RHONJ: Pay Attention, Please! with Danielle Staub

00:00:00
Speaker 1: We're new to filming. We're just like a couple episodes in. I don't think we'd been filming for even a month at that point, and we weren't getting the scene that you guys wanted. And I understand how this works. I've been on camera for many, many years or many times prior to that, so I'm like, I'm just gonna give you what you want. Tell me what you want me to do, and I will do it so I can wrap. And you're like, put these on and you handed me eight or nine inches to the lettles by Gucci open towel. Beautiful. But I also think I said, huh, just promise me this isn't going to be like the way people think of me for all times and like an opening scene. And you're like, I can't promise you that, but I'll try opening scene me walking to white Pool instill Lettos. That is all Carlos, Yes, and I'll be honest with you. It did make my legs look super hot.

00:01:00
Speaker 2: Stay tuned look into my conversation with Danielle Stouths right after quick ads.

00:01:13
Speaker 3: Welcome to Reality with the King.

00:01:15
Speaker 2: It's me Carlos King, the King of Reality TV and one of the most sought after executive producers in reality television.

00:01:25
Speaker 3: With over ten years of production.

00:01:27
Speaker 2: Experience, I've executive produced top rated programs such as eight seasons of the.

00:01:33
Speaker 3: Real Housewives of Atlanta.

00:01:35
Speaker 2: Additionally, I have created shows such as Netflix Is Styling, Hollywood Owns, number one rated Love and Marriage Franchise, and TV one's Hollywood.

00:01:46
Speaker 3: Divas, just to name a few.

00:01:49
Speaker 2: Twice a week on Reality with the King, we'll sit down with my friends across the entertainment industry, recap our favorite reality shows and revisit I forget about moments that we are still talking and tweeting about. Hey, rain drops. On today's podcast, Reality with the King, I got someone that I considered to be one of the greatest housewives of all time. She was actually number ten on my list. Honey, that's right. I'm talking about the iconic legend herself, Danielle Style.

00:02:28
Speaker 3: Look I love me some Danielle.

00:02:30
Speaker 2: As you all know, I produced the first two seasons of the Real Housewives of New Jersey, and I was Danielle's producer season one.

00:02:39
Speaker 3: Season two, she told me not to come to our house child. We talk about that.

00:02:45
Speaker 2: We also talk about her experience being on the show how I feel she doesn't get the credit she deserves for the success of the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Yes, Teresa is an icon of the legend and I love her too. However, I think Danielle needs to get the same exact credit as Teresa because they both made the show a hit. And that's coming straight from me. We also get into her relationship with Melissa Gorga and whether or not she was fired after pulling Margaret's hair. Yes, honey, we talk about it all. So without further ado get into my conversation.

00:03:26
Speaker 3: With my girl, Danielle Stou.

00:03:30
Speaker 2: Where were you when you found out that I coined you as number ten of the greatest housewives of all time?

00:03:37
Speaker 1: Literally sitting about right where I am now, and I'm sipping my tea as I am now, and I'm looking at my phone. Let's pretend it's here, and I'm like, huh, I got an alert Carlos King wait what page six? What what's happening? And I'm like, holy shit. Finally he's like speaking for me, and I was like, oh my god, I'm so honored. I nearly fell off my chair. I ran around, like wanting to tell somebody, but when you're alone, it's not as like it doesn't have as big of a well, but it can today, Like I can tell everybody today. I think I reposted it like thirty times. I didn't even know what pages I was reposting it from. I just ran with it because not for nothing, it's huge to me. You came into my life at the same time our lives collided on the show. Yes, and without you, just like you said, there would be no season two without me in season one and no table Flip and without all that. There would have been none of that without you because you were holding my hand, guiding me. I mean, we were fourteen eighteen hours a day sometimes go into it.

00:04:47
Speaker 3: Let me tell y'all.

00:04:48
Speaker 2: So I wasn't a social producer.

00:04:50
Speaker 3: You guys know the story.

00:04:51
Speaker 2: My first reality show was The Real Housewalds at Atlanta in two thousand and eight, and I did that during the summer, I was called to do The Real Housewalts of New Jersey, and you guys know that I was assigned to Nimi Leagues on Atlanta and on New Jersey. I was assigned to Danielle Staub, That's right, and.

