Just B with Bethenny FrankelJames Kennedy is Arrested...Love is Blind BUT the Labor Board Isn't!
The Reality Reckoning is REAL. Bethenny weighs in on the James Kennedy arrest, Love is Blind is a workplace, and what it ALL means for reality.
A couple of things to discuss today. Love is Blind has been deemed a legal workplace, James Kennedy has been arrested for domestic violence, and the reality reckoning that I started is rumbling and starting all over again. It's bubbling. What do I mean? First, let's discuss Love is Blind. Love is Blind is a very popular show, and people on that show have claimed that the way that they've been treated compensated, and the workplace conditions there have been nothing short of cruel, torturous, and definitely illegal. Why is this relevant to me? Because I started the reality reckoning during the strike, the talent and writer strike, and it wasn't intentional. I just mentioned that reality talent is exploited ad nauseum and that they're the ones that get called upon when quote unquote real actors are on strike and reality talent doesn't have a script or anybody else's words to read. They're just being themselves. And some people have burkins and diamonds and reap the benefits. Most of those people don't actually have that money. They're actually fronting and stunting for television. But that's a separate matter. But for every one wealthy housewife who made it out the top of the pyramid. There are twenty five discarded Brandy Glanville's people on other shows that you guys think are on savory, characters you don't like. Let's say Danielle Staub, She's like trashy to you. You know, Brandy's a mess. Whatever. The bottom line is, there are people who have messaged me saying that they never signed a release for their pregnancy to be shown on television, that producers abused them, that they were silenced. There are people like Brandy Glanville who got caught up in this like sexual assault situation in Morocco in an episode and a season that will never see the light of day. Why because it's murky, because Caroline is suing, because Brandy's suing, because they both work in this tox success pool where the top wants bad behavior. Was because bad behavior rates. The same thing happens on Love is Blind, The same thing happens on Jersey Shore, the same thing happens everywhere. Why is this relevant to the reality reckoning? Because I went to sag Aftra to say the following reality television Housewives vander Pump Rules Love is Blind below deck, where somebody climbed on top of a girl and assaulted her, and a makeup artist from that show said it wasn't the first time, and she filed complaints. Everything gets buried. Why because these areas of entertainment, This entire area of entertainment has talent being paid as independent contractors. So the way that brav Oh, Netflix, Streamers, Networks, MTV pay talent is as independent contractors. Why because it means that they can't file claims. It means they're not real employees. It means that they get in trouble. They sign these NDAs and these confidentiality agreements that say that if there's racism, abuse, if they're pushed to drink, if they're put in a strange sexual situation. Remember Tamra's son like cornering Gretchen in a bathroom and her telling him to get off her, and producer's not stopping it. When Tamra and another house I said, we're gonna get her naked wasted. Remember below deck, the guy climbing on top of the girl. Yes, the captain was lovely and intervened in that, but we didn't know that had happened before. Remember vander Pump rules, many members of the cast whispering and saying that James Kennedy has a history of domestic violence. Rachel referred to it on my podcast. So there is I there is an alleged physical abuse. There's a physical abuse allegation with Kristen and James. Yes, and people say something was cut out of And I've gotten people that have called me about other incidents related to that. And you think that a spinoff is good hush money for someone who was fired for like a racist an alleged racist act.
Yeah, I think she was in relation with Stassy and they both got fired at the same time. But I do believe what she has said about James. I know James Is. I've seen him be a violent person, so I have no doubt that what she's saying is true. I hope that one day it will come to light and there will be justice.
But people had been silenced, and people had been rewarded with spinoff shows, and people had been discouraged from talking. And people don't have claims because they're paid as independent contractors. They're not employees, so they can't go to HR in the way that a normal person would in their office. So Tom is a is a partner in these bars.
Yes he is.
So he profits off of the marketing that the show provides, and then Bravo profits off of the sales, and everybody was going into these bars. Is he a producer?
He's not technically a producer. He's been on the series from day one, season one. H there. I don't know if I'm even able to disclose this information, but he did. He did tell me during negotiations for season eleven that he was offered a producer credit for season eleven. Oh okay, so I think he was being rewarded for the scandalal of it all.
