The producer of the reality show ‘The Apprentice’, formerly hosted by reality horror show ‘2016 Election’ star Donald Trump, is threatening that he will sue anyone who leaks anything from the shows video archives.
From Buzzfeed, via The Hill:
A powerful Hollywood ally of Donald Trump has threatened staffers who could release potentially damaging outtakes of the show, a source close to Mark Burnett told BuzzFeed News.
Burnett, the producer of The Apprentice, and his production company have not responded to requests for comment from BuzzFeed News and many other outlets since grotesque outtakes from another show rocked Trump’s campaign Friday, even as former staffers have suggested on Twitter (without clear evidence) that The Apprentice material could be just as damaging.
But the person familiar with Burnett’s thinking told BuzzFeed News that the producer is backing his star.
Burnett “is pro-Trump and has made clear to his teams that he will sue anyone who leaks,” the person said.
Why the need to threaten? Well the rumor mill is hard to contain on a show with so many people working for it, and they have a lot of stories about the Donald and his behavior.
Rather than come out and say that Trump was clean as a whistle and there’s nothing damning that could be seen, Burnett has instead tried to lock down any potential leaks of said damaging material. Implicitly suggesting that such damning evidence does, in fact, exist.
But pressure has been building on The Apprentice producers to release unaired raw footage of the show after Friday’s release of a 2005 hot mic video of Donald Trump apparently bragging about sexually assaulting women and trying to have sex with a married woman.
More than 20 former contestants, crew members, and editors told the Associated Press that Trump treated women on the show inappropriately, including talking about which contestants he would like to have sex with and rating them by breast size.
“If there was a break in the conversation, he would then look at one of the female cast members, saying ‘you’re looking kind of hot today, I love that dress on you,’ then he would turn to one of the male cast members and say ‘wouldn’t you sleep with her?’ and then everyone would laugh,” a former crew member, who spoke anonymously due to a non-disclosure agreement, told AP.
“There would be about 10 or 12 cameras rolling and getting that footage, which is why everybody was like, this guy just doesn’t care.”
The circus continues.