#Lizzy #Savetsky #left #RHONY #behindthescenes #controversy
Lizzy Savetsky actually left “RHONY” after behind-the-scenes controversy
A brand new member of Bravo’s revamped, racially diverse show “Real Housewives of New York City” left the show after her husband repeated the “N” word on set, recounting a discussion between the two stars, Page Six has learned.
Last Wednesday, we reported that Lizzy Savetsky left the show before it even finished its first season, saying she had suffered a wave of anti-Semitism.
“Since [it was announced she was joining the cast]she said, “I was at the end of the creek [anti-Semitic] attacks. As it went on, I realized that this path was no longer right for me and my family.”
And while we’ve heard there’s more to the story, production insiders have downplayed another drama aside from online harassment.
Now it turns out that in fact something went wrong a few weeks ago when Savetsky was filming a scene with Brynn Whitfield who starred in the film, and it’s only gotten worse since then.
We are told that Whitfield asked the Orthodox Jew Savetsky, who has a reputation as a matchmaker, if she would set her up with a Jew. But Savetsky said that – while she has no problem with Jews dating Gentiles – she only prefers to set Jews up with other Jews, the sources say.
She added that Orthodox Jews favor marriages between Jews to preserve ethnicity. We are told that she made it clear that Judaism is not only a belief system but also a nation.
Sources say Whitfield was offended and said something that Savetsky’s terminology sounded like “awful people” use [meaning Nazis] who did evil to your people,” which shocked Savetsky.
According to many insiders, the tension created by the scene led to an off-camera phone call between Savetsky and Whitfield during which they discussed the force of the racial slurs.
We were told that Whitfield, who is half black, used the N-word during a conversation, but instead of using the term “N-word”, she said the word in its entirety. We are told that Savetsky got the impression that Whitfield was planning to tell the other cast members that Savetsky also used the n-word during the interview.
Sources say Savetsky’s husband, Dr. Ira Savetsky, was outraged and reported the alleged incident to the show’s producers.
But we were told that when he recounted the conversation, Ira also said the right word instead of saying the “N-word”.
We heard that he later apologized, but the damage was done and we were told that talks had then “begun” about the couple leaving the show.
Insiders were keen to point out that Savetsky really did experience an overwhelming amount of anti-Semitism online, and that the N-word incident alone wasn’t the only reason she left the show.
The episode is ironic.
Prior to the final season of “RHONY,” the network was hot for an all-white cast. In an attempt to address this, the producers added the show’s first black cast member, Eboni K. Williams.
But that experiment ended in disaster when Williams accused another cast member of racism, sparking a major third-party investigation that effectively ended the series as we know it.
Bravo announced in the spring that it planned to renew the show with an all-new, racially diverse cast. But it seems the network has stepped right into a racing scandal, even though it has gone to great lengths to avoid exactly that.
The cast now includes creative director Sai De Silva, model and philanthropist Ubah Hassan, home improvement guru Erin Dana Lichy, former J.Crew CEO Jenna Lyons, fashion columnist and brand consultant Jessel Taank and Whitfield.
Bravo declined to comment, and Savetsky’s representative declined to comment.