Wow, you know, it sounds like everyone. It sounds like Lisa vander Pump is profiting, Bravo's profiting, Tom is profiting, Arianna is profiting. So and you're in a deficit, you're in debt. Is Lisa vander Pump in a position to protect you? Guys? Within this place you're working, like, are you supposed to feel like someone's there to protect you, that there's someone to go to, a supervisor, a manager, a boss.
There really isn't anybody that's a safe place to go to. I don't think that anybody on that show has my best interest at heart, So it's hard for me to be so trusting like I once was.
And people have spent Kristen has a spinoff. She was fired years ago and now she's back and she has a spinoff coming right, Yes, So you kind of get sucked in and you'll do whatever it is because you want to get a spinoff and you want your bar to succeed. So it sounds logical that people would play the game because take a few punches, you're making money.
You're selling your soul essentially, and this past season really did feel like the first season where I was like, oh my god, I am selling my soul. And it's interesting that you mentioned Kristen because Kristin was just starting to talk about her tumultuous relationship with James and what happened behind closed doors, and then all of a sudden, she's presented with this spinoff, which I believe is a way to silence her, to keep that under wraps so that the longevity of vander Pump Rules can continue.
And I've been on the phone with producers who have said to me, with any luck, lu amb will start drinking again. After being sober mentioning Derinda's drinking, saying, hopefully she'll have a couple of martinis, something crazy will happen. The upside down is what reality television is. Reality television is the upside down. Bad behavior is not only allowed, it is encouraged. It is rewarded. Ask Heidi and Spencer if it's rewarded. Ask Heidi and Spencer if Spencer kicking Heidi out of his car was rewarded with a burken Ask Spencer. So, what I'm saying to you is I went to SAG after it to say, because they don't understand reality TV. Nobody I've been on fifteen reality shows. I said to them, what you don't understand is this is a workplace. You have to be there on time. You have to do what they tell you to do. You have to go on trips they tell you to go on. You have to bye by their hours. You're not allowed to take other jobs. This comes first. You sign a contract saying so, but no one cares about your lunch, how long you're working, if you're cold, what the conditions are. And certainly, when a producer crawls into a jacuzzi with a talent member, that talent member is told by another producer, don't say anything, it will be bad for them. When there's racism on a show which Nini had a racism claim, it's brushed under the rug and people look down upon her for saying that. If Leah McSweeney says that drinking was encouraged when she's sober, because people don't like her, they don't want to believe that, and they believe that all reality TV is just a bunch of dumpster fire, trashy train wrecks, no matter how much lipstick they put on an airm me as they wear. But the truth is there's still human beings. So even if you think Danielle Staub is an unsavory character, is her coworker allowed to call her multiple times a prostitution horror? And his Bravo khn then allowed to have that be a section of this conference that they monetize and market, thus bullying someone. Let's say that she was a girl who was promiscuous. Is it okay for someone to repeatedly call her a prostitution horror? Is it okay? On a reunion for Rachel Lewis the most hated woman in America. She cheated on some scumbag on television with a bunch of scumbags that are drunk all day working in a bar on a reality show. She cheated on one of them. Everybody's cheated on everybody. You hate her. Mazo Arianna is the princess. Rachel's ursula, the bad witch and watch the road just come out of the floorboards. Now on vander Pump rules that that show is discontinued because James Kennedy was a thoroughbred that made it rain. He's charming, he's entertaining. People like him, and it was widely known with production, with Lisa vander Pump and with the network that he is believed to be an abuser by everyone on the show. But he's charismatic, charming, he's a DJ, he's entertaining, and he makes it rain. And never did it rain more than during scandival. So now what happens. Rachel is the most hated woman in America. She goes on the reunion, Andy Cohen. I'm not sure if it was on the reunion or elsewhere. I think it was elsewhere. He comments in public as her employer. Call it whatever you want, but I'm telling you what it is because I know how the machinations work in that underbelly of that beast. No one knows better. And I have a code, And no matter how much I talk about this, because I do not have a personal ripe with Andy co like this is not I have all the receipts, I have all the texts I've ever had from Andy Cohen, and I don't rat anyone out and I never share