Chef Stuart O’Keeffe claims he was originally cast in Queer Eye and replaced by Antoni Porowski
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It seems that the Fab Five can’t catch a break. Stuart O’Keefe has claimed that he was originally cast in Queer Eye in the chef role before being replaced by Antoni Porowski — and finding out on Instagram.
Just last week, Tan France claimed that Bobby Berk was “fired” from the show. Berk’s replacement on the series was announced to be none other than HGTV’s Jeremiah Brent. And now, it appears there’s more drama coming out of the woodwork, and the tea is piping hot.
The Irish chef and journalist spoke on his podcast Don’t Let It Stu when he alleged that he was cast in the hit Netflix series.
“Back when they were casting, I went for casting. I went for the show, and I actually got chosen. Like, I was one of the five,” he alleged. “We were in the room. I was in one group of five, there was another group of five, they came in [and said to us] ‘You’re the Fab Five.’”
He continued: “We all went outside the room, screaming, jumping up and down. I was like, ‘Let’s get a photograph. This is such a great moment for us.’”
He shared the picture of himself along with current cast members France, Karamo Brown, Jonathan Van Ness, and recently departed star Berk, which they took at the time.
O’Keefe went on to explain that he was told filming would soon begin, but was left in the dark without a solid start date or contract. He asked the other members if they had contracts, which they did.
“Cut to we all go to dinner — Tan doesn’t go to dinner with me, so the other four do — I’m like, ‘why’s he not coming to dinner?’ So I’m like, something’s up. Somebody knows something. He was kind of being a bit of a d**k. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is weird,’” he added.
O’Keeffe was allegedly asked to audition a second time, “and two days later I get pulled out and Antoni gets pulled in”.
“The production company wanted me on the show. I’d done other shows with them. They were like, ‘You’d be perfect for this. You have a cookbook out. It all ties in perfectly,’” O’Keeffe said.
“My agent called me, he’s like, ‘Look, I know this sounds totally kind of sh***y, but they said that you kind of have done too much stuff.’ I had a cookbook out and I’d done multiple shows before, where the other four hadn’t. So they were like, they kind of want everybody on the same level.”
“I was like, okay, that’s kind of a lame excuse, but fine, I guess,” he said. “But the worst part was I found out on Instagram that I didn’t get it. That they swapped me out, which was really sh***y.”
He said that the production company called to apologize that he found out that way, adding: “They were like, ‘We’re really sorry. We didn’t know the assistant was going to post this video.’ I was like, ‘I’m fine. I’ll just cry for the next year.’
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