Religion Stowers. Courtesy of Religion Stowers/Instagram
Former Vanderpump Guidelines star Religion Stowers has filed a lawsuit towards Bravo, its mum or dad firm NBCUniversal and the manufacturing firm Evolution Media for discrimination and harassment, amongst different allegations.
Stowers, 35, claimed within the swimsuit that she was “pushed out [of the show] by a vicious marketing campaign of racist harassment and retaliation,” in response to courtroom paperwork obtained by Us Weekly on Friday, April 5.
“Stowers was subjected to racism, sexual harassment and bodily assault in simply her first season,” the swimsuit claimed. “When she reported her mistreatment to NBC and Evolution, the community and manufacturing firm, respectively, she was warned in no unsure phrases to maintain quiet and play good.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Bravo and NBCUniversal for remark.
A number of Vanderpump Guidelines stars have stepped away from the Bravo collection through the years. Cameras began following the employees at Lisa Vanderpump’s West Hollywood restaurant SUR in 2012 after she rose to fame on The Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills. Season 1 of Pump Guidelines, which premiered in January 2013, starred Lisa, Stassi Schroeder, Jax […]
Stowers appeared because the solely Black forged member on two seasons of the present from 2015 to 2017 earlier than her departure. The swimsuit claimed she was “paid a complete of $5,000 for her first season, a determine she assumed would rise over time.”
Throughout her VPR tenure, she alleged that fellow VPR star Lala Kent “grabbed a knife from a close-by counter and commenced brandishing it at Stowers” whereas filming the present. Stowers allegedly “reported the occasions to NBC and Evolution,” who, in response to the submitting, “started the cover-up nearly instantly.”
A supply near Kent, 33, informed Us that she is “surprised” by Stowers’ accusation, which “by no means occurred.” The insider claimed that the “insane” allegation is a method for Stowers to advertise her upcoming podcast and look in Money Out 2: Excessive Rollers, a film directed by Kent’s ex-fiancé Randall Emmett.
“Lala hopes that NBC and Bravo defend themselves vigorously,” the supply added.
The forged of Vanderpump Guidelines aren’t any strangers to controversy. The employees of Lisa Vanderpump’s West Hollywood restaurant SUR made their debut on Bravo in 2013 as a part of the Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills spinoff. The season 1 forged included Vanderpump, Stassi Schroeder, Jax Taylor, Katie Maloney, Tom Sandoval, Kristen Doute and Scheana Shay. […]
Apart from Kent, the lawsuit names different VPR stars together with Jax Taylor, Brittany Cartwright, Kristen Doute and Stassi Schroeder.
“In a seemingly coordinated effort, the Vanderpump Guidelines forged launched into a marketing campaign — by way of social media, podcasts and elsewhere — to destroy Stowers’s life,” the swimsuit alleged, referring to a previous podcast look the place Schroeder and Doute wrongfully referred to as the police on Stowers. (Schroeder, 35, and Doute, 41, have been fired from VPR in 2020 after the interview resurfaced.)
“NBC and Evolution clearly consider that office security guidelines, employment legal guidelines and primary decency don’t apply to these in actuality TV,” Stowers’ lawyer, Bryan J. Freedman, shared in a press release to Us on Friday. “Vicious assaults, racist harassment and impugning the service of veterans are apparently acceptable to NBC and Evolution for the sake of rankings.”
The assertion concluded: “Religion didn’t know what sort of cesspool she had discovered herself in and reported this illegal habits to her superiors. In response, she was demoted to ‘volunteer’ and stripped of her already meager compensation.”
