August 21, 2023 • 24 mins
Bethenny has more details you haven't heard from her interview with Rachel, including the fallout that emerged from it and the truth behind the haters.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
What a whirlwind interviewing Rachel going viral, breaking the Internet,
so many rumors, so many press articles, and it's unsettling
to be honest, you know, She's gotten a lot of
(00:32):
hate in the world, and I'm taking on a lot
of that hate now. And it's been really interesting because
I'm proud of myself for not caring really that much.
Like just people that I really respect in the entertainment
industry and in politics and government and business, and people
(00:57):
I just interact with on a data are all saying
to me, you're doing the right thing, and change scares people,
and I'm totally on the right side of history that
I've had five documentarians reach out to me to want
to do documentaries. Just the swirling press shows that I
struck a chord and a nerve And there are so
(01:18):
many different things that people want to say and talk about.
So let's break it down first. Some people say to me, oh, wow,
is Andy Madge you're doing this? Have you spoken to him?
And I say I have not, but I'm sure he is.
And this is not a target on Andy. This is
not a target on Bravo. This is about a systemic
(01:40):
issue in the entertainment industry. People have come and said, oh,
aren't you a hypocrite. I'm a hypocrite because there was
a show that I was talking I was never talking
to Bravo, by the way. I was talking to a
production company. I spoke to Andy one time, but he
wasn't even working on this project, and I spoke to
(02:00):
a production company in Bravo was the most logical place
that this project would live about Connecticut, And a couple
of months ago I decided I didn't want to do
it anymore. I just backed out of the project. And
it wasn't really that well thought out, and I didn't
know that I would even talk about this quote unquote
(02:21):
reality reckoning or have a problem with exploitation. I didn't
really think about it. I didn't allow myself to be
exploited because I also was in a power position. When
you are a rain maker, you make money, you make ratings,
you're not as exploited as other people who don't really
have a vote and a voice. So there were things
though that happened with vote incidents and the way that
(02:42):
people are just lied to and manipulated. There are things
that have happened, but I never so I can handle
myself in any industry. I've been exploited in other industries too.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
It's okay.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I can totally handle myself. So I just decided several
months ago that I didn't want to do the show
because I had heard about this lawsuit against the production
company that I was doing the show with that they
had stolen allegedly someone's show from Married to Medicine. Now,
(03:13):
one of the publications was calling recently and saying, well,
that's hypocritical. That was two years ago, that lawsuit. Okay,
I didn't know about it.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Two years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I wasn't following the improper practices within the world of
reality TV and the behind the scenes underbelly. I do
have another life, another job, I have a daughter, so
I did not know about that. I was already feeling hesitation,
not because of Bravo. I didn't know any of this.
I was already feeling hesitation about doing this show because
(03:43):
A I want content to the people. I want to
be on platforms where I can control when it goes
up and what goes out, not having to have a
bay of editors control my content. It takes a week
to film the Housewives episode, and you only get an
hour of footage, which is that's where all the juicy
(04:04):
other things that aren't shown live on the cutting room floor.
So I wanted content to the people. It's where I'm
moving with social media. It's very obvious. Everyone was like, oh, TikTok,
she's starting a beauty line that was false. Didn't happen Instagram,
none of this. I just wanted content to the people
the way that I want it. So I was having
that thought, and then I just got a shady sense
(04:25):
of the partners I was working with the way that
they were working, and I had a weird feeling that
they kind of were withholding some information about the show
and wanted to put language in that created loopholes so
they could then do the show with or without me,
even though it was my concept and I had spoken
to Andy about it. So I just felt a little sketch.
(04:46):
It wasn't a big deal. So I walked away from
that deal. And now that's because the Bravo machine is
hard at work, because they are being pummeled and the
best is yet to come, Like they have only just
begun to feel the wrath that's coming down on them
because they this Pandora's box that yes, I opened by
(05:07):
saying something, but I did not expect the half of this.
I didn't experience a lot of that treatment myself. But
I understand it, and I know that I've kind of
ignored hearing different people's stories in the past because it
wasn't about me. And I now hear a lot of
people on the different shows doing that as well, ignoring
because it's not about them, and they're making money on
this platform.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
And I get it. I get it.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You're on Beverly Hills, you're on Vanderpump, you're not talking.
You're making money right now in a strike environment.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So one of the outlets was saying Bethany shouldn't be
leading this charge because it's hypocritical of her because she
was going to be in business with Bravo.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I'm not in a charge against Bravo.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
It's against an entire industry where people need to be unionized.
Because it's so cheap to make the shows. That's gonna
age like milk. Yes, it's so cheap to make the shows,
but the money that the shows generate is as much
as network television. So do the math. If it's cheap
to make the shows and the shows are getting millions
(06:06):
of views and millions of dollars in advertising.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Who's getting fucked?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I guarantee it's not least a vander Pump and Alex
Baskin who owns Evolution Media.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
And it will come out. I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I'm putting it out there that I worked with Mark
Burnett and they bought Evolution Media, and Evolution worked on
The Big Shot and I loved the show, and the
show went well, and it was really like a tight production,
and it was a big production. But you can ask
anybody on the crew if this happened or not. The
first night was on election Day and it was freezing.
