Lisa Barlow found herself on the defensive again during the recent episode of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. Despite having tentatively patched things up with cast mast Whitney Rose, the two ladies found themselves at odds again.
It all came down to an event that was to be hosted by RHOSLC newbie Angie Harrington. Currently she is cast as a “friend” to Whitney and she also has history with Lisa, but is already making Real Housewives level drama. When the caterers suddenly pulled out of the event, Angie was upset and spoke to Whitney about it on camera. Whitney suggested that Lisa had something to do with the caterers bailing. The resulting tears and drama will likely drag out and create a further rift between Lisa and Whitney.
However, the caterers are coming forward to say that Lisa had no input on their decision to withdraw from working the LGBTQ fundraiser. The office manager for chefs Marco and Aubrey Niccoli told Page Six, “Lisa had NOTHING to do with them not being able to do Angie’s event — and Angie knows that. The truth is that they had just opened their restaurant and had prior commitments.”
Whitney seemed to have fabricated a story because of her own bias towards Lisa. There was no evidence to the contrary. “Lisa’s sabotaging you,” she told Angie during the episode. “I may be blonde but I am not stupid,” Whitney said later in her confessional, “this is not a coincidence.”
As the scene progressed, Lisa was reduced to tears defending herself to her longtime friend. She sobbed, “I don’t know what to say. Angie, I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know how this has anything to do with me.”
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Interestingly, Angie later admitted that Lisa was, “capable of meddling in my event because she doesn’t want me to be friends with Whitney.” Lisa may want to reconsider her friendship with Angie, but the people most in need of clearing their names are the Niccoli’s.
And it seems like it all just came down to business logistics. Their office manager revealed to Page Six that prior conversations about filming RHOSLC at their restaurant had taken place, so “that’s the direction that made the most sense for their business.”
“They helped Angie find a different caterer, who ended up being Chef Marco’s brother’s catering company,” the manager added.
Unfortunately, their connection with the show resulted in negative social media attention. Aubrey Niccoli revealed that she and Lisa got a lot of hate from a “completely fabricated” story, and suggested that Angie wanted to “create a storyline for herself.”
The chef posted a full statement to Instagram in her defense, and in Lisa’s defense as well. “She has falsely accused @lisabarlow14 of sabotage. Accusing us of bad business, and it is absolutely disgusting, hurtful and most importantly FALSE,” Aubrey wrote.
“We chose not to do Angie’s event ultimately as a business decision,” the chef added, “We had prior conversations with Lisa and Jen’s [Shah’s] assistant (Stuart Smith) to tentatively film at our newly opened restaurant. I said yes to gather more information about her event to see if we could do it.”
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Aubrey also publicly shared a conversation she had with Lisa. Bravo fan account @cocktailsandgossip posted the relevant screenshots. They confirmed that the chef was “absolutely” on board to catering a RHOSLC event prior to Angie tried to book as well. “Just let us know when and we’ll make it happen!” Aubrey told Lisa.
Aubrey “tentatively said yes,” to Angie’s event as well, but required, “more information about the event from Angie and from the production team.” Aubrey’s manager continued, “once they spoke with Dina [producer from Bravo], they made the ultimate decision to decline. There were multiple reasons why it didn’t make sense for them to do Angie’s event and they chose to film at their newly opened restaurant Niño Viejo as a business decision. The decision had nothing to do with Lisa Barlow. It was a decision based on what was best for their business.”
Aubrey also went public with texts she got from Angie. @Housewivesofslc twitter page posted the screenshots, which confirm what was explained by the office manager.
Aubrey’s main concern seemed to be that her catering company would not get any mention, after Angie asked her to do the event for free.
“I never fully committed [to] or took a deposit from Angie,” Aubrey posted to her Instagram, “and the truth is she asked us to do it for FREE for advertising since it was going to be filmed.” It can also be seen that Angie asked the chef not to tell Lisa. Now who’s looking shady!
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Aubrey explained further, “It also is completely normal to get all of the information about an event before signing contracts and taking a deposit. That never happened. We kindly declined after a call we had with a Bravo producer named Dina. NOT talking to Lisa. I cannot say this enough… Lisa did NOT tell us to not do Angie’s event. Never happened and she never would do something like that. Let it be known Angie is the liar and the one sabotaging our name our business and Lisa.”
For her part, Lisa also took to social media to defend herself. “I would never cancel a caterer nor is that something anyone could do @marconiccoli and @aubreyniccoli are amazing people,” the business woman wrote.
“I would never mess with somebody else’s business and I would never mess with any of my friends,” Lisa added in a statement to Page Six, “I thought it was really funny that Whitney would think I cared so much about our friendship that I would try and sabotage a party. That’s illogical and just weird.”
“It’s sad that people want to attack small business owners in the food and beverage space especially during these times. Unbelievable,” Aubrey concluded.
Indeed, and how will this all play out on screen?
RELATED: Lisa Barlow Says She Has PTSD From Filming Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City Season 2
TELL US- DO YOU THINK LISA WAS RESPONSIBLE? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHITNEY ACCUSING LISA? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ANGIE AS LISA’S FRIEND?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]