UPDATE, 1:31 PM: Comcast boss Brian Roberts needs to show Andy Cohen the door, lawyers for Brandi Glanville are demanding.
“NBC continues to protect those in power,” Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos declared Friday in a response to an apology of sorts from the Watch What Happens Live host to the Real Housewives vet after Glanville publicly accused Cohen of sexually harassing her.
“Brian Roberts, it’s time to step in like you did with Andy Lack and Jeff Shell, and stop the cover-up and do the right thing,” the lawyers said. “Your legacy and decency demands it.”
The call-out out to the Comcast CEO is clearly meant to generate a top-level reaction and media spotlight. Also, invoking the names of the former NBC News chairman Lack, who had a scandal-riddled tenure until he was bounced in 2020, the scandalized former NBCUniversal CEO Shell, who exited in 2023 after an inappropriate relationship with a co-worker, as well as ex-Today co-host Matt Lauer, Freedman and Geragos are deliberately seeking to make that spotlight as harsh and uncomfortable for Roberts as possible.
In response to this response to Cohen’s response, NBCUniversal Entertainment boss Frances Berwick told Deadline that the company “is looking into the matter.”
Never a stranger to controversy or a bit of fun, Cohen himself called the video he apparently drunkenly sent to Glanville two years ago “inappropriate.” The latest in a series of misconduct allegations against the unscripted world, the video in question supposedly sees the Real Housewives executive producer telling Glanville that he, an openly gay man, wanted her to watch him have sex with “another Bravo star that night,” aka Kate Chastain.
Cohen and others have said the video was clearly a joke.
Clearly, Glanville and her lawyers are truly not laughing.
Read the full lawyers’ statement on Cohen’s response here:
Any boss who is clearly inebriated encouraging their employee by facetime video to watch their boss have sex with another employee, constitutes sexual harassment, plain and simple, under any definition even one concocted by NBC.
Bryan Freedman, Mark Geragos Attorneys for Brandi Glanville
Why is Andy Cohen getting a pass? Any other supervisor at Comcast/NBC who engaged in this behavior would be fired immediately on the spot. It is no excuse to say that this was a joke. NBC has mistakenly given Andy too much power across their network. He is a man hosting reunions across several cities in the franchise, producing and starring in his own show to promote these vehicles, hosting a juggernaut conference monetizing the “bravosphere” on the backs of women and is the capo running this reality machine. NBC has clearly decided that he is too big to fail.
NBC has learned nothing from the cover-up at NBC NEWS.
Just like Matt Lauer, Andy Cohen is now part of the cover up. NBC continues to protect those in power. Brian Roberts, it’s time to step in like you did with Andy Lack and Jeff Shell, and stop the cover up and do the right thing. Your legacy and decency demands it.
PREVIOUSLY, FEB 22 PM: Sorry Bravo, but to paraphrase that classic song of 39 years ago from The Smiths: That joke isn’t funny now.
Mere hours after Real Housewives alum Brandi Glanville’s attorneys sent a searing letter to Bravo owners NBCUniversal, Warner Bros Discovery and Shed Media claiming Andy Cohen sexually harassed their client, the Watch What Happens Live! host has responded.
Let’s just say the results are mixed. Or rather, Real Housewives EP Cohen says not sorry, but sorry and admits his behavior with a certain video was “inappropriate.”
NBCU nor Bravo responded to request for response for this latest run at the reality windmill. However, a source with a knowledge of the matter and who has seen the video in question, tells Deadline: “It is totally a joke, he would never do that – he’s gay.”
Not too sure Glanville, who has faced accusations of sexual assault herself from fellow RH star Caroline Manzo, was in on the joke – at least not according to her lawyers Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos.
“In a video sent by Mr. Cohen to Ms. Glanville in 2022, Mr. Cohen—appearing obviously inebriated—boasted of his intention to sleep with another Bravo star that night while thinking of her and invited her to watch via Facetime,” the legal duo wrote today to NBCU, WBD and Shed.
“Mr. Cohen was Ms. Glanville’s boss at the time and exercised complete and total control over her career,” Freedman and Geragos add, in fairly reserved language for them. “This was an extraordinary abuse of power that left Ms. Glanville feeling trapped and disgusted. It is inconceivable that Mr. Cohen remains in his post in spite of this behavior and harkens back to the bad old days of Matt Lauer and NBC News when profits were prioritized over people.”
READ THE LETTER ACCUSING ANDY COHEN OF SEXUAL HARASSING BRANDI GLANVILLE HERE
Cataloguing an inferno of unscripted sins on reality TV over the years, the correspondence also slams the media giants for “feeding a narrative that Ms. Glanville engaged in serious sexual misconduct” herself.
Not yet suing but clearly positioning themselves to do just that for Glanville (as they have for other reality stars in the Bravoverse of late), Freedman and Geragos want the media giants and Shed to preserve everything.
“With regard to documents, tangible things, and ESI that are created or come into your custody, possession, or control subsequent to the date of delivery of this letter, potentially relevant evidence is to be preserved,” they demand. “You should take all appropriate action to avoid the destruction of potentially relevant evidence.”
Or as Freedman put it in a statement sent to Deadline Thursday on this latest unscripted controversy: “This is yet another example of the abusive practices of the reality TV industry. Mark Geragos and I have heard from thousands of current and former cast members on reality shows about the physical and emotional harm inflicted on them by virtue of their participation. NBC, Bravo, Warner Bros., and Shed Media intentionally obscure their legal rights, bind them to illegal contracts, and knowingly cause them to suffer in silence. We know there are untold numbers of innocent victims who have yet to tell their stories or seek legal redress. We encourage all of them to contact us and join our growing team as we fight for change in this sordid industry.”