(06:39):
It was unseasonably cold, and it was my birthday. I
think it was my birthday. It was right about my birthday,
right around my birthday, and it was election Day and
it was unseasonably cold, and we were in Connecticut at
my house. I hadn't spent a night at my house yet.
And I walked into the house because I had just
bought it, and there were had to be one hundred
people in the house, one hundred people, like rings of
(07:02):
coffee on the countertop, like it was a disaster. It
was such a horrible mess. I was getting such anxiety
about a mess. And there were all these contestants that
were there before we picked the first group, and they
all came in I think on buses or cars, and
they had been staying at a hotel for a long time,
way longer than they were supposed to be and they
(07:25):
had to stay in a hotel for not only quarantining,
because of COVID, and it was the worse time to
do a show. And I kept feeling terrible that they
were It was around Thanksgiving. I think they had to
be in that room, I felt. I kept saying, like,
this is not it's not a good situation. And we
were in my house and they were all downstairs. I
wasn't with them, but it was freezing, and they wanted
(07:48):
us to get this whole shoot of this first episode
done in one day, and it was now getting to
be like one o'clock in the morning, two o'clock in
the morning, and I said to the EP, the EP
and some working under her. Many people ended up quitting,
by the way, the sound girl quit after this day.
And I said, is this legal? Because people were there
till like two o'clock in the morning and it was freezing,
(08:10):
and I was frozen solid, and I had been there
all day, but they had been there I think even longer,
or maybe they came in the buses, but I can't.
And and the EP said to me, it's not legal,
but it's not right.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It's not right.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
And I understood why the producers wanted to keep it going,
and maybe even the cast would have understood because they
had to get the shot from the first day. They
only had this location this one day because of budgets
or whatever reason. They were only going to be here
at this house, taking everyone out to Connecticut on this
one day, so they felt like they had to get
it in. But it just felt like this is not appropriate.
(08:45):
But there was nobody to say it wasn't appropriate. There
was no master, there's no governor, there's no HR, there's
no union representative. So I know that, and my name
is on that product, and everybody knew that it was
fucked up. And the next time we shot, we were
in the office that the show had sort of rented
out for us, and I did a speech to everybody
and said that will never happen again, Like that does
(09:06):
not reflect you know, what this show is.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So I just want to mention.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
That there needs to be a controlled environment, There needs
to be guardrails. So about the interview, A lot of
(09:33):
people just don't care for Rachel and don't believe her
and her team Ariana because she got cheated on which
I get. I could reiterate a thousand times that it
was pushed through the pr machine and this particular incident
triggered people more and everybody did make a lot of
(09:53):
money and Rachel did not. And the number out there
saying that she made several hundred thousand dollars for the
season and is false, completely false. And also think about this,
It's been said publicly by the producer of the show
that they were going to cancel the show and Sandal
Scandival saved it, So you don't have a new character.
(10:14):
She's been on two seasons of reality TV. This is
her third season as a full time person coming in
to make three hundred and sixty thousand dollars. She hasn't
been there for ten years, and they wouldn't give her
three hundred and sixty thousand dollars on a failing show
that's going off the air for a third season. It
just wouldn't happen. So that's completely false. And people are saying, Oh,
(10:37):
I should be paying her, like they're trying to say
that I'm exploiting her for ratings.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
That's to live on the rest of her life. Just
so you know whether I paid her or not. How
do you know what I did? How do you know
what I'm doing with her? Nobody knows what I'm really doing.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
But I love the speculation and the thing that people
don't realize, particularly on TikTok, but definitely social media in general.
Bring it on.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I love it number one worldwide.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
For having a conversation with a woman who hasn't been
able to get a conversation out unedited, and everyone thinks
that they saw everything on this television show. I worked
in reality TV for fifteen years on every type of
show from The Apprentice to the Skating with the Stars
to the Big Shot. I've worked on talk shows. I've
(11:23):
worked in every area of this business. It takes a
week to film a one hour episode on the Housewives,
So what the hell do you think is on that
cutting room floor?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Just nothing?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Just eating cupcakes, like taking baths, or do you think
there's actual shit there? Because I can tell you that
when I was in Scary Island, with Kelly. The cast
were the cast were the ones who shut down the
situation with Kelly. We were the ones who realized that
she seemed like she was going through something, an emotional
breakdown of some sort, and particularly Sonya was like, now
(11:57):
we have to stop, and we all got it. We
did stop, and she was escorted home the next day.
With all due respect to her, she was escorted home
the next day. A producer that does not fly first
class was seated on the plane next to her first class.
I remember them telling me, Wow, I've even flew first class.
