Judge Rules on Andy Cohen's Request to Dismiss Leah McSweeney's Lawsuit-quang

McSweeney filed a lawsuit against Cohen and others in 2024, accusing them of pressuring her to drink despite her alcoholism and a hostile workplace on 'RHONY'

There is a new development in Leah McSweeney’s lawsuit against Andy Cohen and others.

On Monday, March 31, a judge issued a 100-page order in response to the defendants' motion to dismiss the former Real Housewives of New York City star’s lawsuit, in which she is accusing Cohen, Bravo Media, NBC Universal Media, Warner Bros. Discovery, production company Shed Media US and two producers of exploiting her addiction during her time on the franchise. 

Ultimately, the judge let three of McSweeney’s disability-related claims go forward and dismissed all the others in whole or in part.

Regarding claims of discrimination, the judge wrote that the producers’ preference toward casting women who consume alcohol is within their constitutional rights. Moreover, they had the right not to renew McSweeney’s contract, because casting someone “who could act out drinking but imposes limits on her actual drinking” would not “deliver an authentic message.”

“They had a First Amendment right to choose to make a show that celebrated a party life and the drinking of alcohol and to determine that their vision could be best conveyed through reality television and not through scripted scenes,” the opinion and order read.

“They had a corresponding right to cast only persons who could consume large quantities of alcohol. A rule of law that would require them to include in the cast a person who could not perform consistent with those requirements thus would directly interfere with their First Amendment rights.”

The judge also cited McSweeney’s own complaint, in which she acknowledged that The Real Housewives “is a creative work that celebrates (and Plaintiff asserts, exploits) drinking and mental health disabilities, personality disorders, and addiction disabilities, through casting and filming real-life women confronting such challenges in their real lives.” 

The judge determined that McSweeney could sue for retaliation based on her re-casting, given that it allegedly occurred shortly after she filed a complaint with the human resources department.

“Cohen texted Plaintiff to that effect on November 10, 2022, referencing Plaintiff’s complaint of discrimination previously brought to the attention of Bravo employee Sezin Cavusoglu as part of the reason she would not be cast,” the judge wrote, summarizing allegations in McSweeney’s complaint.

As for the text exchange between Cohen and McSweeney, in which he allegedly told her that her recent breast augmentation made her look more like “a Housewife,” the judge wrote that while the comment “may have been obnoxious and insensitive,” it was, “at worst, a petty slight.”

He added that it did not carry a discriminatory connotation because it was about “a cast member in an extremely popular television franchise in which plastic surgery was both prevalent and openly discussed,” and not about a traditional female homemaker.

McSweeney’s claims of a hostile work environment on the basis of disability, however, were upheld. While the judge stated that the show was within their rights to provide alcohol and encourage McSweeney to consume it while filming, despite her addiction, “the means Defendants [allegedly] employed to generate their message” was not legally acceptable.

“The right to expressive speech does not carry with it a general exemption from all laws that would govern conduct on the set,” it read, citing McSweeney’s allegations that producers “taunted” and “harassed” her based on her disability, including by “making light of her panic attacks and joking about her alcohol use disorder.”

Additionally, the judge permitted McSweeney to sue for accommodation-related claims that producers did not facilitate her request to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings while filming The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip in Thailand.

McSweeney first filed her complaint in February 2024, accusing the defendants of establishing a “rotted” workplace culture where employees were pressured to consume alcohol.

She further alleged that in the defendants’ failure to maintain a safe working environment and accommodate her disabilities, including "alcohol use disorder" and "mental health disorders,” they were "intentionally planning scenarios intended to exacerbate [her] disabilities” to "create morbidly salacious reality television."