “And I love Andy. I’m a big girl and I can defend myself.”

See? Super nice.