They wanted me to travel with her and the entire
cast because I remember us filming. After thought, there's no
(12:19):
way she's coming back, like she just had some sort
of an emotional break. And the show can do that
to you. The pressure, the editing, the alcohol, the interviews,
just all of it. And even if you act that
way and then other people see you as that way,
and then you see yourself, you see yourself differently in
the edit, it's still part of it. So we all
(12:40):
were the ones who were like, Okay, it's enough, like
let's stop. And then later the camera stopped, but they
had her filming again days later. We all were shocked.
We thought she was going away somewhere, but not for
the show. They want to capture that, so they want
to get it all, but a lot of it ends
up on the floor, and they want to ride the
line with the can. They want to ride the line
(13:01):
with airing what they can air without getting sued without
it looking like it's fully illegal. And so I just
want to say to you, if it takes a week
to film a show that's going to fill forty something
minutes of airtime, what do you think you don't see?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So no one's an expert on what really happened behind
the scenes of this affair. But the man who cheated
on his girlfriend of ten years is living with her now,
so she's at least forgiven him enough to live together.
But the girl that was friends with her on the show,
who's apologetic and who did fuck up, it seems, was
(13:43):
emotionally abused at this reunion. She had sex multiple times
for many months with a man with a girlfriend who
he's now living with, who have been on a reality
show together for that entire time, who are profiting from
the scandal individually and together, who have businesses that profit
off the show that profited off the scandal. Who get
(14:05):
to be on television another season on a show that
was getting canceled because of the scandal. And the girl,
one of the people, is not compensated and she's you
could hate her or lover. There's a villain. You needed
a villain, and she's the villain. So she's allowed to
talk and have a voice. And it's been insane. And
(14:27):
watch out the Bravo pr Machine numbers. They're throwing out
several hundred thousand dollars, which is not true anyway. They're
trying to throw out numbers and clump together everything she's
ever made on vander Propert rules not this season. And
Lisa vander Pump and Alex Baskin coming out and commenting
(14:48):
on what she's making. They're just trying to protect the realm.
They have to protect the realm.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
This is massive.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Bravo's never had a hit like this ever in its history.
So what would you do if you had the biggest
hit of your life. You would have to prote the
realm at any cost. It's the number one most important
thing to Bravo, to Lisa vander Pump, to Evolution, to MGM,
on top of evolution to Alex Baskin, to Tom to Ariana.
(15:15):
And here's one thing no one's talking about. Rachel left
the show. She could have gone back, She could have
gone back and made money. She took a stance, So
I would like to know what everyone would like her
to do. So, of course, it's such a big thing
that everyone's talking about because everyone is perfect and no
one's ever made mistakes, especially in their twenties. Has anyone
ever made a mistake in their twenties that they regret?
(15:37):
Oh wait a second, what about if you guys are
drinking and maybe doing drugs and like out late at
night at nightclubs?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Oh what if you guys work at a nightclub. What
if you're out late.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
At night listening to bands and music and there are
a bunch of other twenty and thirty year olds around
also drinking and listening to bands and music in La
you know, a very fast town of like broken dreams.
I think it's shocking that before Rachel, there's never been
a woman who's had an affair or made a mistake. So, yeah,
(16:08):
I was perfect in my twenties. Everything I ever did
in my twenties was perfect. I've never been cheated on.
It'd never cheated because I've never heard of that happening before.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
It's very strange.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
And also imagine if like you could get paid for that,
you get paid after having an affair, and like the
business thrives and succeeds and goes through the roof.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
That's amazing. Wow, what a model.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Wait a minute, and what about if the people who
own the bars that the people get drunk in and
have affairs in and around also make money not only
on the restaurant and bars, but they kick it up
to the top to Bravo and NBCUniversal, who also gets
to profit on it. So they're profiting on a scandal,
(16:50):
cheating bars and ratings and advertisers, all on a show
that takes like over a week to shoot, but you
only get to see an hour. But I'm sure everything
that's not in that hour is really boring. I'm sure
nothing happens because nothing happens at all after midnight, you
know what I mean. It's really a boring time when
you're wasted two in the morning. I'm sure there's.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Nothing to film.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
They should be filming like in the morning, like meditation
practice or like a yoga retreat.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Like, maybe that would be more interesting television, and Bravo
should do that. They should do a show called Meditation
Nation with a bunch of young people that don't drink,
don't have affairs, everyone's best friends. There's no conflict, no restaurants,
no advertisers, and it's just really about self help, reflection
(17:40):
and meditation.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
That's kind of.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Would be a really that's maybe a good show for them,
and then everyone will love Rachel because she'll just be meditating,
no mistakes the media or the media. Yes, that I
shouldn't be leading this charge, Okay, that I shouldn't leave
the charge against Bravo. Okay, great, someone like to nominate
themselves because I'm send an edit arrangement over momentarily. I'd
(18:02):
love for someone to nominate themselves. Does anyone think I
like thought a couple weeks ago, I'd like, wake up, like, hmm,
let me fucking start a ship storm, make tons of enemies,
burn bridges that I didn't need to burn, and be
the leader of a charge, like having meetings that I
don't need to have, like having meetings with SAG and
AFTRA and with lawyers and with you know, all these
(18:24):
different people like I could be surfing. So if somebody
else wants to leave the charge, have at it. And
the best part about this whole thing is I don't
give a shit, Like I don't care what people think.
