Here are some news items from today as sent to me by various faithful researchers. None seemed worthy of a whole post so I decided to do a small collections of them for you.
True Entertainment Ordered to Pay Out Overtime
I don’t know why the sites running this one keep referring to RHOA other than the fact that True Entertainment produces the show. Today a NEW YORK court ordered that the production company pay for overtime work done by assistant producers and assistants. Under NY law (and most everywhere in the US) overtime must be paid at a rate of time and a half. The production company was paying people a set weekly check as hourly employees without [proper regard to overtime. You can’t do that. The court also said that actual producer job requirements need to be examined further to see if they qualify for time and a half. If producers are not considered management, or “professional” employees and are in fact hourly employees, their status as salaried employees could be a violation of NY law as well. This seems like kind of a boring story to me. Again, this has nothing to do with RHOA, and is probably about the filming of Summer House in Montauk. This has been going on for quite some time. In fact on year the Shahs of Sunset premiere was delayed for several months over post production editors demanding fair pay. Reality TV employees everywhere are beginning to demand the same basic perks as scripted TV production. The judgement today was for about four hundred thousand dollars in back pay for the hourly employees.
The House Hadid Built
There was an interesting story today in the Wall Street Journal claiming that Mohamed Hadid’s ginormous house is on the market again with a list price of $85 million. This is also uninteresting. What was interesting is that WSJ said that a foreign investor bought the property for $50 million in 2010 and has been leasing it ever since. I hate to disagree with the WSJ, and they may be technically correct, but my understanding is that foreign investor is Hadid’s company. Hadid’s numerous code violations have been an issue for another property that have had him in and out of court. Most recently, he was told once again to demolish large portions of a property that did not have the proper building permits. I feel like I have written on this a lot, but perhaps I just do the research and opt not to do the story. I can only find the post about Sylvester Stallone suing Hadid. Actually, two posts about that. Both of those is about work Mohamed did for Sly. Sly basically calls Mohamed a media whore. Oh and this house has been listed before for $85 million. The first time I think was around 2009. It holds the reality show record of never ending construction. In second place is Sheree Whitfield.
Instagram Stuff
Hey Atlanta, Nene will be giving you an opportunity to invest a little bit of money for big payoffs tomorrow. Her Cocktails and Conversations multilevel marketing…um opportunity… is coming to town tomorrow.
Phaedra went to Kasim Reed’s Masked Holiday Ball. By the way, Dylan sure did look cute on last night’s RHOA, didn’t he?
Cynthia is really enjoying her lake house.
Kandi is bombarding her new kids brand of baby stuff across multiple Instagram accounts.
And Kenya is posting a lot of “look how good I am doing since the break up” type crap.
And that’s the latest.
Happy Holidays to all.. If I had something to hawk or How pretty I look thanks.
I thought this is a time for giving to others .. not profit..
Oh Well. I have a pizza in the oven..
There’s some sort of mandate regarding the reclassification of salaried vs hourly employment and I think it was supposed to be in place December 1st. It caused a big ruckus where I work and left only a handful of employees salaried. And then at last minute we were told that some judge (?) was trying to block it but my company decided to go ahead and go along with it… at least for now. I wonder if this is the same thing as what’s happening with production.
Sounds plausible. Also in scripted TV, they have unions to enforce salary guidelines. Then after the writers strike of whenever, reality TV became this wide open cheap alternative with no rules. They should have just paid the writers and saved us all from this reality nonsense.
LOL, but you’re right. That event changed the game completely.
I think the camera people, etc. for reality TV should get hazard pay. I imagine scripted TV work is pretty set hours, etc. God only knows what you are exposed to if you are the behind the scenes people on Vanderpump Rules or Dance Moms.
I won’t even go into Sister Wives. How they refrain from grabbing Meri and whispering “I’ll help you escape”. Or any of the Duggar children. But I’d just want to chop off that mother’s nasty hair
This is me. I will hate-watch a show just because someone’s horrible hair hypnotizes me with a combination of revulsion and fascination and that urge to commit a violent restyle a la Edward Scissorhands, but without the grace and glamor and heavy on the gardening tools.
I sometimes think that stupefying hair, like Kate Gosselin or Long Island Medium, is done on purpose to attract viewers like myself. This is one of the main reasons I NEED recaps. I can watch an entire episode so wrapped-up in wig-pulling, hair-chopping fantasies or just staring at awful hair that I literally lose the plot.
Hey TT,
There is not enough substance to provide fodder for weekly coverage, but would you consider infrequent coverage of shows like Sister Wives?
it raises issues that could lead to interesting discussion- for example, Meri’s fish issue last season, with her as the lonely, miserable original ONE wife who is transported for the ONLY guy to ultimately have three sister wives- as his world expands, hers contracts in many ways. She was the official married wife, on paper, until they divorced officially so he could marry the fourth wife, purportedly to adopt her children from a prior marriage, while she was pregnant with his latest. Then the original wife is so miserable she takes up “friends” on the internet who are women purporting to be men interested in her- online!
That was last season now this one they have children choosing to marry- the first of which happened this week. She chooses to marry monogamously, has her father officiate, but he doesn’t know the service, including rings, since plural marriages don’t include rings, and are usually very private- it raised a lot of fundamental differences in what their children are choosing vs how the women are living now. The women in plural marriages live in so many shadows that lingerie at a bridal shower is not allowed and considered offensive- it was fascinating to see this dark world they choose, or allow to happen to them, while the husband keeps choosing wives- and families grow in size to be huge- there are about 20+ children here.
Then the second daughter decides to marry, none of the adults know the guy. The daughter is very stubborn and strong willed, and lives out of state, and seems to tolerate little input. The parents all believe it happened too quickly- but are more focused on slowing their wedding date down, rather than getting to know the potential son. SO now there are two women who are mothers of brides, but they share it with all four women- very very weird.
I thought I’d mention it- not that you don’t have enough to do- but I’d be interested in your opinion. Dpn’t know what the one husband does-or how he makes enough to support four households, wives, children, all living in adjoining houses, somewhat in the open- where the laws of the state are more lenient to plural homes- . Now that h ey are better known, it appears it has hurt them, one daughter was denied access to their church because they have become too well known and the church disagrees with something they are doing- the list of people judging on all sides and the impact of all of that on their lives is never ending.
Just interested in your thoughts- not enough to cover too often, though- certainly not a universal topic of interest.