Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney are firing back at a lawsuit filed against them by their former Something About Her chef, Penny Davidi.
After Penny, who previously acted as the sandwich shop’s COO/Director of Culinary, accused the Vanderpump Rules stars of failing to honor their partnership agreement, which she claimed should have given her 10% of the business, Ariana, 39, and Katie, 37, responded to the case by filing an opposition and separate trademark request for their recently-opened restaurant.
According to a July 23 report from the Daily Mail, Penny and her attorney husband, Jonathan Lee Borsuk, applied for a Something About Her trademark in August 2023 through her already-existing company, Put A Fork In It LLC, and still have ownership of the pending trademark.
As the outlet explained, Something About Her was published in a May 2024 issue of The Trademark Official Gazette, where it immediately went up for opposition. From there, the pending trademark was scheduled to be issued with a Notice of Allowance before Ariana and Katie opposed the filing on June 25 with the help of their attorney.
A short time later, Ariana and Katie further pushed back on Penny as their attorney filed for a new trademark for Something About Her and confirmed their plans to release fragrances, candles, phone cases, bags, and clothes, and also start a catering service through the booming business.
After Ariana and Katie confirmed they had parted ways with Penny, citing a financial disagreement, Penny said in her lawsuit against them that she had done a substantial amount of work to help the girls get their sandwich shop open. She also said that she agreed to a $7,500 monthly salary, which was set to increase to $10,000 a month in January 2025.
According to Penny, Ariana and Katie are now denying that they ever made an agreement with her, and she wants a judge to ensure she’ll be properly compensated for the work she did for the restaurant.
Vanderpump Rules season 12 is expected to go into production sometime later this year.