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Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney’s chef Penny Davidi shared what happened amid her falling out with the Vanderpump Rules stars over the opening of their sandwich shop, Something About Her.
On a recent episode of the show, Katie and Ariana indicated that they were no longer working with Penny, who apparently created the shop’s menu.
Speaking with The U.S. Sun, Penny shared her version of events, claiming she was “edited” out of Vanderpump Rules because of the falling out.
“Once they agree on email that they agree to my terms and that I should proceed with the work, the intent by California law, I’m a partner. I own 10% of that business,” said Penny. “Ten percent of the entire brand and of the gross. I wasn’t going to go do auditing on anybody [but] 10% of every time they took money out of the business, I would take money out of the business.”
Penny said she has texts and emails to prove she is still a business partner.
“We didn’t sign a contract… There’s an intent I sent them [and] they’re like, ‘Okay, just email us everything you want and we’ll run it by our attorneys,’” she explained. “So I have the email. I sent them everything that I wanted, which was a monthly fee, and then the percentage of the entire Something About Her brand, not of one store.”
The chef claimed she didn’t sign any contract because it wasn’t what they agreed to, and it took “months to get the first draft” from Katie and Ariana’s attorney.
“We get the first draft, and there’s so much bulls**t in there that I was like, ‘Wait a second, this is not what we agreed on,’” said Penny. “They were like, ‘Oh, we’ll give you 10% of profits vested [after] three years.’”
She said another “unreasonable clause” – which she never agreed to – was that the stars could “terminate the contract at any time with no cause [and Penny] would lose all her interest earned immediately.”
Penny claimed she was paid by them, but not as much as what they earned from merchandise. The chef didn’t say how much they allegedly owed her.
According to Penny, many interactions behind the scenes never made it to the show, and the entire business started when Lisa connected them together, though Lisa “didn’t want anything to do with the business.”
“I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m happy to jump in. I would love to be a part of this with you guys and really help you grow,’” recalled Penny. “And then Ariana was like, ‘We would love to be able to pay you. I’m sure you’re worth a lot, but we just can’t afford what it’s going to cost right now, and maybe we can work out to give you a percentage of the business,’ not a percentage of the profits of this little restaurant … So I said okay. We hugged, they filmed it, and great.”
The chef said she “dealt with everything with the city, with the landlord, getting the permits, doing all the sketching … [and even] meet with people at 2am” with the hope of getting it opened and ready.
Penny alleged she and her husband Jonathan Lee Borsuk helped to file a trademark for the business in August 2023 after getting the okay to do so. She then shared the alleged texts of Katie and Ariana giving their approval (below).
Image credit: Penny via The U.S. Sun
Image credit: Penny via The U.S. Sun
The chef also told the outlet that they never had a formal conversation about her no longer being involved in the business.
“They just stopped talking to me. Meanwhile, I was still doing all the work. They don’t even have the audacity to sit down with me,” said Penny. “I’m not some f**king garbage you picked up off the side of the street. I have a reputation in this industry, and that pissed me off more than anything.”
“I have a stake in [Something About Her]. I may not be involved, but I have a stake in it. I never agreed to walk away and I did all this work,” shared the chef, who said she doesn’t know how to move forward concerning the trademark since the stars haven’t communicated with her. “They will hopefully succeed but it will be difficult given that they are really unable to be on top of it with all they have going on. I know that it would’ve been a huge success and grown had I stayed on board.”
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