‘REAL’ SHOW MUST GO ON: NY JUDGE
A Manhattan judge who admitted he’s no fan of “The Real Housewives of New York” nevertheless refused to yank Wednesday night’s episode of the reality-TV show from airing over an 11th-hour demand from a businesswoman who says she was illegally recorded by a cast member.
“I’d love to watch the shows about all the housewives across America, but I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never seen any of them,” Judge Gerald Lebovits said in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The plaintiff, Barbara Kavovit, a former contractor who started a line of women-specific tools called DIYVA, said in her emergency suit that she was at a charity event at the lower Manhattan restau- rant Bagatelle last Dec. 7.
She says she knew the dinner was being filmed for the Bravo reality show, so she pulled aside one of its stars, Carole Radziwill, for what she thought was a “private conversation.”
She learned a month later that Radziwill was wearing a microphone, according to court papers.
Kavovit’s lawyer sent Bravo and parent com- pany NBCUniversal a letter warning that producers needed Kavovit’s consent to air her “voice or likeness.”
No one responded. But Monday night, Kavovit received a text message from an unidentified cast member suggesting that she might appear in Wednesday’s episode.
Kavovit’s lawyer, Joshua Lockamy, said that under city law, producers were required to obtain his client’s permission to air her voice for “commercial use.”
NBCUniversal attorney Chelley Talbert said the usage was protected by the First Amendment.
Lebovits agreed, stressing that “there’s a heavy, heavy burden for a petitioner to overcome on First Amendment grounds.”