Star witness to become star?
SICCING lawyers on a potential employer might put off some bosses — but not the scandal-addicted execs at Bravo, it seems. Sources exclusively tell Page Six that the network is “testing” an unlikely new cast member for “Real Housewives of New York City” —Barbara Kavovit, aka Barbara K, who took the network to court when it aired a conversation recorded by a hot mike.
We’re told Kavovit is filming with the rest of the cast as a tryout to become a full-time costar (as opposed to a so-called “friend of the ‘Housewives,’ ” or part-time cast member).
Kavovit tried to get an injunction against the network in May 2017, telling a judge that she was at an event in 2016 with then-cast member Carole Radziwill, and that the pair stepped aside to talk. Kavovit — who runs a business called DIYva that markets tools to women — said she believed the conversation to be private, but that it was picked up on Radziwill’s mike.
When she discovered Bravo planned to air the tête-à-tête, Kavovit filed an emergency suit with Manhattan Supreme Court seeking to prevent them from airing the episode until they edited out the chat.
Sources tell us that Kavovit likely laid into pal Luann de Lesseps in the chat. In court, a text from an unnamed cast member — likely de Lesseps — was submitted as evidence, and it read, “I really don’t want to see you. You watch the next episode that’s on Wednesday and you tell me what you would do.” (Apparently they’re back on good terms, because de Lesseps and Kavovit were running around the Hamptons over the summer just before de Lesseps went off the rails again.)
A judge quickly tossed the case on First Amendment grounds. Meanwhile, sources said that producers are hoping Kavovit gels — or, presumably, spectacularly doesn’t — with the other stars. Kavovit would replace Radziwill, who left over the summer.
Better get those lawyers on speed dial.