Some drama at Barstool?
Of course the entire company is built on drama, and it’s worked out pretty well for them, so infighting amongst the employees isn’t really anything new. But the beef between two of their biggest names seems to be heating up.
First, we need some backstory here. Brianna Chickenfry (whose real name is Brianna LaPaglia) is obviously Zach Bryan‘s ex-girlfriend, and made a lot of headlines after claiming that he offered her $12 million to sign an NDA after their breakup. Obviously she didn’t take it, because she’s spoken quite a bit about their relationship and what she paints as a pattern of emotionally abusive behavior from the country star.
On the other side of things we have Kirk Minihane, an outspoken and controversial former radio host and current podcaster who has been a vocal Brianna Chickenfry hater and made no secret about his dislike for his co-worker.
Got all that?
Well this latest chapter of their feud erupted over the weekend as Brianna and several of her fellow Barstool employees were participating in the “Barstool Beach House,” a Jersey Shore-like reality show that’s basically meant to stir up drama for entertainment. (As ashamed as I am to admit it, I couldn’t stop watching it).
One of Brianna’s castmates this summer is “Nicky Smokes,” whose real name is Charles Nicholas Longley, as well as Annika Christy, who is the former girlfriend of Smokes. And during the cast’s first night out, Smokes was chatting with another girl in the group, Barstool intern Oona McCaughan. And because there was alcohol involved, he was getting a little flirty.
Chickenfry then inserted herself into the situation, telling Smokes that he was making Oona uncomfortable;
“I’m getting super uncomfortable because you are being creepy to Oona… That’s just what I’m hearing through the grapevine.”
Smokes took the accusation that he was making her feel uncomfortable personally, and shared text messages between himself and Oona after the exchange:
But on the way home, Brianna took her accusations against Smokes a step further and accused him of sexual assault:
“You know what I’ve never hated more in my whole entire life? Men. I hate Nicky Smokes with a f—ing passion. He would come up to me, ‘Baby we’re going to be best friends.’ No motherf—er you’re a rapist.
‘You look so pretty babe, you look so perfect.’ I know, you are a freak and I’m a sexy person and I don’t want to talk to you.”
Before the convo pic.twitter.com/psb53utJJy
— Barstool Beach House (@stoolbeachhouse) August 8, 2025
The Barstool Beach House account deleted the original video of the conversation before reposting it a short time later. And a lot of people weren’t happy with Brianna throwing around the serious accusations against her co-worker:
Getting a feeling Zach Bryan ain’t so bad of a guy
— thomas (@notwrong1998) August 8, 2025
@stoolpresidente fire bri. Or @nickysmokess sue bri for defamation
— Strawhatwisdom (@StrawHatWisdom) August 8, 2025
Chickenfry seems like she just flat out sucks as a human being, smokes is a bit douchey but calling him a fucking rapist is hateful, then all the two faced shit she did after made her seem like a even more of conniving narcissist
— Goatmouth🍀🏈🏀🍿🎥 (@AllWeDoIsWinBe1) August 8, 2025
The following day, Minihane addressed the incident on his podcast. Minihane has made it clear in the past that he’s not a fan of Brianna, and even questioned whether Zach Bryan really offered her $12 million when they broke up, so he didn’t hold back:
“Brianna Chickenfry is a horrible human being… I’m the only one who will say it. And she falsely accuses Nicky of rape? I don’t know, I think the boss of the company would be frustrated if it was somebody else… Chickenfry for some reason is the golden goose. I don’t know. You can throw false rape accusations all over the place I suppose.”
And he also said that her accusations against Smoke make him question the claims she’s made about Zach Bryan:
“We’re just talking about a terrible, terrible person. When you throw something out like that so cavalierly, it absolutely makes you question other accusations a person would make… She’s a gross human being.”
Well on Monday, the entire Beach House cast sat down for a recap show, and obviously Chickenfry’s comments came up – and she wasn’t really thrilled to be rehashing it, saying that it was “beating a dead horse.”
Minihane then addressed her comments on his podcast:
“I’ll say this, the two deadest horses of all time… number one would be the first horse who ever died. And number two would be Brianna Chickenfry talking about Zach Bryan. I think that’s the second deadest horse who ever lived.
So for her to talk about beating a dead horse, she invented beating a dead horse… Three days ago she called Nicky Smokes a rapist, and being like, ‘That’s beating a dead horse,’ it’s like, shut your f—ing mouth, you idiot.”
A couple of Minihane’s coworkers also chimed in and said that Brianna was only popular because she dated Zach Bryan, and Minihane didn’t hold back:
“She’s all ‘Zach Bryan, Zach Bryan, Zach Bryan.’… Then she made up the $12 million, whatever, so just, beating a dead horse…shut up.”
Well apparently Brianna saw the clip, and accused Minihane and (presumably) his co-hosts of being misogynistic:
“This is why barstool will never beat the misogyny allegations”
(It should be noted that one of Minihane’s co-hosts was female).
Of course many in the comments were quick to point out that this all started because she called someone a rapist, though many did come to her defense against Minihan. And still others pointed out that Minhane isn’t really afraid to go after anybody at Barstool, including his boss Dave Portnoy and popular Pardon My Take host Big Cat.
Gotta think if it comes down to it, Portnoy is going to take Brianna’s side on this whole thing…but it’s also pretty safe to say that Minihane doesn’t really care.