That's what's funny. I look through social media and get
dragged and trolled, and I like it means you're engage,
You're so bothered, you're so triggered.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Keep it up.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Like hate sites about me, hate blogs. People their entire day,
their entire lives are spent like putting little fuzzy microphones
in front of their mouth to like talk about me.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Go keep going.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I don't need a publicist anymore. I've got all these
hate sites. Keep going, keep going, baby. I like it.
So people have a hard time with that, because then
where are're gonna go?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I don't give a shit. It's engagement. Congrats.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I get some questions about Nini in the beginning of
this about that she she says I can say things
she can't say.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I know what to say and what not to say.
I like Nini.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Nini has talked before about unfair practices. The difference is
that Nini's talked about herself, how she herself has been
wronged and she's sued for compensation and settled for herself.
So that's the difference. I haven't gone and said like here,
I want compensation for anything, and this is what happened
(19:50):
to me. So my my charge, as page six calls it,
is about the entire industry and really other people and myself.
But since I'm not going back to network TV and streaming,
it doesn't really matter to me. You can watch my
YouTube series and get everything you know that I'm doing
because I don't want to be on.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Normal network TV.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
But uh, and the reason I didn't want to go
back to traditional cable TV is the numbers don't lie.
On my podcast and on my YouTube series, I get
the same, if not more views than the Real Housewives
reboot gets. They get like a couple of hundred thousand,
(20:32):
like four hundred thousand viewers for a multi million dollar
budget project like so unwieldy, so bulky. I'd rather just
video something in the moment and throw it up on
YouTube content to the people. So I'm not interested in
that unwieldy, bulky model with like a bunch of executives
in a conference room and pitching them something that they
(20:53):
won't understand and editors and glossy magazines and budgets. I
would rather just get the content up. Also, I was
part of this machine, like the cheerleader for this machine.
I've said things to people that I will always regret.
But we're the soldiers. We're not the ones in charge that, frankly,
(21:17):
should instill better workplace practices. Gretchen ROSSI was at Tamram
I think Tamra's house, and Vicky and Tamers said they
were gonna get her naked wasted. They kept giving her drinks,
and then in another room, Tamer's son you heard like
forcing himself on her. And I didn't see like a
camera person go in and open up the door and
be like get off her. It goes as far as
(21:38):
it can go, but someone might have psychological damage from that.
I mean, there's a woman who had a man naked
climb on top of her on below deck, and the
captain who came down and threw him off the boat
is getting, you know, praised, and that's great for him,
But what about the camera people and somebody else in
video village, which is a room where there's a group
of people watching a small screen. What about someone in
(21:58):
there being like, oh my god, there's a fucking naked
guy in going into her room. But no, because it's
good for the show to hear Gretchen having someone force
themselves on her while she's blackout, wasted and could make
really bad decisions. Who's there to say, like stop, Who's
there to say, let's stop with this Kelly thing. We
sent her home, but she shouldn't be filming anymore. It's
(22:19):
at the very least it's emotionally not the right place
for her. But no, because it's about ratings and about money.
You know, I was breaking down after Dennis died and
you had to come back and film, and I was
in Florida and I was cracking.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
But no, that's good.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Having a nervous breakdown and cracking is good. I was
the one, and I have all the receipts who called
Bravo and said to pay for Luanne to go to
rehab because and to pay her for the reunion that
she was missing, because if they didn't, she would have
come to the reunion and been like a mess.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
But that would have been great for them.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And I said to him, I wasn't showing up if
they didn't do that, and it doesn't matter that she
hates me and that she's making money off Bravo now
and doing her show. It's fine, and did Ultimate Girlship,
It's fine. But the truth is they wanted her to
exploit herself on the reunion and I had power then,
so I said, and you can ask Barbara, and you
(23:14):
can ask her good friend, Anne Leuen's good friend Ann, Barbara,
myself and Anne who arranged everything from the intervention to
me getting the lawyers to saving Luanne from spending seven
million dollars in a house, And you can ask the
two of them. If I didn't do that, if I
didn't call Bravo and say I'm not going to go,
and she has to be paid for the reunion and
(23:35):
for rehab, and that year I was there was a
firing squad against me and I and she would have
been one of my only allies. And I still said
to do it because it was a difference between right
and wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So that happened.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
So to close out on Rachel, she's a person, she
has an opinion, she has a voice, she has a story.
You don't have to like it, you don't have to
believe it, you don't even have to listen into it.
But to abuse someone who did something that so many
other people have done, To abuse someone did anyone ever
(24:09):
hear the very basic saying to err is human, to
forgive is divine.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
She made a mistake.
