After the former Bravolebrity accused the network of exploiting its reality stars, Bryan Freedman and his team claim the NBCUniversal subsidiary has been preventing its workers from discussing mistreatment.
- Aug 22, 2023
AceShowbiz - Bethenny Frankel's lawyers continue to fight for reality TV stars' rights. After the former star of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" herself accused the network and streamer of exploiting its reality stars, a number of attorneys, including Bryan Freedman, demanded Bravo to fulfill its cast members' rights to discuss mistreatment.
In a letter sent by Bryan and his team of lawyers to NBCUniversal's General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Comcast Corporation Kimberley Harris, which was obtained by TMZ, they asked a number of companies, namely NBC, Bravo Media, E! and CNBC, to release their significant number of casts and crew members from a contract which keeps them silent on "unlawful acts in the workplace."
In addition, the group of lawyers want the employees to at least be able to speak about the matters "during production." Meanwhile, the alleged "unlawful" conducts consisted of "racism, sexism, sexual violence, revenge porn, child labor violations, forced intoxication, and psychological, emotional and physical abuse."
In the same letter which was sent on August 14, Bryan and his team also accused the companies of going against California law by forcing their employees to sign the agreement. The law stated that companies are not allowed to prevent their workers from speaking about mistreatment "in the workplace."
Prior to the legal letter, Bethenny alleged that networks and streamers have been exploiting their reality stars. In an interview with Variety conducted on July 19, she stated, "Just because you can, as a streamer or a network, play the show as much as you want, doesn't mean you should. 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," she continued. "Networks and streamers have been exploiting people for too long. Just because you can exploit young, doe-eyed talent desperate for the platform TV gives them, it doesn't mean you should."
Bethenny added, "They don't know what they don't know. I was playing chess, but how do I help the people who may not know the game? We should just find out what reality shows are in production right now and say, 'Just stop working. Say you're not going to work unless they take down all the things you've done in the past and then we can negotiate for the future.' "