00:05:11
Speaker 3: We instantly fell in love.

00:05:14
Speaker 2: And that opening shot of Danielle wearing the heels going to the pool was my idea.

00:05:21
Speaker 1: It was all your idea. I mean, I have taken so many people have said, you know, you could have just like Warren flats or flips. That's what people do. I'm like, in my mind, I would say every time and reply, but never publicly, like bitch, I wore flip flops. They made me put these on because it was either that or we would keep filming until we found something that would that wow factor. So here's how it went. I was getting my you know, my monthly you know, a little visitor, and I was becoming very cranky and angry. And we're new to filming. We're just like a couple episodes in. I don't think we'd been filming for even a month at that point, and we weren't getting the scene that you guys wanted. And I understand how this works. I've been on camera for many, many years and many times prior to that. So I'm like, I'm just gonna give you what you want. Tell me what you want me to do, and I will do it so I can wrap. And you're like, put these on, and you handed me eight or nine inch stilettos by Gucci, open towel beautiful. But I also think I said, huh, just promise me, this isn't going to be like the way people think of me for all times and like an opening scene. And You're like, I can't promise you that, but I'll try opening scene me walking to white Pool install lettos. That was all Carlos, Yes, and I'll be honest with you. It did make my legs look super hot.

00:06:54
Speaker 2: Well, Danielle, you're a hot and that was the thing because Danielle was the devorce say on.

00:06:58
Speaker 1: The show Brushley Divorce. It was right on the heels of it.

00:07:02
Speaker 2: And when Carlos King is assigned to you, we're going to make iconic moments happen.

00:07:09
Speaker 3: And I knew that.

00:07:11
Speaker 2: I wanted to make sure that the moment you saw Danielle Stobb, it had to be memorable. So thank you for trusting me. You and I were a great team.

00:07:20
Speaker 1: To be honest with you, If they had assigned me anybody else, it wouldn't have gone the same way. I get where you're coming from when I meet people or they meet me at my level, and you met me at my level. You knew what I needed to make me shine, and I couldn't have felt comfortable doing that and owning my own sexuality and sensuality and and my you know, my hotness like I was in my forties. But I think that, you know, it's just so many times that you know, you and crew will get unnoticed for the things that they've done. I've always tried to acknowledge the fact that, like you guys made me shine, were there every day to make me shine.

00:08:02
Speaker 2: Talk to me about that first season, because one thing that I revealed on my podcast is I was the one who went underneath the table to hand you the book that took place on the table.

00:08:14
Speaker 3: But prior to that, talk to the audience about how.

00:08:18
Speaker 2: You even discovered that there were conversations about this book unbeknownst to you that the other cast members were shooting scenes about it.

00:08:28
Speaker 1: The discovery of the book came about quite frankly, because I was told by Jaccolin, you know, that it was circulating and that Dina had been at the helm of that. And it didn't matter how it came about. I was grateful that I knew about it, because here I am living a life different from when I was nineteen and twenty years old, and you wouldn't think you'd be judged for something you did when you were a kid. You think you'd be patted on the back for surviving it, or maybe just like curious, how did you get through something like that?

00:09:08
Speaker 2: And did Jack want to tell you off camera first? Yeah, you kept out a secret for a long time, Danielle.

00:09:14
Speaker 1: I kept a lot of secrets. I still have a lot of them vested because I'm just not that person. But there's a point in my life that I've gotten to now where I realize this is not in any way an act of getting back at somebody. It's just I'm not going to carry their load anymore. It's a lot of it was put on me because I didn't speak up.

00:09:36
Speaker 2: You found out the other women were talking about the book. Tell the listeners how once you learn that this book was a top your conversation. It was your idea to bring the book to the finale, not the producers.

00:09:51
Speaker 3: It was Danielle.

00:09:53
Speaker 1: So I'll never forget you actually trying to talk me out of it in a in a way that would have benefited protecting me, like do you really want that out there kind of way? Because what they're saying ain't nice, and I'm just trying to let you know. When you asked me, so what are we going to do? I said, I think I'm going to bring the book and just find out if anyone would like to ask me questions, being as I'm the only other person besides the author that would have had that experience, and you have access to me, so why not ask me if it's about me? I knew it was going to cause what it caused. I am smart enough to know that.