What a whirlwind interviewing Rachel going viral, breaking the Internet,
so many rumors, so many press articles, and it's unsettling
to be honest, you know, She's gotten a lot of
(00:32):
hate in the world, and I'm taking on a lot
of that hate now. And it's been really interesting because
I'm proud of myself for not caring really that much.
Like just people that I really respect in the entertainment
industry and in politics and government and business, and people
(00:57):
I just interact with on a data are all saying
to me, you're doing the right thing, and change scares people,
and I'm totally on the right side of history that
I've had five documentarians reach out to me to want
to do documentaries. Just the swirling press shows that I
struck a chord and a nerve And there are so
(01:18):
many different things that people want to say and talk about.
So let's break it down first. Some people say to me, oh, wow,
is Andy Madge you're doing this? Have you spoken to him?
And I say I have not, but I'm sure he is.
And this is not a target on Andy. This is
not a target on Bravo. This is about a systemic
(01:40):
issue in the entertainment industry. People have come and said, oh,
aren't you a hypocrite. I'm a hypocrite because there was
a show that I was talking I was never talking
to Bravo, by the way. I was talking to a
production company. I spoke to Andy one time, but he
wasn't even working on this project, and I spoke to
(02:00):
a production company in Bravo was the most logical place
that this project would live about Connecticut, And a couple
of months ago I decided I didn't want to do
it anymore. I just backed out of the project. And
it wasn't really that well thought out, and I didn't
know that I would even talk about this quote unquote
(02:21):
reality reckoning or have a problem with exploitation. I didn't
really think about it. I didn't allow myself to be
exploited because I also was in a power position. When
you are a rain maker, you make money, you make ratings,
you're not as exploited as other people who don't really
have a vote and a voice. So there were things
though that happened with vote incidents and the way that
(02:42):
people are just lied to and manipulated. There are things
that have happened, but I never so I can handle
myself in any industry. I've been exploited in other industries too.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
It's okay.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I can totally handle myself. So I just decided several
months ago that I didn't want to do the show
because I had heard about this lawsuit against the production
company that I was doing the show with that they
had stolen allegedly someone's show from Married to Medicine. Now,
(03:13):
one of the publications was calling recently and saying, well,
that's hypocritical. That was two years ago, that lawsuit. Okay,
I didn't know about it.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Two years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I wasn't following the improper practices within the world of
reality TV and the behind the scenes underbelly. I do
have another life, another job, I have a daughter, so
I did not know about that. I was already feeling hesitation,
not because of Bravo. I didn't know any of this.
I was already feeling hesitation about doing this show because
(03:43):
A I want content to the people. I want to
be on platforms where I can control when it goes
up and what goes out, not having to have a
bay of editors control my content. It takes a week
to film the Housewives episode, and you only get an
hour of footage, which is that's where all the juicy
(04:04):
other things that aren't shown live on the cutting room floor.
So I wanted content to the people. It's where I'm
moving with social media. It's very obvious. Everyone was like, oh, TikTok,
she's starting a beauty line that was false. Didn't happen Instagram,
none of this. I just wanted content to the people
the way that I want it. So I was having
that thought, and then I just got a shady sense
(04:25):
of the partners I was working with the way that
they were working, and I had a weird feeling that
they kind of were withholding some information about the show
and wanted to put language in that created loopholes so
they could then do the show with or without me,
even though it was my concept and I had spoken
to Andy about it. So I just felt a little sketch.
(04:46):
It wasn't a big deal. So I walked away from
that deal. And now that's because the Bravo machine is
hard at work, because they are being pummeled and the
best is yet to come, Like they have only just
begun to feel the wrath that's coming down on them
because they this Pandora's box that yes, I opened by
(05:07):
saying something, but I did not expect the half of this.
I didn't experience a lot of that treatment myself. But
I understand it, and I know that I've kind of
ignored hearing different people's stories in the past because it
wasn't about me. And I now hear a lot of
people on the different shows doing that as well, ignoring
because it's not about them, and they're making money on
this platform.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
And I get it. I get it.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You're on Beverly Hills, you're on Vanderpump, you're not talking.
You're making money right now in a strike environment.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So one of the outlets was saying Bethany shouldn't be
leading this charge because it's hypocritical of her because she
was going to be in business with Bravo.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I'm not in a charge against Bravo.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
It's against an entire industry where people need to be unionized.
Because it's so cheap to make the shows. That's gonna
age like milk. Yes, it's so cheap to make the shows,
but the money that the shows generate is as much
as network television. So do the math. If it's cheap
to make the shows and the shows are getting millions
(06:06):
of views and millions of dollars in advertising.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Who's getting fucked?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I guarantee it's not least a vander Pump and Alex
Baskin who owns Evolution Media.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
And it will come out. I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I'm putting it out there that I worked with Mark
Burnett and they bought Evolution Media, and Evolution worked on
The Big Shot and I loved the show, and the
show went well, and it was really like a tight production,
and it was a big production. But you can ask
anybody on the crew if this happened or not. The
first night was on election Day and it was freezing.
