Brandi Glanville’s lawyer Bryan Freedman is not buying Andy Cohen’s excuse that an “inappropriate” video the Bravo exec sent the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum was just a “joke.”
“Any boss who is clearly inebriated and encourages their employee by FaceTime video, and invites the employee to watch their boss to have sex with another employee, constitutes sexual harassment, plain and simple, under any definition of sexual harassment even one concocted by NBC,” the Los Angeles-based attorney tells Pvnew in a statement Friday.
“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.”
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Freedman claims that NBC has “mistakenly given” Cohen “too much power” by allowing him to host reunions and his own talk show, alleging the network has “clearly decided that he is too big to fail.”
He adds there was “no excuse” for Cohen to say the video he sent Glanville “was a joke.”
“In fact, if it was such a known joke, then why did he apologize?” Freedman asks. “The reason is that Andy knows he is in a position of power which allows him to control where and how much Brandi works, which allows him to do whatever he wants and behave in a fashion that is abusive and harassing.”
The Freedman & Taitelman LLP co-founder concludes his remarks, first reported by the Daily Beast Friday, “NBC has learned nothing from the cover-up at NBC News. Just like Matt Lauer, Andy Cohen makes too much money for Bravo to fire. NBC continues to protect those in power.”
Pvnew has reached out to reps for NBCUniversal and Cohen but did not immediately hear back.
A source with knowledge of the situation tells us exclusively, though, that “anyone who has seen the video can tell it’s clearly a joke.” Pvnew has yet to obtain a copy of the clip in question ourselves.
We broke the news Thursday that Freedman and his colleague Mark Geragos had fired off a legal letter to network executives at NBC, Warner Bros. and one of the production companies behind “Housewives” Shed Media, claiming that many of their staffers — including Cohen — had engaged in sexual misconduct.
The attorneys claimed that the “Watch What Happens Live” host, 55, in particular, sent Glanville, 51, a video of himself in 2022 appearing “obviously inebriated” and inviting the reality star to watch him have sex with another Bravolebrity.
The identity of the latter was not disclosed but Cohen revealed in his response that the person he said he wanted to sleep with “in jest” was “Below Deck” star Kate Chastain.
Chastain has not responded to Pvnew’s requests for comment and has not spoken out about the situation on social media.
Glanville’s lawyers claimed in the letter that when Cohen “boasted” about wanting to sleep with Chastain while “thinking” about their client, it was “an extraordinary abuse of power” because the “Andy Cohen Diaries” author was Glanville’s boss at the time.
“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,” Freedman previously said in the letter, reiterating that he thinks Cohen should be fired.
He also said Glanville was allegedly left “feeling trapped and disgusted” over the video she received.
Cohen admitted shortly after on Thursday that he sent the clip to the “Traitors” alum — but brushed it off as him just kidding around.
“The video shows Kate Chastain and I very clearly joking to Brandi,” the father of two wrote via X.
“It was absolutely meant in jest, and Brandi’s response clearly communicated she was in on the joke. That said, it was totally inappropriate and I apologize.”
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Pvnew has reached out to Glanville’s rep for a direct response to Cohen’s mea culpa, but did not immediately hear back.
While some Bravo fans have slammed the “Most Talkative” author online for sending the video in the first place, others have come to his defense, claiming Glanville is just retaliating for claims made against her.
Freedman and Geragos’ letter comes on the heels of a lawsuit Caroline Manzo filed in January, in which the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” alum alleged Glanville touched her private parts while filming “Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip” together in Morocco.
Although Manzo, 62, did not sue her co-star, she claimed in the complaint that producers did not protect her when Glanville allegedly mounted, humped and made other unwanted sexual advances toward her.
Glanville has not yet filed her own lawsuit against network executives, but her attorneys mentioned in their letter that they are considering pursuing legal action.