00:10:34
Speaker 2: And remember how we were like you were like we Carlos, I can't walk in with the book. And then you were like, I'm going to have a purse. I said, you know what, put the book in your purse. When you come to the restaurant, call me. I'll meet you outside while they'll mike you up. Hand me your purse because you can't walk in with this big ass book. We were shooting for maybe an hour or two and you know, nothing was happening, and then we were like, you know, what is time for the book. So then I leave video village where all the producers are.

00:11:04
Speaker 1: We went on a little break. We all had to tidy up. I knew what was coming and I knew you were setting the stage for it, and I also knew that there were still people that didn't leave the dining area and were at the dining table, and it was gonna be a little difficult for you to do it without people still sitting there. So I'm the last to enter after the break, and when I sit down, you see me reach under the table. Just that same motion and film and the timing was just brilliant. All of a sudden, all the cameras start realigning, and that's when I'm like, Yeah, it's time, just pick up that book. A bam, not.

00:11:44
Speaker 2: A word said, No, not a word, step for like maybe, well like an a comfortable thirty minutes. And then finally the ice was broken and you had a table flip in your direction. So when Teresa flipped that table, what were you thinking? Because Dan Yell, what I tell people is, prior to that, Teresa was sort of like be underdog, Like no one looked at Teresa as being the fort is today. So when she flipped it, what were you literally thinking in that moment?

00:12:16
Speaker 1: Oh, flashes of warnings from a few of the ladies. You know, you don't want to piss her off. She'll flip.

00:12:24
Speaker 2: Did you think in that moment that this would be the end of your friendship with Jacqueline? Although she defended you and had your back, Did you think in that present moment that this would be the end? Because you and jackelm were such good friends at that time.

00:12:39
Speaker 1: I knew that we were already moving away from that friendship because I would never see it in the way of family, and I felt her need to be a part of that family so desperately, and who wouldn't. I thought that she was and still is, you know, a quality human. I don't think she knows very well how to express yourself sometimes and it's frustrating to her. And that's okay, doesn't make her a bad person, just means, you know, our journeys and our friendship came to an impath at the time.

00:13:16
Speaker 3: When was the last time you've seen or spoken to Jacqueline?

00:13:20
Speaker 1: At the reunion season two, when I said goodbye and I hugged her, that was it. That was it. We're talking about somebody that I could leave for the diner with my kids and leave her on speakerphone in the house and come home and she's still talking like I'm there. We talked all day, every day, all day, every day. There was sometimes I had to like Jacqueline, I'll leave you on speaker, but I gotta shoot the scene right now, you remember, I literally, true, literally couldn't hang up the phone. No, no, no, stay on with me. I want to hear. I want to hear, and you guys would be like, nah, you gotta go. And that's when I knew things were really going in a different direction, when we started to have to be private with each other and I could feel she wasn't telling me things that were going on with her scenes either anymore. So I just I zipped it. Literally, the shift came much with a warning, and so that's when I did say goodbye. You know, I meant it. I just really wanted her to let me go, you know, and not not make this energy continue because I didn't want that energy between us. It had gotten, you know, it had gotten pretty bad and an off camera as well, and I didn't want that. I couldn't have known that, I mean, letting go is one thing, but not having that be reciprocated. I couldn't have known that that would still be I'd still be a problem for them. When I literally was just I was happy and appreciative that we had our time together, and I understood why it had to end. I don't understand the you know.

00:15:01
Speaker 3: Do you miss her?

00:15:03
Speaker 1: Do I miss her? Here's the thing, I'm okay with people not being in my life that have done certain things to make me believe that they prefer not being in my life. I will never want to be around someone that doesn't value me again. I valued myself much less then than I do now, and I'm also much older now, and I understand that at this point in my life there will be no way I would be friends with women like that. I wasn't friends with them prior to the show. I think that I was an easy pond for them for their story that they wanted to drive. If I'm being one hundred percent completely honest, I was there, Patsy. I was their person to put blame on for all the things that they needed to hide while I was in sweep under the rug, while I was thinking we were creating a friendship.

00:15:56
Speaker 2: So you think the other women at the time use your storyline what you had going on this book to hide their secrets or things they were going through.

