Did ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Stassi Schroeder Lose Podcast Advertisers For Calling #Metoo Movement A Witch Hunt?

Best known for Vanderpump Rules, Stassi Schroeder is involved in a controversy with her podcast, “Straight Up With Stassi” after she inferred that the #Metoo movement might be a “male” witch hunt. Advertisers took the comments on an episode of the Stassi Schroeder podcast seriously enough that they have pulled their money and released a statement condemning Stassi Schroeder’s comments. Stassi Schroeder has now deleted the episode of “Straight Up With Stassi” that talked about the #Metoo movement, which calls out men who have sexually harassed and sexually assaulted women, but several advertisers are saying that it’s too late.

The #Metoo movement started after Harvey Weinstein, Brett Ratner and others were called out by well-known actresses who claim that they were sexually harassed by Hollywood men in power. While many men have come forward to apologize for their bad behavior, others like Jeremy Piven and Brett Ratner deny that they have done anything wrong.

Through his lawyer, Brett Ratner has even threatened to sue one of the women who claims he harassed her for mental distress.

“Ratner is seeking an unspecified amount of general, special and punitive damages, and claims he’s suffered emotional distress, worry, anger and anxiety and his personal and professional reputations have been injured.”

Advertisers now are saying that the former star of Vanderpump Rules, Stassi Schroeder took a step too far on her podcast “Straight Up With Stassi” by calling an episode “Are We On A Male Witch Hunt?” When questioned about the tone of the podcast, Stassi deleted it, but advertisers still want to distance themselves according to PageSix.

Rent The Runway released a statement saying that they were shocked that Stassi Schroeder questioned women in the #Metoo movement.

“We’re shocked by @stassi’s comments re the #metoo campaign. It goes against everything RTR stands for as a company and has publicly advocated. Our 1st ads were slated to run on Mon but effective immediately we’ve terminated our relationship with her podcast.”

Framebridge, the custom framing company, and Simple Contacts, the contact lens company have also decided to part ways with Stassi Schroeder and her podcast, “Straight Up With Stassi.” Stassi Schroeder says it’s all a big misunderstanding, and it wasn’t her intention to call victims into question.

Stassi posted on Twitter soon after the advertisers jumped ship, and then deleted her tweet.

“Hold up. There is ZERO bashing, & I repeat myself 3726 times how I feel the whole media frenzy has taken away from the victims who were truly assaulted. You may be misinterpreting my point because we had the best intentions with this episode.”

When Stassi Schroeder was asked if there was no issue, and she wasn’t questioning the #Metoo victims, why did she delete the podcast?

“Because a lot of people aren’t ready for it.”

Podcast listeners who thought Stassi Schroeder was dissing #Metoo victims reached out to her advertisers to complain about the views that Stassi reportedly shared. One listener tweeted Rent the Runway and asked if they shared the same views on #Metoo as Stassi Schroeder, says the Daily Mail.

“This needs to be called out and not tolerated. @RenttheRunway think about who you are sponsoring!”

Other listeners to Stassi Schroeder’s podcast also tweeted Lisa Vanderpump who is the executive producer of Vanderpump Rules to get her opinion. But Stassi Schroeder tweeted back that she meant well with her #Metoo witch hunt episode.

“You may be misinterpreting my point, because we had the best intentions w/ this episode.”

Stassi Schroeder has now deleted all tweets related to the #Metoo witch hunt podcast episode along with the “Straight Up With Stassi” podcast about sexual harassment. Stassi Schroeder has posted a message to her podcast fans saying that she is working on a follow up to her post about the #Metoo witch hunt.

“Just finished recording a follow-up episode…stay tuned.”

[Featured Image by Richard Shotwell/AP Images]