(06:39):
It was unseasonably cold, and it was my birthday. I
think it was my birthday. It was right about my birthday,
right around my birthday, and it was election Day and
it was unseasonably cold, and we were in Connecticut at
my house. I hadn't spent a night at my house yet.
And I walked into the house because I had just
bought it, and there were had to be one hundred
people in the house, one hundred people, like rings of
(07:02):
coffee on the countertop, like it was a disaster. It
was such a horrible mess. I was getting such anxiety
about a mess. And there were all these contestants that
were there before we picked the first group, and they
all came in I think on buses or cars, and
they had been staying at a hotel for a long time,
way longer than they were supposed to be and they
(07:25):
had to stay in a hotel for not only quarantining,
because of COVID, and it was the worse time to
do a show. And I kept feeling terrible that they
were It was around Thanksgiving. I think they had to
be in that room, I felt. I kept saying, like,
this is not it's not a good situation. And we
were in my house and they were all downstairs. I
wasn't with them, but it was freezing, and they wanted
(07:48):
us to get this whole shoot of this first episode
done in one day, and it was now getting to
be like one o'clock in the morning, two o'clock in
the morning, and I said to the EP, the EP
and some working under her. Many people ended up quitting,
by the way, the sound girl quit after this day.
And I said, is this legal? Because people were there
till like two o'clock in the morning and it was freezing,
(08:10):
and I was frozen solid, and I had been there
all day, but they had been there I think even longer,
or maybe they came in the buses, but I can't.
And and the EP said to me, it's not legal,
but it's not right.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It's not right.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
And I understood why the producers wanted to keep it going,
and maybe even the cast would have understood because they
had to get the shot from the first day. They
only had this location this one day because of budgets
or whatever reason. They were only going to be here
at this house, taking everyone out to Connecticut on this
one day, so they felt like they had to get
it in. But it just felt like this is not appropriate.
(08:45):
But there was nobody to say it wasn't appropriate. There
was no master, there's no governor, there's no HR, there's
no union representative. So I know that, and my name
is on that product, and everybody knew that it was
fucked up. And the next time we shot, we were
in the office that the show had sort of rented
out for us, and I did a speech to everybody
and said that will never happen again, Like that does
(09:06):
not reflect you know, what this show is.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So I just want to mention.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
That there needs to be a controlled environment, There needs
to be guardrails. So about the interview, A lot of
(09:33):
people just don't care for Rachel and don't believe her
and her team Ariana because she got cheated on which
I get. I could reiterate a thousand times that it
was pushed through the pr machine and this particular incident
triggered people more and everybody did make a lot of
(09:53):
money and Rachel did not. And the number out there
saying that she made several hundred thousand dollars for the
season and is false, completely false. And also think about this,
It's been said publicly by the producer of the show
that they were going to cancel the show and Sandal
Scandival saved it, So you don't have a new character.
(10:14):
She's been on two seasons of reality TV. This is
her third season as a full time person coming in
to make three hundred and sixty thousand dollars. She hasn't
been there for ten years, and they wouldn't give her
three hundred and sixty thousand dollars on a failing show
that's going off the air for a third season. It
just wouldn't happen. So that's completely false. And people are saying, Oh,
(10:37):
I should be paying her, like they're trying to say
that I'm exploiting her for ratings.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
That's to live on the rest of her life. Just
so you know whether I paid her or not. How
do you know what I did? How do you know
what I'm doing with her? Nobody knows what I'm really doing.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
But I love the speculation and the thing that people
don't realize, particularly on TikTok, but definitely social media in general.
Bring it on.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I love it number one worldwide.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
For having a conversation with a woman who hasn't been
able to get a conversation out unedited, and everyone thinks
that they saw everything on this television show. I worked
in reality TV for fifteen years on every type of
show from The Apprentice to the Skating with the Stars
to the Big Shot. I've worked on talk shows. I've
(11:23):
worked in every area of this business. It takes a
week to film a one hour episode on the Housewives,
So what the hell do you think is on that
cutting room floor?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Just nothing?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Just eating cupcakes, like taking baths, or do you think
there's actual shit there? Because I can tell you that
when I was in Scary Island, with Kelly. The cast
were the cast were the ones who shut down the
situation with Kelly. We were the ones who realized that
she seemed like she was going through something, an emotional
breakdown of some sort, and particularly Sonya was like, now
(11:57):
we have to stop, and we all got it. We
did stop, and she was escorted home the next day.
With all due respect to her, she was escorted home
the next day. A producer that does not fly first
class was seated on the plane next to her first class.
I remember them telling me, Wow, I've even flew first class.
