Those who doubted Bethenny Frankel was being serious in her “reality reckoning” have been proven wrong. She’s enlisted some heavyweight attorneys to take on NBC and Bravo, and they sent out a threatening legal letter just last week. It accused NBC of ignoring “dire circumstances,” when it came to looking after their reality TV stars. The letter also said entertainers had been subjected to “grotesque and depraved mistreatment.”
NBCUniversal gave a response over the weekend. The company told Deadline it is “committed to maintaining a safe and respectful workplace for cast and crew on our reality shows.” NBCU added that they “work with our production partners to ensure that timely, appropriate action is or has been taken, including investigations, medical and/or psychological support, and other remedial action that may be warranted such as personnel changes,” once they receive complaints from talent.
Now, the streets are talking. And Bethenny is being called a “ringleader,” who has a huge amount of men and women willing to join her. Page Six has the details.
“At least 80 people” are ready to go to battle
Attorney Bryan Freedman, who’s working on the case with Mark Geragos, opened up about their current status. He told Page Six that roughly “50 reality show cast members” were interested in joining the legal war. A source then said that number had inflated even more. “It’s going to be a massive thing. There are multiple individuals wanting to join this … at least 80 people have reached out, men and women.”
Names weren’t given, but the insider did give a little bit of information as to where they were coming from. “It’s definitely ‘Housewife’ heavy,” but there are “people from all different Bravo shows” getting in touch. As for the reasons why? “The conditions are mentally exhausting to get the best content,” the source added.
Some of the biggest grievances, however, may come from production. They are said to be worked “like animals.” The source concluded: “It may be a bigger case with them.”
With Bethenny’s calls for reality TV stars to unionize, and now this complaint, there are going to be some major headaches over at NBCU. Exactly where they go from here remains to be seen. One thing is for sure though: this isn’t going to go away quietly, as they may have hoped.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK BETHENNY IS THE RIGHT ‘RINGLEADER’ TO TAKE ON NBCU? HOW DO YOU THINK THIS WILL ALL END? COULD OUR FAVORITE SHOWS BE IN DANGER?
