Former “Real Housewives” star Leah McSweeney — one of a number of ex-cast members waging war with Bravo over their treatment by the franchise — says that the network’s execs owe their flacks big time for protecting them from Vanity Fair’s new blockbuster article on the “reckoning that’s rocking Bravo.”
When asked for her response to the story, McSweeney — who filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Bravo and others in March — told Page Six: “Andy Cohen, Bravo, and [production company] Shed all need to give their PR teams a bonus. They worked in overdrive to try to hide the truth.”
Insiders noted that Cohen — who is the public face of the reality TV behemoth — was the only Bravo executive who was even named in the story, and that, while several stars went on the record to talk about their painful alleged experiences, their claims were rebutted with anonymous quotes.
But, responding to McSweeney’s remarks, a network source sniffed, “[Bravo’s] PR team only aimed to resolve any inaccuracies that [Vanity Fair] was given.”
The 8,000-word article by Anna Peele raised concerns about the way alcohol abuse, racism, and sexual misconduct, among other things, are handled on the “Real Housewives” shows, and outlines what some network stars see as manipulative methods at the network.
(For example, McSweeney says in the story that she felt producers, including Cohen, had convinced her to appear on “Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip” — even though she’d ended up in a psych hospital after a stint on “RHONY” — by dangling a spot on another Bravo show as an incentive.)
Or in the words of another star, the story asks why it is that “[even] if you were… the most successful Housewife ever, you would not be able to [do] it without [experiencing] also absolute emotional destruction, public humiliation, divorce, death, crime, prison, shame, misogyny, and just an onslaught of pure hate.”
But while the story reveals several shocking alleged experiences that cast members have endured, very little responsibility seems to actually land with any particular individuals in the piece.
Aside from McSweeney’s aforementioned anecdote about Cohen and the publication of some emails that seem to show his somewhat gleeful response to potentially painful racial tensions on one of the shows, Cohen largely skates in spite of his public role as Bravo’s kingpin.
Meanwhile, the story calls out by name some executives at production companies associated with the shows and other figures, including a psychologist, but Bravo’s own staffers are referred to in the piece by their job titles only.
And as far as McSweeney is concerned, they better start writing some thank-you checks made out to the best spin doctors in the biz.