Fans were disappointed when a cast trip to the Berkshires was canceled on Real Housewives of New Jersey.
Long-time cast member Dolores Catania thought she’d found “the perfect house” for a Season 14 girls’ trip. “Seven bedrooms [and] a guest house with two bedrooms,” she told co-star Jennifer Aydin.
On Episode 12, Dolores sadly told her boyfriend, Paul Connell, that she’d just heard that their rental house burned down. “Burned to the ground,” she elaborated. But apparently, someone gave Dolo incorrect information, because the house didn’t burn at all.
“Burnt to the ground” — or was it?
Dolo’s heart was in the right place. Season 14 of RHONJ was especially volatile and she had hoped to broker some peace on the girls’ trip. But just days before they were set to leave, Dolores got a phone call that the house had burned.
“Well, the house that we were going to go to for the girls’ trip I planned just burned down last night,” she told Paul. She said the cause of the fire was “electrical or something.”
“Could you imagine if we were in it?” she continued. “That house was perfect. It took me forever to find it. It had a separate house off the grounds, so we had enough for everyone and for two people to be separate, which is just what I needed.”
Even though the house was seemingly perfect, Dolores wondered if the fire could be seen as an “omen” for the fractured cast. Teresa Guidice and Jennifer Aydin, who were on the outs with most of the other cast, could share the separate cottage, while the other women stayed in the main house. But it wasn’t meant to be.
At a group event at Tre’s house, Dolo announced that the girls’ trip was canceled.
“The house we were going to burned to the ground,” she shared. “Like five-alarm fire, burnt to the studs.”
“If that’s not a f*cking sign I don’t know what is!” Teresa noted.
Just the garage
But on July 20, a fan posted screenshots from an October 2023 story that ran in The Berkshire Eagle. The article said, “A fire destroyed a wooden garage on Monday night at a sprawling property that is listed for sale.”
Matching the description of the Jersey girls’ trip rental, the detached $6 million house remained unharmed, and no one was injured. But from the sound of the article, the trip may not have been canceled because of the fire but because the town has concerns about short-term rentals. Though the house is still for sale, it’s no longer registered on the Airbnb website.
Instead of a girls’ trip to the Berkshires, Dolores arranged a cast dinner at Rails Steakhouse in nearby Towaco, New Jersey, where Dolores’ dream of bringing peace to the group went “off the rails.” Viewers know there’s an explosive fight coming in the Season 14 finale airing on August 5.
Will Tre and her SIL Melissa Gorga finally settle their beef at the steakhouse? I hope somebody had the foresight to hide the steak knives.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sundays at 8/7c on Bravo.
TELL US – WERE YOU DISAPPOINTED THAT THE TRIP GOT CANCELED? SHOULD THEY HAVE GONE TO A HOTEL INSTEAD?
