A catfight nearly broke out over Casey Johnson’s dogs Wednesday when celebrity friends of the doomed heiress tried to retrieve them from her “Wifey.”
Reality TV star Tila Tequila refused to open the door when Johnson’s pals Nicky Hilton and Bijou Phillips arrived – and bizarrely told reporters she feared the twosome was going to put the pooches down.
“They don’t care about the dogs. They are putting them to sleep to bury with Casey,” Tequila exclaimed – an allegation flatly denied by a family spokesman.
One of the pooches, an 18-year-old toy poodle named Zoe, “is very old and sick and has a lot of issues,” said Jesse Derris, a spokesman for Casey Johnson’s heartbroken dad, Jets owner Woody Johnson.
“The family plans to seek veterinary help for those issues,” he said, but is not planning to put the dog down.
Tequila called the cops when Hilton and Phillips showed up – even though a source familiar with the incident said “they had set this up with Tila’s assistant.”
As Hilton and Phillips were explaining why they were there, “Tila opened the door and ran outside,” the source said.
“I didn’t know who was pounding on my door,” Tequila explained, standing on her Studio City, Calif., porch in a purple tank top, gray jeans and Uggs. “It’s been quite hard because it’s all of them against me.
“I feel that everybody needs somebody to blame, and they want to blame me. I have to go clean up the house because they just messed everything up in my house.”
Besides Zoe and a second dog, a Yorkie, Casey Johnson’s friends also took a rack of her clothes, including several fur coats, along with packages of insulin she took for her diabetes.
Asked if there was any plan to bury the dogs with Johnson, Phillips replied, “No.” Then she loaded a red suitcase filled with her friend’s gear into a black Range Rover.
It was not clear if the eye-popping 17-carat engagement ring Johnson gave Tequila in an online video – while both were clad in bras and panties – was among the retrieved items.
Woody Johnson’s spokesman also hotly denied Tequila’s claims that she was to meet with members of the family.
“It’s not true,” said Derris.
Tequila, 28, announced she was meeting with the Johnsons earlier in the day on Twitter. “Meeting with my family and my Fiance’s Family,” she wrote.
While Johnson’s sisters, Jaime and Daisy, are in town to collect their big sister’s remains, meeting with Tequila is not on their agenda, a source close to the Johnsons told the Daily News.
“Casey’s family and friends would rather deal with the Devil,” the source said.
Tequila was not invited to the memorial Nicky Hilton hosted on Tuesday night. But old pals like Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Alexandra von Furstenberg and Brandon Davis were there, the source said.
Johnson’s grieving father and her mother, Sale, stayed on the East Coast, the source said.
The 30-year-old heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune was found dead Monday. A short time later, Tequila confirmed the death of “my Wifey Casey Johnson” on Twitter. The initial autopsy showed no evidence of trauma, but the heiress had battled booze and drug addiction. Investigators are awaiting the results of toxicological tests done by the Los Angeles County coroner before they announce the cause of death.
Meanwhile, the LAPD shot down a report they want to question Tequila about Casey’s death.
“We’re not seeking Tila Tequila,” Detective John Shafia said.
It was not clear when Tequila last saw Casey, who lay dead in her bed for several days before she was found.
They had a spat after Christmas and there were conflicting reports on whether they saw each other on New Year’s Eve.
Johnson’s friends said her parents tried to get her into rehab, but the source close to the family insisted the heiress was done with her “recreational drug phase.”
“There were no illegal drugs at her house,” he said. “She had a refrigerator full of medication for her diabetes.”
Still, in an attempt to get Johnson straight, her parents tried tough love and cut off her money – and she was in deep debt when she died.
Casey Johnson’s body is expected to be flown back this week for burial after a private funeral limited to immediate family, Derris said.
