In Hollywood’s present labor local weather, Bethenny Frankel’s need for a actuality TV stars union might look like a sideshow. Nonetheless, as NBCUniversal realized this week, the Actual Housewives vet and her attorneys wish to put the matter centerstage.

“Please be advised that the day of reckoning has arrived,” exclaims a distinctly not understated letter despatched on August 3 to NBCU prime in-house lawyer Kimberley Harris from legal professional Bryan Freedman along with fellow lawyer Mark Geragos (learn it right here).

Advising the Comcast EVP and NBCU Normal Counsel that they’re representing a “significant number of individuals” from the so-called unscripted house, the attorneys blast the media big for alleged “grotesque and depraved mistreatment of the reality stars and crewmembers.” They pound the drum even more durable with affirmations that the “sordid and dark underbelly of NBC’s widely consumed reality TV universe has remained under wraps for far too long.”

Now that is the sort of language Tinseltown attorneys love to make use of to strike concern within the hearts and wallets of their targets. And, most of us would assume that it’s apparent that “sordid” is actually the soul of actuality TV. Nonetheless, beneath the hyperbolic phrases there’s a very actual level to Freedman’s letter, a gap stage so to talk.

Declaring nearly every bit of paper and gigabit the corporate has ever had about actuality TV exhibits just like the Actual Housewives franchise has to now be preserved as doable proof for a lawsuit, the attorneys additionally state that “while our investigation is still ongoing, we have reason to believe that cast members and crewmembers on NBC reality TV shows have been subjected to disturbing mistreatment by NBCUniversal and/or its employees, contractors, and third-party affiliates.”

Constructing off Frankel’s union goals, the checklist of such mistreatment that Freedman lays out is each particular and wide-ranging – – a.okay.a. good for a future lawsuit.

A warning shot that in all probability has already brought on shrapnel, the bullet factors NBCU and Bravo are going through right here embody:

  • Deliberate makes an attempt to fabricate psychological instability by plying solid members with alcohol whereas depriving them of meals and sleep.
  • Denying psychological well being therapy to solid members displaying apparent and alarming indicators of psychological deterioration.
  • Exploiting minors for uncompensated and generally long-term appearances on NBC actuality TV exhibits.
  • Distributing and/or condoning the distribution of nonconsensual pornography.
  • Masking up acts of sexual violence.
  • Refusing to permit solid members the liberty to depart their exhibits, even beneath dire circumstances.

And if you happen to didn’t choose up what Frankel’s authorized staff are placing down, they ensure that to reiterated it within the information retention correspondence:

On innumerable events, which we are going to additional element sooner or later, NBC has exceeded the ethical and authorized limits permissible in a civilized society ruled by the rule of legislation. Undoubtedly, when totally apprised, the authorized system—and the general public—will agree. It goes with out saying that the foregoing misconduct by NBCUniversal and/or its workers, contractors, and associates exposes NBCUniversal to important authorized legal responsibility for, amongst many different issues, intentional infliction of emotional misery, fraud, distribution of revenge porn, and false imprisonment.

Wanting on the occasion horizon, these accusations, which we’ve all heard earlier than in a technique or one other in relation to unscripted TV (Are you able to say, The Bachelor?), may ship a chill by means of the business. Additionally, at the same time as WGA brass and the AMPTP sit down Friday for a gathering about perhaps extra conferences, actuality TV greater than ever is the jewel within the Comcast-owned firm’s linear networks and streaming crown amidst the on-going strike by the scribes and SAG-AFTRA

Unsurprisingly, on condition that and having been up towards Freedman over Gabrielle Union’s lower than stellar expertise on America’s Received Expertise just a few years again, NBCU didn’t return request for remark right this moment on the letter and calls for to Harris. If or after they do, we are going to replace this publish.