Jeff Lewisand Jenni Pulos get into a brutal argument in a new teaser from next week’s season finale ofFlipping Out.
In the video, Pulos and Lewis have a heated exchange over her desire to pursue an acting career, which she feels has taken a backseat to her role as Lewis’s assistant. Pulos, 45, claims she turned down “probably 40” auditions while working for him. “You’ve always minimized my acting,” she says. “It’s what you love to do. And I’m over it. I’m so over it.”
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The scene appears to be the beginnings of the blow-up that resulted inPulos’s exit from Jeff Lewis Designin May.
Lewis doesn’t believe he’s had any impact on his longtime executive assistant and co-star’s show business prospects.
“This is what I’m not going to buy into,” the house flipper, 48, says. “I’m not going to buy into somehow you could have developed a career as an actress, but this job is holding you back. I’m not subscribing to any of that.”
When Lewis denies that he’s underestimated Pulos, she says that he always has “since the day I met you. ‘You should host. You’re not this. You can’t do this, and your rapping is stupid.’ All of the stuff you’ve said along the years.”
In September, PEOPLE broke the news thatthe pair, who had been friends for nearly 20 years, had parted ways, ending their personal and professional relationship.
Speaking for the first timesince their falling out exclusively to PEOPLE, Pulos vehemently denied that claim.
“Citing wrongful termination claim, wrong. Citing abuse claim, wrong. Citing victimization claim, wrong,” she said. And as for their relationship on the show, “it was very real,” she says. “I was his employee and I worked for him. It was very authentic, and that’s important.”
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In an interview filmed after the scene in the clip and spliced in, Lewis’s design associate Megan Weaver says of the confrontation, “I could feel it escalating. I just kept thinking to myself, can we please get out of here?”
But Lewis does not let it go, and pushes Pulos further.
“Jenni, I just live in a very real world—a very realistic, practical, tangible world,” he says. “I don’t live in a dream world and I’m wondering if you should take a look at your strategy or something that you’re doing, because you’ve been in every room in L.A. and I’m just wondering why nothing has stuck.”
Pulos says that there are “a lot of things” she hasn’t told Lewis about, including auditions. “But I will tell you what I have done,” she continues. “I’ve hustled, and I’m going to continue to hustle. It doesn’t just always happen overnight.”
“I think you’re ashamed,” Lewis responds. “I think you’re ashamed of being my assistant.”
Speaking to PEOPLE, Pulos opened up about their final fight, which was reportedly caught on camera: “After the final disagreement, I decided I was not going to continue a friendship with someone who thought of me the way he did.” She remains, for now, an executive producer, thoughFlipping Outhas not yet been picked up for another season on Bravo. Lewis said on his Sirius XM radio show that hiscontract with the network was not renewedbefore an Oct. 15 deadline. He later clarified, claiming theshow has not been canceled.
The season finale ofFlipping Outairs Tuesday, September 20, at 10/9c on Bravo.
source: people.com