00:16:10
Speaker 1: Otherwise it wouldn't have happened the way it happened when I removed myself. It wasn't the next season that they all turned on Teresa. And then on my birthday, you know, the forty two counts of fraud, she was arrested for my phone. I wouldn't have even known about it, but press was blowing up my phone. My daughter's answered the phone, like for TMZ or somebody, and they're like, this is TMZ. We want to know Danielle's take, and the blah blah blah, and my daughter's like, this is her birthday and we want to wish her a happy birthday. Wouldn't she want this news? I said, tell them, no, I'm not that Why would that make me happy. I don't take other people's problems as a good thing. Yeah.

00:16:48
Speaker 2: No. One of the things that is so funny is so you and I this season went together, and I was your producer, and then the episode started airing, and then you who were so mad at me. I was banned from Danielle's house. I was banned from being Danielle's producer. Yep, Danielle sit me up text saying you did not protect me and me and Danielle did not film with each other for the entirety of season two.

00:17:18
Speaker 3: That's right.

00:17:20
Speaker 1: And they asked me to come back and forth with you as my producer, and that's why I didn't come back. One of the reasons I didn't come back. I was still mad. And then all of a sudden, I realized it was like an AHA moment after the show started filming when I said I wouldn't come back, when they asked me back and four season four, and I'm like, oh my god, Carlos is the reason they all want to apologize to me? What the fuck did I just do? Because you were I was told by you know, your higher up, you're superior herself, the owner of production. Yeah, they're all like I think they really are sincerely. They've been spoken to, and I couldn't figure out. I still didn't trust anybody. I was still like, oh my god, you know I can't trust anyone. You know, everyone's against me. And I was in that mindset of victim, victim victim, and I couldn't see that you were fucking raising me up. You were trying to and that was my open door and I totally missed it because I know it was you that had spoken to them like, don't you feel kind of bad? Even Caroline wanted to say something, and whether it was because she was afraid that there wasn't going to be another season unless I came back or not, it didn't matter. Someone had gotten in her ear, and I believed that you were one of the people that was at least one of the people, if not the only person that was saying to them, you guys want to take another look at what you might have done differently with Danielle. Something to that.

00:18:51
Speaker 2: You and I are friends and listen, that's why on the bridge, But at that time you felt isolated.

00:18:58
Speaker 1: I thought you were going behind my back and giving information that I had. Meanwhile, it was it was them. They were looking into me. You had given any of my secrets away or the things that I had filmed. I just had lost so much trust and there were rumors going around about everyone, and I didn't know who to believe. I really felt like there was I was alone on the island and I needed to isolate myself to protect myself. And yeah, I shut you out big time.

00:19:28
Speaker 2: I never took it personally because I always said to the producers, because they said to me, Danielle does not.

00:19:35
Speaker 3: Want you around her. You cannot be her producer.

00:19:38
Speaker 2: Anymore, Oh my gosh, and you can't go through any of her scenes. And I remember thinking to myself, I just want her to know that I understand.

00:19:49
Speaker 3: I listen. I don't know what it feels like to be on.

00:19:51
Speaker 2: A show where everybody doesn't like you like that is tough.

00:19:56
Speaker 1: It was really rough. And it wasn't for an episode or too like everybody gets their episode where everyone's hating on him. I had every episode everyone hating on me. I lost trust for everybody, you know. It was it was. It was because of the circumstances and carrying that really started to mess with my head. That in the physical attacks literally, you know, became a little much.

00:20:22
Speaker 2: So let's talk about the physical attacks. So you talk about Ashley pulling your hair. A lot of people when they watched that episode and you're in your interview chair and you have this chunk of hair, a lot of people believe, Danielle that you went to party City, bought a wig, cut off some hair and have a chuck in your interview.

00:20:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, now asked the truth was that your hair.

00:20:44
Speaker 2: That Ashley pulled, that you were holding in your head during the interview.

