Truth rating: 10
7:31 pm, October 15th, 2012
(ABC)
A lawsuit alleging that “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” were guilty of racial discrimination has been dismissed.
As Gossip Cop reported in April, Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson filed a suit in federal court in Tennessee, claiming that the dating series violated civil rights laws by denying people of color the same opportunities afforded to whites.
The two men (both of whom are black) alleged that they were removed unfairly from the audition process, and pointed out that in the more than 20 combined seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” “every person featured in the lead role on either show has been white.”
Claybrooks and Johnson said that they and other non-white applicants were “denied the same opportunity as their white counterparts to compete for the role of the Bachelor and Bachelorette due to their race and/or color.”
But on Monday, a court ruled in favor of the defendants, Warner Horizon Television, the company that produces the show.
A federal judge dismissed the case on the belief that “casting decisions are a necessary component of any entertainment show’s creative content… The plaintiffs seek to drive an artificial wedge between casting decisions and the end product, which itself is indisputably protected as speech by the First Amendment. Thus, regulating the casting process necessarily regulates the end product.”
“In this respect,” stated the judge, “casting and the resulting work of entertainment are inseparable and must both be protected to ensure that the producers’ freedom of speech is not abridged.”
Basically, the court said you can’t tell producers how to cast their shows.
Warner Bros. released a statement after the decision that read: “We felt from the onset this case was completely without merit and we are pleased the Court has found in our favor.”
What do you think of the decision?
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