Kitchen Nightmares Lawyers Threaten Infamous Samy And Amy If They Talk About Their Experience On The Show

Legal Issues

from the hmmm dept

Last week we wrote about the crazy mess that followed the recent episode of the show Kitchen Nightmares on Fox, in which the star of the show, Gordon Ramsay, actually walked away from Amy’s Baking Company, after the owners, Samy and Amy Bouzaglo, didn’t take well to any criticism. After the episode aired, they were further mocked on Yelp and Reddit (Yelp “haters” were a key part of the episode), and there was an explosion of anger on the restaurant’s Facebook page, though the couple insists they were hacked.

Following all of this, however, the restaurant announced that it was doing a grand “re-opening” today, which involved a planned press conference and a “job fair” to try to hire 30 new workers. As the show noted, the Bouzaglos apparently have difficulty keeping staff employed for very long. However, the “press conference” has been cancelled. The couple claims it had to do with death threats they received, though it might have more to do with a very different kind of threat: a legal threat from the producers of the show, as reported by RadarOnline.

Lawyers representing the producers of Kitchen Nightmares, Upper Ground Enterprises, sent the couple a letter warning them that talking about the show would be a breach of contract:

We understand that you are planning a public event on May 21, 2013, at which you will discuss your experiences and your “unflattering portrayals” on the show. If you speak about the show without Upper Ground’s and Fox’s prior approval, and if you disparage the show, its host, or its producers, you will breach your obligations under Paragraph 10 of your Personal Release and Paragraph 14 of your Participant Agreement. These agreements prohibit you from speaking publicly about Kitchen Nighmares, other than to acknowledge “the mere fact of your participation in the Series in personal publicity relating to yourself.” Your conduct exposes each of you to liability for liquidated damages of $100,000.

Hmm. While this is a reminder to be careful about what sorts of gag clauses you sign before you do anything, it still seems like a highly questionable move by the producers. The more they seek to silence the couple, the more it suggests that perhaps the portrayal wasn’t entirely fair. Meanwhile, the more the couple is allowed to stay in the news, the better one would think it would be for the TV show. The couple’s actions and statements on the episode were absolutely ridiculous and clearly showed a restaurant/ownership not worth patronizing. Since then, the couple’s confirmed statements (even ignoring the Facebook comments, whether or not you believe they were the result of hackers) concerning Yelp have only served to confirm that the couple can’t take any criticism and seem to think that bad reviews of bad food are the world out to get them.

The decision to call out the gag order in the contract to silence them seems ridiculous by Fox. Even if the couple trashed the show (as expected), does anyone think that the couple has even the slightest credibility at this point? No one believes them. Pulling out the gag order makes the show look like it has something to hide.

Filed Under: amy bouzaglo, contracts, gordon ramsay, kitchen nightmares, samy and amy, threats
Companies: amy's baking company, reddit, upper ground enterprises, yelp