anything anyone's shared with me. So I can just tell you, as a viewer that Andy Cohen talked about what medication Rachel Lewis was on. I thought to myself, how can he talk about what medication? He speculates that she's on it and asked her she on something? Was she on something? Is your employer allowed to ask if you're on something? They're not legal employees, why because they're paid as independent contractors. Why so they can't have any claim against anything that would normally be prohibited in a workplace. You can't call Jane an Hr and tell her someone is encouraging that I drink. Someone is telling me not to speak about this thing I just saw. My boss just sent me a graphic sexual video. He says he's kidding, but I don't find it appropriate. This is not the landscape for that. Okay, So now it's the weird wild wild West upside down? What is it? It's not a workplace? Why do we have to go to work? It is a workplace? Why is Why am I witnessing racism or excited when somebody you know, sexually intimidates someone else. Why is Rachel Lewis the most hated woman in America? Why is she repeatedly being verbally abused on television to the point where she walks off and seems off and sedated, and the host Andy and Lisa vander Pump sit by while Andy says to her, wait, come back. Why is that allowed in a workplace? So now Love is Blind has been deemed a workplace. And when I went to SAG after I tried to explain to them, I did explain to them what this is. I said, listen, this is a workplace. But bad behavior is encouraged. It's just not categorized because of the way that people are paid. Aka a loophole. So now the reality reckoning, which people at Bravo con have said, Wait, whatever happened to Bethany's reality reckoning? Like laughing it off? You know, creating a legal sweep is not like making ramen. And I, like I said, am not suing anyone. I have no legal claim. But when I said something, people reached out to me, and I thought, wait a second, this is an interesting thing. The people at the top make all this money justing, and every night it's about who look the worst at the party, who's the rudest, who's the thirstiest, who has the ugliest house. Like it's disgusting, it's actually disgusting, And the reason three hundred thousand people are watching New York is because they know it's disgusting. We can pretend that with streaming and plus five and all this shit, but they are scrambling over there because it is disgusting. And women fighting in twenty twenty four, and the word housewives, which is like an archaic leave it to beaver term in twenty twenty four, while we try to pretend we're in a post me to environment, is ridiculous and absurd. You know this stuff is not this is like it's like, it's like aged, and so we can market it as women supporting women, and they do a token charity scene every twenty five episodes, but it's disgusting and it is a workplace, and it hasn't been treated as such. And so the Land of the wounded lost toys that nobody likes, like Rachel and Danielle and Brandy and Leah. They just may have a case Niani, et cetera. They just may have a case because they were literally discarded. They can't work, Brandy's disfigured, Danielle can't afford her rent. I mean, it's tragic. So not everybody is at the top. And the people who are at the top, who have been quoted, I've never experienced anything like that. They're all on the take. They're all making money, and they've been rewarded greatly for being good, obedient protectors of the realm, and they continue to make more money and they get to be the stars because competitive people like me, who are the best at the job are out of the way. So the crop has thinned. And anyone who says different is being paid by this realm or wants to be paid by this realm. And why do I not care that I'm burning the bridge? There is no bridge. There is there's no bridge. Bravo is bedrock. It is archaic dinosaur land, okay, And every dog has its day, and nobody gets out without paying the bill, and the reality reckoning is real. And you could call Brian Friedman and Mark Garregos, those lawyers that took on all these cases pro bono, and they're gonna probably get major settlements for a lot of these people because people are scrambling, and yes, people are afraid of being canceled, and yes, every dog has its day. But the reason Bravocon didn't exist is not because of some bullshit excuse any more than the reason Morocco didn't air. It's because they have blood on their hands and it's dirty. And Van der Pump rules probably went away because everybody knows that James Kennedy had some muck around him and now they're all coming out and speaking. So James Kennedy getting arrested for domestic abuse has everything to do with Love is Blind being a legal workplace, which has everything to do with reality reckoning, which is entirely real. So sometimes we're too early. Sometimes people were too early to talk about me too. Somebody had something happened with Danny Masterson or Harvey Weinstein or