BRAVO RESPONDS TO BETHENNY FRANKEL’S ALLEGATIONS REALITY STARS ARE ‘SILENCED’ WITH NDAS
Bravo has issued a response after "Real Housewives of New York City" alum Bethenny Frankel teamed with top entertainment lawyers Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos to call out the network for its alleged exploitation of reality TV stars.
While striking actors and writers are taking to the picket lines about a variety of issues, Frankel is shining the spotlight on reality TV personalities, who aren't recognized by any unions — yet.
“Something has to change because the current system is broken,” Geragos told Variety, while Frankel has suggested that reality stars form their own union.
In early August, Freedman and Geragos sent a litigation hold notice to Bravo's parent company, NBCUniversal, warning that the “day of reckoning” had arrived, alleging that the network's reality stars had suffered “grotesque and depraved mistreatment,” including being denied requests for mental health treatment, encouraging cast members of series to excessively consume alcohol during filming while depriving them of sleep, exploiting minors by not compensating them for onscreen appearances, and the "draconian" NDAs they've been forced to sign.
“We are left with the inescapable conclusion that NBC and its production partners are grappling with systemic rot for which sunlight is the first necessary remedial measure,” Freedman wrote in a subsequent letter to NBCUniversal. “To date, that has been impossible owing to the draconian terms of NBC’s contracts with its cast and crew, which contain onerous confidentiality provisions coupled with ruinous penalties for breach. To ensure silence, NBC has been wielding these contractual terms like a sword.”
However, the network insists that NDAs are standard, and are not intended to shut up Bravo stars, but merely protect storylines from leaking.
“Confidentiality clauses are standard practice in reality programming to prevent disclosure of storylines prior to air. They are not intended to prevent disclosure by cast and crew of unlawful acts in the workplace, and they have not been enforced in that manner,” a Bravo spokesperson tolld Variety.
“To be clear: any current or former cast or crew is free to discuss and disclose any allegedly unlawful acts in the workplace, such as harassment or discrimination, or any other conduct they have reason to believe is inappropriate," the spokesperson continued. "We are also working with our third party production companies to remind all cast and crew that they are encouraged to report any such concerns through the channels made available by the production company so concerns can be promptly addressed.”