00:20:49
Speaker 1: It was my hair, and it had Leonard, my other favorite person in the world, who was the showrunner. Had he had admitted that he was at the hospital with me, perhaps it would have gone a little differently. So, yes, and I did get a concussion, and I was hurt being treated like that, first of all by somebody that I really cared for and loved and looked at like you know, I wanted to mother her at times because I knew that's what she needed from me. And then to be I don't know she knew. The reasons they gave for doing what they did to me wouldn't make sense to anybody because the cameras would have let you hear me attacking jagulines. So that was just an excuse and enough for nothing. When was I ever in the lead at any of these fights, I was the one trying to walk away. Always, if I had to run to get away, I would run. It wasn't because I was scared, is because I didn't want to be treated like that and have it trigger my PTSD. Didn't want to feel like I felt like when I was a child, and knowing that they knew all of that made it enhance one hundred times more because there was a friendship level there where we had trust, where we shared certain things that I would have never used against them in a time of like that. You just don't do that. You don't use it against people anyway. But that's where all that came from. It was it was I couldn't I couldn't wrap my head around why this was even happening. Why why physically people are really coming at me.

00:22:36
Speaker 2: Now, stay tuned for more of my conversation with Danielle.

00:22:43
Speaker 3: Will be right back after this quick break. This is Reality with the King, and I'm Carlos King.

00:22:53
Speaker 2: Let's get back into my conversation with Danielle. Do you feel like you don't get the credit you deserve for the success of that franchise?

00:23:06
Speaker 1: Never have until you came out with your list. Never my fans have tried, but you know, nobody of recognition like you have stepped into the arena and stepped up and said, let's give Danielle. I mean, I thank my fans. I don't want them to be minimized, you know, having somebody and they've been the ones asking, well, somebody, Andy, will you say something? Somebody, will you say something? I see there because they include me in it. Otherwise I wouldn't see it. But when you did this, it was life changing. It's career changing for me. I've been sitting here wondering what am I going to do with all of this. I have this fame and this platform that I've been kind of handcuffed away from using because I'm set in the stigma, you know, for the masses. But you broke broke it. You just broke right through that wall and you reached for me.

00:23:56
Speaker 2: You are such an icon, You're such a legend. I mean when I say, if it wasn't for you, the Real Housewats in New Jersey would not be hit it is today. And listen, I love Teresa, and even Teresa will admit that that table flip changed her career. That table flip would not have happened if it wasn't for you.

00:24:16
Speaker 1: That is her career. That's all she's known for that, you know, and dissing Danielle out of a paycheck twice, the person that put her on the map.

00:24:24
Speaker 3: So let's talk about that.

00:24:26
Speaker 2: Is do you feel like Teresa is responsible for you not being on the Real housewas in New Jersey?

00:24:31
Speaker 1: Teresa's responsible for not allowing what happened to happen to me twice because she sat in front of my daughter on camera and promised that would never happen again, that she would have my back. I had her back until I realized she's stomping on me and using me for an excuse for that hair pool, which ended our friendship. I didn't blame her for it. I took responsibility for doing it was my actions. I would have never thought of doing that on my own ever. Ever I did it. I regret it now. I never said that before. I apologize for the actions because I would never be violent towards another person. I was abused my whole life. I've been abused publicly by people because of my past and because of the misunderstanding, and for her being mad at me. Keeping her secret seemed a little bit redundant, don't you think, and then on top of it, saying, oh, well, they're not going to show that. In other words, she thought it was all going to be hidden, all gonna be fine, Danielle's going to go down again. And then when I saw the outfall of that, and I said, Teresa, she wouldn't talk to me after that? Well, she literally took down every photo of us together and blocked me while we were still filming that season because I said, yeah, it was her idea. I didn't do that on my own. I take response ability for the action of it, but nobody seemed really mad at her for even suggesting it. Was just like, oh, it's all on Danielle.

00:26:08
Speaker 2: When that hairpull happened. Were you fired from the show? Were you asked to leave or did you remove yourself from the show.

00:26:15
Speaker 1: No, I've never been fired from the Real Housewives. I'm glad you asked that question because so many people are getting it wrong. I resigned on watch What Happens Live, and I made it a live show January eighth, twenty twenty or a twenty twenty one, whatever that was. And I didn't tell Andy what I came there to do. I just made him promise that it would be live. I wouldn't pretape. And so when I came on and he said, well, you had something you wanted to say, I brought Jillian on. She had a cake. I left a cake for everybody, and I said, yeah, actually I do something to say. I said, I'm here to let you know I will never again film with the Real Housewives of New Jersey. I'm done, and he's like, wait wait he first started like flipping through his cars. He's like, wait, never, never, and he jokes, he goes, how about with other franchises. I go, maybe Dallas? Steph Holden was there. I said, maybe Atlanta or a Dallas. Sure, but never with the Real Housews in New Jersey. Well, film again.

