Lisa Vanderpump may have left behind the days of drama and drunk cast trips for good when she quit the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills back in 2019. But it seems the reality series isn’t quite done with her or bringing bringing her name up just yet, whether she likes it or not. The 61-year-old talked about giving fellow RHOBH alum Garcelle Beauvais’ son a job and whether it was a good decision in the long run.
We first learned about the surprising job employment during the currently-running twelfth season of RHOBH. Garcelle Beauvais revealed to the group that her son, 31-year-old Oliver Saunders, got a gig with their former frenemy, which led to some hilariously shady responses on their end. Lisa Vanderpump shared her side of the story to Entertainment Tonight and, as it turns out, it was a favor to the relative newbie to the franchise:
I mean, Garcelle came to me when we were having this fundraiser for Haiti, and she said, 'Could you give my son a job?’ To me, that's always something I don’t want to hear. I didn't know Garcelle very well and I said, 'Well, what does he do?’ [She said] he wants work in the restaurant business. And so then, I said, 'Where does he live?' and she said, 'Vegas,' and I thought, 'OK, that's easier for me because I’m not so directly involved on a day-to-day basis.'
As Bravo fans know all too well, Lisa Vanderpump and her husband, Ken, own several restaurants in the greater L.A. area. Those locations, to include the legally embattled Pump and Sur restaurants, have been documented at length on the spinoff series Vanderpump Rules (which airs on the same network). However, the reality TV queen opened up her first Las Vegas joint, the Vanderpump Cocktail Garden, at Caesars Palace in 2019. And this past April, Vanderpump à Paris opened as well, and it's apparently where Garcelle Beauvais’ son is currently working. Vanderpump told the outlet:
He's turned out to be a gift. He's been great and so I put him in the space of my restaurant, you know, in Caesars Palace, and he has moved to Paris [Las Vegas]. And he's great. I like it very much.
Truth be told, though, this might’ve been a whole different story (or should we say “storyline”?) if Garcelle Beauvais had been part of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills at the same time as Lisa Vanderpump. The latter, in fact, had an infamous falling-out with all of her castmates that concerned a dog adopted by Dorit Kemsley back in the day. To make a long story short, Vanderpump was accused of talking to the press and recruiting some ladies to do the dirty work of painting Kemsley in a bad light. It even resulted in the dissolution of her longtime friendship with Kyle Richards.
Their feud continued to live on in the wake of Lisa Vanderpump’s exit from RHOBH. Something about a “new nose” comment… In addition, the former star had also gotten into a dine-and-dash debacle with a different franchise alum altogether. And last year, Vanderpump had some seriously shady thoughts about the RHOBH cast keeping quiet on the show about Erika Jayne’s legal troubles.
Like I said, she’s gone but obviously not totally ready to hang up the Bravo antics for good. Still, Garcelle Beauvais’ son working for her makes one think that perhaps the restaurateur has softened somewhat since becoming a grandmother (who doesn't mind coming up with cute names for her grandkid) in the interim? It also makes one wonder if Beauvais' son -- who famously incited a drunken Erika Jayne to offer him and his wife a threesome on RHOBHI -- might be headlining the recently greenlit tenth season of Vanderpump Rules at some point…
Time will tell. Catch up on all seasons past of Vanderpump Rules and Season 12 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills with a Peacock Premium subscription!
