Nothing puts the “disaster” in disaster relief like a cafeteria-style showdown—especially if the women involved are TV hostess Star Jones and Surreal Life diva Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth. Sources say that the two got into a Mexican standoff when Jones gave the former Apprentice villain the hairy eyeball at BET’s recent S.O.S. Saving Ourselves telethon for the victims of Katrina.
“She kept giving Omarosa dirty looks and whispering things to her husband [Al Reynolds], and rolling her eyes whenever Omarosa was around,” says our backstage mole.
Omarosa remained oblivious to Jones’s antics, we’re told, until an unidentified member of 80s R&B group New Edition brought them to her attention—prompting Omarosa to sneer, “Star doesn’t want any trouble with me. If I can deal with a crazy crackhead like Janice Dickinson, I can handle her.”
Word of the exchange spread quickly backstage and orders were given to keep the two separated. What caused the tiff was unclear, but one witness speculated that the charitable diva—who donated 100 pairs of shoes and her Emmy dress for those Katrina refugees in need of extra-wide stilettos or a spare tent—was merely hungry.
Omarosa, we hear, was ravenous as well. Having recently announced her separation from husband Aaron Stallworth, she was spotted cozying up to everyone from rapper Q-Tip to Six Feet Under’s Matthew St. Patrick in search of a high-profile hook-up.
Jones’s rep, Brad Zeifman, dismissed the incident as “100 percent untrue,” saying, “there was too much love and support in the room for any cattiness.” Omarosa’s publicist, Priscilla Clark, said she “hadn’t heard anything” about a beef.