00:27:15
Speaker 2: What is your relationship like now with Melissa Gorga?

00:27:20
Speaker 1: You know, it's so funny. I never really had a relationship with her. I tried to when I came back. I thought she was cute, and Teresa would be like, she's not cute. I guess, I guess she's cute. She'd go back and forth with it, and I'm like, I don't understand why you guys didn't get along, you know originally, and then I'd get the dirt from both ends.

00:27:36
Speaker 4: But to be honest with you, Melissa just glew me up. In the first two seasons. Every day of filming she wanted me to put around the show. She needed me to put around the show. She actually said, why don't you bring the crew and the cameras and come to our house and Joey and I will film with you, and we'll tell everybody about Teresa and Joe. And I'm like, uh huh, I don't get involved in family business, and I'm not doing that now, but I can tell you now.

00:28:06
Speaker 1: And it was like the second season. I go, I'm nearing the end of the season. I'm going to leave. And when I leave, I've been giving all of your information to production, to Andy Cohen, to the higher ups at Bravo and at NBCUNI, and I'm pretty much sure that I've gotten you in your chance to be on the show. So take your shot now, tell her all the things you need to say, but leave me out of it. I'm just giving you a chance to be on the show that you've been begging me to be on, but you wanted me to be the person that was put to blame for all of this coming out.

00:28:44
Speaker 2: Well, let me ask you this, because now that it has been revealed that Bravo was doing there were a Housewives of New York Legacy and they're going they're going to do a reboot with the more diverse younger Calf. Would you be interested if an offer was on the table for the real Housewives on New Jersey Legacy? With the ogs you, Teresa, Jacqueline, Dina and Caroline.

00:29:11
Speaker 3: Would you be interested in that?

00:29:15
Speaker 1: I'm not making one more cast member famous again. Margaret famous on my heels taking me down after I befriended her when no one liked her in her first season. Jennifer, same thing. I took her under my wing, hung out with her, defended her ran after, helped her when Margaret was going after Jackie's the only one I didn't. And you know why, I don't really care because she didn't know Margaret before the show. And they're pretending to have a friendship whatever. Who cares like they're all hanging out off camera. No, you're not, You're really not. You know, I don't even hang out with them off camera. So who's hanging out with you? Newbies? The newbies have got to go? Sorry to say the Jersey end.

00:29:57
Speaker 3: You don't like the newbies.

00:29:59
Speaker 1: I think it's all done. And said before when they regurgitated my past and what hurt me. They allowed Margaret Joseph to do that at one of the reunions and call me by a name and say the things that she said to me. I said, there will be no one else that ever gets famous off of my past again.

00:30:23
Speaker 3: Baby, don't talk. Just love some Danielle. She is so funny to me, so real and just so freaking iconic. And I'm with Danielle.

00:30:33
Speaker 2: I would love to see a real housewife of New Jersey Legacy edition.

00:30:37
Speaker 3: Guys, think about it.

00:30:40
Speaker 2: Teresa, Caroline, Dina, Jacqueline, LaRita and Danielle style.

00:30:46
Speaker 3: Baby, sign me up for that hunt.

00:30:48
Speaker 2: That's popcorn waiting on me as I fed my faith and watch that glory. Yes, Danielle, you better produce that so look. I love Danielle and I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did talking to her. Thoughts opinions reads about my conversation with Danielle. Email me at Reality with the King at stitcher dot com or leave me a voicemail at three one oho five ninety three eight one eight eight. Thank you for listening to Reality with the King. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday, Share, comment, follow, and subscribe to Reality with the King. Wherever you get your podcast, visit realitywithe King dot com and be sure to follow me at the Carlos King Underscore on Instagram and Twitter. Reality with the King is a production of more sauce by Stitcher.

00:31:49
Speaker 3: It is executive.

00:31:50
Speaker 2: Produced by me Carlos King and Jasmine Henley Brown. We are also produced by Sierra Spradley, Rix engineering and music by Marcus ham Moist