Andy Cohen filed to dismiss Leah McSweeney’s discrimination and substance abuse lawsuit, claiming her allegations are “threadbare.”
In the documents obtained by People, Cohen’s legal team argued that McSweeney’s claims about him intentionally preying on her alcohol problems to bolster ratings should be “dismissed as a matter of law.”
The filing comes three months after the former “Real Housewives of New York” star claimed Bravo saw her history of alcohol addiction and “mental health disorders” as an opportunity to hit the ratings jackpot.
In the suit, she claimed producers drove her to drink with numerous methods, from coaxing her into it to refusing her enough time off to attend AA, which she claims in turn breached her rights under employment law.
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However, Cohen’s team argued they never specifically tried to “feature inebriated cast members” on the “Real Housewives” franchise — and even if they did it would be within their First Amendment rights.
The new filing claimed that McSweeney’s discrimination claims “impermissibly seek to abridge” Cohen’s “rights to tailor and adjust the messages they wish to convey in their creative works, including through cast selection and other creative decisions.”
“‘Whatever messages’ Defendants ‘communicate or intended to communicate’ with their shows is protected by the First Amendment,” the document continued, per People.
“Judicial intervention into casting decisions for expressive works “impermissibly regulate[s] [Defendants’] right to alter the content of the story [they] tell —or choose not to tell.”
As for McSweeney’s claims that she experienced gender/sex-based harassment, Cohen’s legal team argued that the statute of limitations has passed. As for her “only timely allegation,” it does not meet the New York City Human Rights Law’s standards, they claimed.
Shortly after Cohen’s filing, McSweeney’s lawyer, Sarah Matz, told us his motion does not have “merit.”
“It mostly argues for dismissal on technical grounds essentially saying that Defendants were allowed to discriminate against Ms. McSweeney — not that they did not do it,” she said in a statement.
“To agree with the Defendants would be to essentially say that the creative industries are not subject to anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation laws and that networks could engage in discrimination and retaliation with impunity, which is not the law.”
Along with Cohen, McSweeney also sued Bravo and Shed Media — a production company that makes both shows — and Warner Media, which owns Shed.
Elsewhere in McSweeney’s lawsuit, she alleged that Cohen “engages in cocaine use with Housewives that he employs” and that his “proclivity for cocaine usage with his employees is well-known throughout the Real Housewives franchise.”
However, a rep for the Bravo head honcho told us the claims were “completely false” and the boss himself later called them “hurtful.”
“Obviously, it’s no fun to be a target,” he told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month. “But I have no regrets about the way I’ve handled anything.”
“I think everything that happens in your life informs the next thing that happens in your life,” he continued. “That’s the way I look at all this. I know what the truth is and I know how I’ve conducted myself, and I walk tall every day on that.”
The day after, Cohen was cleared by the network after an “outside investigation” found the drug claims “to be unsubstantiated” — yet McSweeney’s team didn’t buy it.
“How do you have an investigation without speaking with to anyone? As far as we know no one ever contacted our firm,” her lawyer Gary Adelman said in a statement. “Our opinion is that no one is going to believe this was a real investigation.”
