Here's the RHONY Soundbite That Got Carole Radziwill Accused of Recording a Private Conversation

Wednesday night’s Real Housewives of New York ended with a friend of Luann D’Agostino (formerly Luann de Lesseps) telling Carole Radziwill that the countess was only marrying her fiancé (now husband) Tom because “she has something to prove.” The friend, business woman Barbara Kavovit, did not want the conversation to air.

Though she was aware that Bravo was filming RHONY at the charity event she was attending—thrown by RHONY’s Dorinda Medley at Manhattan’s Bagatelle—and that she was discussing the personal business of one RHONY cast member with another RHONY cast member, Kavovit filed an emergency lawsuit with the Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this week, demanding that Bravo refrains from using her “likeness and/or voice in any manner.”

The suit reads that “at approximately 10 p.m. in the corner of the restaurant and away from any filming activities, [Kavovit] had what she believed to be a private conversation with an individual known as Carole Radziwill…Unbeknownst to her, Ms. Radziwill was wearing a microphone and this conversation was recorded.” It also alleges that Carole later recorded a phone call between the two of them, and only told Kavovit after the fact.

But before the episode aired last night, a judge rejected Kavovit’s motion. A reality TV basic lesson: When cameras are present, Real Housewives cast members are practically guaranteed to be wearing mics. In fact, some of the series’ most shocking moments happened because something scandalous was overheard on the cast’s microphones. (Think of Tamra whispering that she was going to get Gretchen “naked wasted” and David Beador’s mother saying Shannon drove him to infidelity on Real Housewives of Orange County or Joe Giudice’s vineyard conversation with his probable mistress on Real Housewives of New Jersey.) If you are on a reality TV set, it is safe—and wise—to assume that you will get the reality TV treatment.

But commonsense aside, Kavovit—even with her last minute lawsuit—was not able to stop the footage from airing because New York only requires one party consent when recording conversations, and, since we briefly see her unblurred face with a chyron labeling her name, we can assume she signed a release to be filmed at the party. (Radziwill of course would know this—as she likes to remind people, she was a journalist at ABC for 7,000 years.) And so, on Wednesday’s episode, Kavovit can be clearly heard telling Radziwill that she is not excited to go to Luann’s wedding nor is she excited for Luann because “I think she has something to prove. She’d rather go through with it and get divorced than call it off.”

Let this be a lesson to you: Don’t talk shit while cameras are rolling unless you want to be caught talking shit! Also let this be a lesson for Bravo: Less footage of Adam rock-climbing, more footage of randos dishing dirt and the ‘wives getting trashed at the oily orgy den known as Beautique. This season has been a snooze!