Andy Cohen Shuts Down 'Dumbest Theory' About PuppyGate 'Involving One of LVP's Biggest Champions'

Andy Cohen typically stays out of Housewives' drama, but when fans start coming for him, his network and one of his producers, he bites back.

On Thursday, the Bravo boss responded to a "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" fan theory (that started on Reddit and made its way to Twitter), suggesting a show producer who allegedly felt he owed Kyle Richards a favor was the one who leaked that incendiary story about Dorit Kemsley and Lucy Lucy Apple Juice to Radar Online, thereby birthing PuppyGate and ultimately leading series OG Lisa Vanderpump to quit before even attending the Season 9 reunion.

"Possibly the dumbest theory...ironically involving one of LVP's biggest champions," Andy clapped back at a Twitter user who shared the theory and demanded said producer be "fired for destroying the season."

The theory reads as follows: "It was a producer from the show who leaked the [PuppyGate] story to Radar Online [...] he is close friends with Kyle. All the women were supposed to have their own storylines this time, but he felt he owed Kyle a favor because she and Kim [Richards] came on to the 'Housewives' instead of [doing a show on] another network [...] and it blew up with the limo scene." (The limo scene being the moment Kyle outed her sister as an alcoholic.)

The theory alleges that Season 9 "wasn't supposed to be about PuppyGate at all, but Teddi [Mellencamp] couldn't stand Dorit and wouldn't let it go. The women had made a pact not to bring up each other's lawsuits, so they jumped on the PuppyGate story... When production realized Lisa was [going to] quit, Andy found out about it because the producers knew she didn't sell the story... He knew this at the reunion."

Vanderpump spent all season long trying to assure her castmates she was not the one who leaked the story that painted her and Vanderpump Dogs in a favorable light while hanging Dorit out to dry. She also said she did not know the person who leaked the story and went to great lengths to prove her innocence (i.e. swearing on her children's lives and taking a lie-detector test, which she passed).

Lisa's then-castmates -- Dorit, Teddi, Lisa Rinna and Erika Jayne -- were convinced Lisa was lying and just trying to cover her tracks, but it wasn't until Kyle approached Lisa with the suspicions that Lisa went ballistic. She felt Kyle owed it to her to believe her blindly, but Kyle maintained that's not what good friends do.

After that on-screen blowup, Lisa had little-to-no airtime the rest of the season. She told a reporter one day before the ladies were supposed to film the reunion that she would not be attending it or returning to the series for Season 10, which Kyle seems to think was strategic.

"I think she gave that interview yesterday so that she could say she quit because she knew that if she didn't show up here today that you would probably do the same thing that you had to do with Adrienne [Maloof during the Season 3 reunion] and fire her," Kyle explained during part 1 of this season's reunion, which aired Tuesday. "So she was preempting getting fired by saying she quit yesterday."

Kyle pointed out there had been many times she didn't want to show up for filming (like when she outed her sister), but she showed up anyway because that's what she signed up to do.

In her farewell interview, Vanderpump told the reporter that her co-stars had been "harassing" her for "10 months," which prompted Andy to ask Dorit if she felt that was true.

"How do you harass someone that you have no contact with whatsoever?" she replied, before Kyle pointed out that most of the women hadn't seen LVP since newcomer Denise Richards' wedding.

Andy then referenced a second Radar Online article (not the Radar Online article) that quoted a source saying, "Lisa is being burned at the stake, nailed to the cross and stoned by her co-stars all at the same time."

Erika's sassy response to the quote was simply, "Get off the cross; we need the wood." She also said she'd be shocked if LVP didn't show up randomly and "pull a stunt of the most dramatic proportions." Teddi felt the same way.

Then Denise, who remained relatively out of the fray (in regard to PuppyGate), asked Kyle why she thought LVP didn't show up.

"I think that she doesn't wanna face any of us because she has been unmasked," Kyle said. "The fact that she was called out with what originally happened at Vanderpump Dogs -- why would you do that to someone that you care about? That was the biggest issue. I think that she can't face that, so she's focusing on the Radar [Online story] over and over and over again so we cannot talk about what actually happened at Vanderpump Dogs."

Part 2 of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" Season 9 reunion airs Tuesday, July 23 at 9 p.m. on Bravo.

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