They wanted me to travel with her and the entire
cast because I remember us filming. After thought, there's no
(12:19):
way she's coming back, like she just had some sort
of an emotional break. And the show can do that
to you. The pressure, the editing, the alcohol, the interviews,
just all of it. And even if you act that
way and then other people see you as that way,
and then you see yourself, you see yourself differently in
the edit, it's still part of it. So we all
(12:40):
were the ones who were like, Okay, it's enough, like
let's stop. And then later the camera stopped, but they
had her filming again days later. We all were shocked.
We thought she was going away somewhere, but not for
the show. They want to capture that, so they want
to get it all, but a lot of it ends
up on the floor, and they want to ride the
line with the can. They want to ride the line
(13:01):
with airing what they can air without getting sued without
it looking like it's fully illegal. And so I just
want to say to you, if it takes a week
to film a show that's going to fill forty something
minutes of airtime, what do you think you don't see?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So no one's an expert on what really happened behind
the scenes of this affair. But the man who cheated
on his girlfriend of ten years is living with her now,
so she's at least forgiven him enough to live together.
But the girl that was friends with her on the show,
who's apologetic and who did fuck up, it seems, was
(13:43):
emotionally abused at this reunion. She had sex multiple times
for many months with a man with a girlfriend who
he's now living with, who have been on a reality
show together for that entire time, who are profiting from
the scandal individually and together, who have businesses that profit
off the show that profited off the scandal. Who get
(14:05):
to be on television another season on a show that
was getting canceled because of the scandal. And the girl,
one of the people, is not compensated and she's you
could hate her or lover. There's a villain. You needed
a villain, and she's the villain. So she's allowed to
talk and have a voice. And it's been insane. And
(14:27):
watch out the Bravo pr Machine numbers. They're throwing out
several hundred thousand dollars, which is not true anyway. They're
trying to throw out numbers and clump together everything she's
ever made on vander Propert rules not this season. And
Lisa vander Pump and Alex Baskin coming out and commenting
(14:48):
on what she's making. They're just trying to protect the realm.
They have to protect the realm.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
This is massive.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Bravo's never had a hit like this ever in its history.
So what would you do if you had the biggest
hit of your life. You would have to prote the
realm at any cost. It's the number one most important
thing to Bravo, to Lisa vander Pump, to Evolution, to MGM,
on top of evolution to Alex Baskin, to Tom to Ariana.
(15:15):
And here's one thing no one's talking about. Rachel left
the show. She could have gone back, She could have
gone back and made money. She took a stance, So
I would like to know what everyone would like her
to do. So, of course, it's such a big thing
that everyone's talking about because everyone is perfect and no
one's ever made mistakes, especially in their twenties. Has anyone
ever made a mistake in their twenties that they regret?
(15:37):
Oh wait a second, what about if you guys are
drinking and maybe doing drugs and like out late at
night at nightclubs?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Oh what if you guys work at a nightclub. What
if you're out late.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
At night listening to bands and music and there are
a bunch of other twenty and thirty year olds around
also drinking and listening to bands and music in La
you know, a very fast town of like broken dreams.
I think it's shocking that before Rachel, there's never been
a woman who's had an affair or made a mistake. So, yeah,
(16:08):
I was perfect in my twenties. Everything I ever did
in my twenties was perfect. I've never been cheated on.
It'd never cheated because I've never heard of that happening before.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
It's very strange.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
And also imagine if like you could get paid for that,
you get paid after having an affair, and like the
business thrives and succeeds and goes through the roof.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
That's amazing. Wow, what a model.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Wait a minute, and what about if the people who
own the bars that the people get drunk in and
have affairs in and around also make money not only
on the restaurant and bars, but they kick it up
to the top to Bravo and NBCUniversal, who also gets
to profit on it. So they're profiting on a scandal,
(16:50):
cheating bars and ratings and advertisers, all on a show
that takes like over a week to shoot, but you
only get to see an hour. But I'm sure everything
that's not in that hour is really boring. I'm sure
nothing happens because nothing happens at all after midnight, you
know what I mean. It's really a boring time when
you're wasted two in the morning. I'm sure there's.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Nothing to film.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
They should be filming like in the morning, like meditation
practice or like a yoga retreat.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Like, maybe that would be more interesting television, and Bravo
should do that. They should do a show called Meditation
Nation with a bunch of young people that don't drink,
don't have affairs, everyone's best friends. There's no conflict, no restaurants,
no advertisers, and it's just really about self help, reflection
(17:40):
and meditation.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
That's kind of.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Would be a really that's maybe a good show for them,
and then everyone will love Rachel because she'll just be meditating,
no mistakes the media or the media. Yes, that I
shouldn't be leading this charge, Okay, that I shouldn't leave
the charge against Bravo. Okay, great, someone like to nominate
themselves because I'm send an edit arrangement over momentarily. I'd
(18:02):
love for someone to nominate themselves. Does anyone think I
like thought a couple weeks ago, I'd like, wake up, like, hmm,
let me fucking start a ship storm, make tons of enemies,
burn bridges that I didn't need to burn, and be
the leader of a charge, like having meetings that I
don't need to have, like having meetings with SAG and
AFTRA and with lawyers and with you know, all these
(18:24):
different people like I could be surfing. So if somebody
else wants to leave the charge, have at it. And
the best part about this whole thing is I don't
give a shit, Like I don't care what people think.
