With the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike hitting a dead end, another group of television performers is considering action of their own. We recently learned about reality TV star Bethenny Frankel’s efforts to rally her fellow cohorts to join her in a potential strike and that Lisa Rinna was also interested. Now, it looks like it’s starting to pick up even more steam.
TMZ is reporting that the entrepreneuring powerhouse and her lawyers have heard from about “80 angry reality stars” (via Page Six) in response to Frankel’s legal threat against Bravo and its parent company NBC, which outlines so-called “horrible treatment” on the set of the shows.
The letter Frankel sent to her lawyers said that she and other cast members were “mentally, physically, and financially victimized by NBC and threatened with ruin should they decide to speak out about their mistreatment. As a result, the sordid and dark underbelly of NBC’s widely consumed reality TV universe has remained under wraps for far too long. Please be advised that the day of reckoning has arrived.”
Day of reckoning! Very dramatic. Other claims include that NBC deliberately plied “cast members with alcohol while depriving them of food and sleep” and that it covered up “acts of sexual violence.”
We don’t have any specific names just yet, but if Frankel can get reality TV stars to strike along with writers and actors then the studios are going to find themselves in even more of a jam than the current one.
NBC responded to the letter through a spokesperson, saying it’s “committed to maintaining a safe and respectful workplace for cast and crew on our reality shows.”
“At the outset, we require our third-party production partners to have appropriate workplace policies and training in place. If complaints are brought to our attention, we 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.”
Frankel said reality stars should be earning residuals if the shows they’re on become hits or get replayed endlessly.
“Just because you can, as a streamer or a network, play the show as much as you want, doesn’t mean you should,” she told Variety earlier this week. “Meaning, yes, they’re going to get as much milk out of the cows as they could because it’s legal. We signed a contract. Does it mean we should be exploited? It means when you get a ratings bump or something happens, you should share. Networks and streamers have been exploiting people for too long.”
We’ll keep you posted as this one develops.
Published: Aug 5, 2023 05:41 pm