An Emmy-winning producer on a string of Bravo hits has claimed that “it’s a bummer to [the network’s producers] when [a cast member] will get sober.”
Beloved producer Patrick McDonald, who not too long ago stepped again from his work on actuality TV to launch an OnlyFans profession, appeared on Bethenny Frankel’s “Simply B” podcast on Friday, the place the pair additionally recommended that the reveals rewards drunkenness and punishes “boring sobriety.”
The claims come as Bravo prepares to defend itself in a lawsuit filed by former “Actual Housewives of New York Metropolis” star Leah McSweeney, who alleges that Bravo coerced and manipulated her into abandoning her sobriety as a result of producers believed it might make for higher TV if she was consuming.
“The habit and substance abuse storylines at all times made me just a little uneasy,” McDonald, who’s sober after battling a meth habit, mentioned on the podcast.
“Anytime we have been speaking about somebody’s alcoholism or drug habit — any of that — it’s so, so fragile. It’s not one thing to be taken gentle, and but it will get amplified by these reveals,” he mentioned.
“I can’t think about attempting to… keep or get sober whereas being on certainly one of these reveals… It’s a bummer to manufacturing when somebody will get sober,” McDonald claimed.
The previous “Actual Housewives of New York Metropolis” star Frankel and McDonald mentioned they felt that stars get higher remedy in the event that they’re creating boozy drama.Additionally they pointed to stars like, Scheana Shay of “Vanderpump Guidelines” being demoted to “buddy of” on varied seasons as a result of her story strains weren’t darkish sufficient.
A Bravo insider advised us, “there isn’t any reality to any of this.”
A choose within the McSweeney case not too long ago dominated that Bravo and its manufacturing firms have a First Modification proper to require their solid members to drink. However he mentioned that the community must reply McSweeney’s claims that they “harassed” and “coerced” her in an try and get her to fall off the wagon. (Attorneys for Bravo and its manufacturing firms have argued in courtroom that the best way they dealt with McSweeney each on- and off-set are protected by the First Modification).
Self-importance Truthful additionally not too long ago printed a deeply reported piece that claimed, amongst different issues, that “Actual Housewives” cameras rushed to movie drunk and incapacitated ladies in humiliating conditions, quite than to assist them to recuperate.
McDonald made headlines final week when he mentioned {that a} “poisonous” work tradition at a number of the manufacturing firms that make reveals for Bravo — which, he claimed, included working 12-plus hour days, six days every week, together with breaking apart violent fights on set — finally pushed him to hitch grownup content material websites like OnlyFans.
McDonald additionally mentioned he believes manufacturing bosses finally caught wind of his NSFW gig and iced him out of actuality tv gigs after years of engaged on Bravo reveals like “Vanderpump Guidelines,” “The Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills,” and “The Actual Housewives of Potomac.”
“Issues went radio silent with govt groups,” he mentioned in earlier video he posted. “It harm my emotions – for the final 5 years, [I’ve] given a lot of myself to those reveals.”
He advised Web page Six, “All I’m doing right here is advocating for honest and humane remedy within the office.”
A rep for Bravo didn’t remark.
