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Real Housewives star Andy Cohen has been hit with a number of accusations and unsavory accusations lately, but a lawsuit today from Leah McSweeney over cocaine patronizing and alcohol bullying has really raised his ire.
Late this evening, after news of the lawsuit filed in New York leaked, a rep for Cohen told Deadline, “The allegations against Andy are completely false!”
Although he has never claimed he is or has ever been a saint, the often TMI Cohen also wasn't particularly surprised by RH and Ultimate Girls Trip veteran McSweeney's lawsuit on Tuesday against him, Bravo, NBCUniversal, production company Shed Media and various Producers, I heard. After all, McSweeney openly threatened to take the gang to court last year when her own employment discrimination lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was dismissed.
With that caveat, and since the Bravoverse is currently under so much scrutiny from a number of lawsuits and lawyers, the defendants were probably hoping that McSweeney wouldn't mislead them as much as she did.
The former Real Housewives of New York City star actually fired a flamethrower in what she said was a clear attempt to stop her from exercising her right to sobriety.
The lawsuit denounces a “rotten work culture that relied solely on pressuring its employees to consume alcohol” and further alleges that EP Cohen, an RH franchise, “works with Housewives and other Bravolebrities , which he employs, uses cocaine”. The filing also alleges that Cohen “flatters the housewives with whom he uses cocaine by providing more favorable treatment and processing.”
On a very personal note for McSweeney herself, the lawsuit states: “The defendants knew that Ms. McSweeney was struggling with alcohol addiction, worked with her colleagues to pressure Ms. McSweeney to drink, and retaliated against her when she remained sober “She wanted to, and did so intentionally.” She failed to make appropriate accommodations that would help her remain sober and productive.”
While unscripted shows have always drawn lawsuits in the same way they attract narcissists, Bethenny Frankel's self-described “reality billing war” last year against the “dirty and dark underbelly of NBC's widely consumed reality TV universe” is truly out in force lit for fire at will. Frankel's lead attorney, Bryan Freedman, has taken aim at Bravo and NBCU over the restrictive non-disclosure agreements and manipulation and mind games that allegedly take place on unscripted shows.
Although NBCU promised stricter workplace conduct policies for its reality TV offerings, it has seen a number of sexual assault and sexual harassment lawsuits in recent months. While NBCU isn't the only media giant with such problems (just say the words “Netflix” and “Love Is Blind” in a courthouse or two to see what I mean), they often find themselves in the spotlight.
In the last three months alone, the legal battle has gotten dirtier than ever before. Last October, Marco Vega, the butler on the second season of Peacock's The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, filed a lawsuit alleging he was sexually abused by cast members Brandi Glanville and Phaedra Parks. In December, RH alum Caroline Manzo claimed her Real Housewives co-star Glanville sexually assaulted her while filming Peacock's The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip in Morocco. Vega and Manzo's lawsuits included Bravo, Forest Productions, Warner Bros., NBCU, Shed Media and Peacock as defendants.
Last week, Glanville's lawyers Freedman and Mark Geragos grilled NBCU, WBD and Shed Media with a letter accusing Andy Cohen of sexually harassing their client.
Citing the “abusive practices of the reality television industry,” the lawyers said in a letter to senior management that an apparently drunk Cohen sent Glanville a video in 2022 in which he told her that he was, an openly gay man Man, want her to watch he had sex with “another Bravo star that night,” aka Kate Chastain. Glanville called the allegations an “extraordinary abuse of power,” and Cohen soon claimed on social media that Glanville was just joking. On Twitter/X, Cohen admitted that “it was completely inappropriate and I apologize.”
That wasn't enough for Glanville and her lawyers, who soon after, on February 23, called on Comcast CEO Brian Roberts to “do the right thing” and fire Cohen. Glanville herself says she still hasn't received a personal apology from Cohen.
The time is running.