That's what's funny. I look through social media and get
dragged and trolled, and I like it means you're engage,
You're so bothered, you're so triggered.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Keep it up.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Like hate sites about me, hate blogs. People their entire day,
their entire lives are spent like putting little fuzzy microphones
in front of their mouth to like talk about me.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Go keep going.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I don't need a publicist anymore. I've got all these
hate sites. Keep going, keep going, baby. I like it.
So people have a hard time with that, because then
where are're gonna go?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I don't give a shit. It's engagement. Congrats.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I get some questions about Nini in the beginning of
this about that she she says I can say things
she can't say.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I know what to say and what not to say.
I like Nini.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Nini has talked before about unfair practices. The difference is
that Nini's talked about herself, how she herself has been
wronged and she's sued for compensation and settled for herself.
So that's the difference. I haven't gone and said like here,
I want compensation for anything, and this is what happened
(19:50):
to me. So my my charge, as page six calls it,
is about the entire industry and really other people and myself.
But since I'm not going back to network TV and streaming,
it doesn't really matter to me. You can watch my
YouTube series and get everything you know that I'm doing
because I don't want to be on.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Normal network TV.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
But uh, and the reason I didn't want to go
back to traditional cable TV is the numbers don't lie.
On my podcast and on my YouTube series, I get
the same, if not more views than the Real Housewives
reboot gets. They get like a couple of hundred thousand,
(20:32):
like four hundred thousand viewers for a multi million dollar
budget project like so unwieldy, so bulky. I'd rather just
video something in the moment and throw it up on
YouTube content to the people. So I'm not interested in
that unwieldy, bulky model with like a bunch of executives
in a conference room and pitching them something that they
(20:53):
won't understand and editors and glossy magazines and budgets. I
would rather just get the content up. Also, I was
part of this machine, like the cheerleader for this machine.
I've said things to people that I will always regret.
But we're the soldiers. We're not the ones in charge that, frankly,
(21:17):
should instill better workplace practices. Gretchen ROSSI was at Tamram
I think Tamra's house, and Vicky and Tamers said they
were gonna get her naked wasted. They kept giving her drinks,
and then in another room, Tamer's son you heard like
forcing himself on her. And I didn't see like a
camera person go in and open up the door and
be like get off her. It goes as far as
(21:38):
it can go, but someone might have psychological damage from that.
I mean, there's a woman who had a man naked
climb on top of her on below deck, and the
captain who came down and threw him off the boat
is getting, you know, praised, and that's great for him,
But what about the camera people and somebody else in
video village, which is a room where there's a group
of people watching a small screen. What about someone in
(21:58):
there being like, oh my god, there's a fucking naked
guy in going into her room. But no, because it's
good for the show to hear Gretchen having someone force
themselves on her while she's blackout, wasted and could make
really bad decisions. Who's there to say, like stop, Who's
there to say, let's stop with this Kelly thing. We
sent her home, but she shouldn't be filming anymore. It's
(22:19):
at the very least it's emotionally not the right place
for her. But no, because it's about ratings and about money.
You know, I was breaking down after Dennis died and
you had to come back and film, and I was
in Florida and I was cracking.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
But no, that's good.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Having a nervous breakdown and cracking is good. I was
the one, and I have all the receipts who called
Bravo and said to pay for Luanne to go to
rehab because and to pay her for the reunion that
she was missing, because if they didn't, she would have
come to the reunion and been like a mess.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
But that would have been great for them.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And I said to him, I wasn't showing up if
they didn't do that, and it doesn't matter that she
hates me and that she's making money off Bravo now
and doing her show. It's fine, and did Ultimate Girlship,
It's fine. But the truth is they wanted her to
exploit herself on the reunion and I had power then,
so I said, and you can ask Barbara, and you
(23:14):
can ask her good friend, Anne Leuen's good friend Ann, Barbara,
myself and Anne who arranged everything from the intervention to
me getting the lawyers to saving Luanne from spending seven
million dollars in a house, And you can ask the
two of them. If I didn't do that, if I
didn't call Bravo and say I'm not going to go,
and she has to be paid for the reunion and
(23:35):
for rehab, and that year I was there was a
firing squad against me and I and she would have
been one of my only allies. And I still said
to do it because it was a difference between right
and wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So that happened.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
So to close out on Rachel, she's a person, she
has an opinion, she has a voice, she has a story.
You don't have to like it, you don't have to
believe it, you don't even have to listen into it.
But to abuse someone who did something that so many
other people have done, To abuse someone did anyone ever
(24:09):
hear the very basic saying to err is human, to
forgive is divine.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
She made a mistake.
Host
Bethenny Frankel
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