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The Bully And The Thief

[Blind Gossip]  Queer Eye interior designer Bobby Berk recently appeared on The Jenny McCarthy Show.

During the interview, he told a story about a negative experience he had with one of the Real Housewives Of New York.

Celebrities can be a pain in the a** sometimes. A lot of times there can be some that expect everything for free

The encounter began with the RH asked to work with Berk.

She come into my store years ago in New York, and was like, Oh, I’m buying this new place. She’s like, I want you to come in and design it all. I’m gonna put you on the show.

Since this happened before Berk was cast on Queer Eye, it  would have been a great opportunity to promote his business!

Only it turns out that the housewife was not really buying a new home.

She didn’t even own the last one she had on the show that she said she owned.

He considered the offer anyway.

And I wasn’t on TV yet. I still kind of liked the Housewives, so I was like, oh, okay, but just so you know, I’m not doing it for free. I don’t need to do it for free. I don’t necessarily know if the Housewives is really the exposure I want anyways, so I’ll do it for you at cost. And she’s like, okay, okay, that works.

So they had an agreement for him to do the work at cost.

Then the problems began.

The RHONY’s husband called Berk and tried to bully him into doing the work for free.

Berk was having none of that!

Finally I was like, you know what? I’m not only not doing it for free…  I’m not doing it anymore at all. I don’t need this.

However, it didn’t end there.

Unfortunately, his employees did not know that he had stopped working with the RHONY star.

She came into my store the next week when I wasn’t there. She told my staff that I had said she could take anything out of the store that she wanted to design her house for the shoot and here was her credit card and if I don’t bring anything back, if I like something, you can just charge the credit card.

She cleaned the store out.

Months went by.

[The employees] called and they called and they called her, and when they could not get any response, they tried to charge the card. Of course, it was declined.

So now Berk has had to deal with a bully and a thief.

Jenny McCarthy asked him how he resolved the situation.

Berk eventually confronted the Housewife. He threatened to sue her for stealing from him.

She, in turn, threatened to sue Berk!

She said, you know what? Then let’s go to court. This will be good TV. 

That’s the way reality stars think!

She said it’s easier for us just to have our lawyer deal with it than it would be to actually pay you.

In the end, Berk learned a valuable lesson.

If you’re somebody in the entertainment industry, I need to really know you. When I first met this person, I was like, oh, she’s great. But I didn’t really know her.

Similar: Bethenny Says Costars Can’t Afford It

Housewife:

[Optional] If you were the designer, how would you have handled this situation?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. deepsigh says

    This is a shame. I hope Karma is swift on this one. No small business person can afford this nonsense. If I had to guess I’d say Frankel. She just screams trouble. Those poor daughters. I wish BB had alerted his staff that she was
    NOT going to be a client.

  3. Deeva E says

    I’m an interior designer. If he wasn’t doing the work for free, I’m assuming he had a contract and could have taken her to court. I would have proceeded to sue and make the theft public. Everything I sell is documented and invoiced so her attempt to steal could be proven.

  6. WorkHardBeNice says

    Sounds like Luann.

    *I’d have to give way to my inner chola and go beat somebody’s *.

  7. badgerette85 says

    Wow… how brazen AND crooked! That’s basically thievery.
    Not sure I could let this go… bring it out in the courts and let her true colors be revealed.

  10. sweetJane says

    I don’t know who this is but I would definitely have named them if I were him.

  15. 2infinity says

    Not many of them actually have husbands so that’s a good clue! I’m going to guess Jill Zarin, Ramona Singer or Alex McCord.

    It sounds like something Ramona or Jill would say, but something Alex would do!

  17. SilverLining says

    Aviva Drescher
    I just could never really get into these “real” housewives type of reality shows. None of it’s relatable (it would be absolutely scary if it was) so I don’t know why it exists. Maybe they should just stop calling it ‘reality TV’ & call it ‘insane TV’ or at least ‘outrageous TV’ (at least then I’ll accept it for what it is; I just hate seeingsociety morale going by the wayside & people wonder why 2020 is happening).

  18. omgimbackagain says

    No idea because I don’t watch the Housewives shows (I do watch Queer Eye, though, and Bobby’s work is fantastic) but I am going to guess that one who has the criminal husband and all the daughters.
    Optional: I am really bad at handling this kind of thing so I would have to let lawyers sort it out. Not cut out to be a businesswoman!

  20. definitely says

    Aviva Drescher and her husband Reid. Other people called them out for wanting freebies while they were on the show.