NEED TO KNOW
Emma Stone does’t wait for just anyone.
The two-time Academy Award winner and apparent Real Housewives of Salt Lake City superfan revealed as part of W Magazine’s Best Performances Issue 2026 that she once waited outside in the “freezing cold” to catch a glimpse of Jen Shah amid the reality star’s legal troubles.
During the interview, published on Tuesday, Jan. 6, the Bugonia star shared that she and her brother waited outside for two hours in New York City during the former cast member’s 2023 sentencing for her role in a long-running nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme.
Stone also shared that RHOSLC is her favorite reality series. “I am really invested,” she said. “When Jen Shah was getting sentenced in New York, my brother and I waited outside for two hours in the freezing cold just for a chance to see her.”
She added, “But I live in New York. We walked over there. Her getting arrested on camera was wild.”
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Shah was sentenced to 78 months (6.5 years) in prison in January 2023 and ended up serving 33 months of that sentence. PEOPLE exclusively revealed last month that Shah, 52, was released from the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, in the early hours of Dec. 10.
Elsewhere in her interview with W, Stone gave a shoutout to RHOSLC’s Bronwyn Newport. “You’ve never seen anyone dress like this in real life. It’s phenomenal,” she said.
Stone added, “Yesterday, I was catching up on two episodes. They’re on a boat trip and Bronwyn is wearing a life raft around her waist, but it’s part of her sailing outfit. Everything is sort of a costume. I love it.”
This isn’t the first time Stone has raved about RHOSLC. In December 2023, during a Poor Things premiere red carpet, the actress revealed which cast member she’d want filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos to make a project on. Her answer: Shah.
“Jen Shah! Duh,” she said at the time, per Vulture. “Can you imagine?”
During a 2020 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Stone shared that she began watching the show during its first season. Only two episodes had been released at the time of the interview.
“I don’t really watch a lot of reality TV, actually. I haven’t really watched too many Real Housewives franchises,” she said.
“But Salt Lake City is incredible because you add the Mormon element to it and it’s just… Like, there’s the typical kind of judgment of each other and fights, but when you throw God in the mix, and you’re like, ‘That’s not what He would want,’ ” Stone added. “It really takes it to another level.”