Diddy or Russell Simmons or any of these guys. They were too early. They couldn't say anything. They were afraid they look crazy. These guys were gods and kings. And I walked up to Ted Sarandos at a party in Malibu to ask him to proactively speak to his team he had heard about the reality reckoning. I later called my lawyers to tell them that I had spoken to him, and they were like, oh shit, they're like the biggest on the list because of this love is Blind stuff. So he put me on with his head people, and I said, hey, proactively, why don't you get involved with me and I'll explain to you what goes down and you can be ahead of it and you can say, we're aligning with this reality reckoning. We want to course correct, we want to do things right. And I said, and I would make you guys look like heroes. They basically acted like nothing was wrong. They said, there is nothing there, there's nothing going on. They completely blew me off. They completely took the obligatory call just because I walked right up to Ted Sarandos and sort of made it happen. And they ignored me. And why is Bravo bedrock? Why are these reality shows bad rock to me? Because we have social media, I have you, I have this. I don't need to go and let a bunch of suits. You don't know what the fuck is going on with real people. Tell me what's going to We're not gonna work. Wait six months to get at green light, shoot it for six months, edit it for four months, do an archaic press tour on archaic talk shows. Then wait to see what everybody thinks after two years. Fuck that same day, James Kennedy just got arrested. We're talking about it now. Love is Blind just got deemed illegal workplace. We're talking about it now because trust and believe, Bravo and the rest of reality TV will all be a legal workplace. And you can already see the scrambling. Everyone tells me from production and every show that the Reality reckoning shook the core. They don't allow excessive drinking. How are your feelings, Let's talk to someone. Do you want to talk to a therapist? Touchy feely, We're here if you need us. We just want to make sure you have a work life balance. We just want to make sure our talent is taken care of and everybody's happy. We're really making changes. We're you know, on watch what happens live. It's like, how did that make you feel? Like? There's definitely been a rint, but the past damage still exists and the fact remains that it is a workplace. Reality television stars are exploited and many want that, and yes, many know what they're signing up for. I agree, but what's done is done. Everything in the dark comes to light, and this is a come uppance. And when Rachel was on my podcast, she told me she was early too. She made fun of hated, came on my show, hated. She did get back about half of her audience because she was completely despised, but made fun of all the time trolled, and she said she basically alluded to and told me that like kind of like that Kristen knew and that it was known, and she didn't want to go all the way on the domestic violence. Again, people feel like they're too soon. She didn't want to go too far. We talked off camera. I will not divulge anything she told me, but I will tell you that she will now say she didn't want to go too far. She didn't know she was in so deep, meaning she was doing three episodes of me. We didn't know it would be that long, but we talked for so long. She had been in hiding for three months at a mental health facility, and she really just didn't know how deep to go, and I certainly didn't push her. And she told me that other members of the cast all know. She also told me that the people who knew got spinoffs, got different shows, and now we can't prove that. She said that people that got fired for racism got asked back, like you know, she said, there were a lot of people that knew this. So what happens is it's not popular to say certain things, and then one day something makes sense and something lands and all worlds collide and then it's okay to say. So even me, I've been quiet. I haven't said anything but on this day with what happened with love is. But I just need you to understand that for all of these years, reality television has not been treated as a workplace because of a loophole. So people have been silenced, threatened, discouraged from speaking their truth. They have been completely nutered in having any claims. They have not been allowed to say when they feel violated, triggered, uncomfortable, abused, emotionally abused, in fact, they say that the opposite has been the case. It has been encouraged that they're emotionally abused, It has been encouraged that they break their sobriety. It has been celebrated, which it has to me when other people break their sobriety. It is the upside down. That's what the reality reckoning was about. And yeah, these things don't happen overnight, and no zero claims, not suing anyone, make zero dollars. All I have done is burn a bridge that is going to go up in a burst of flames anyway,
