reality bites

‘The Real Friends Of WeHo’ is already making enemies out of ‘Drag Race’ and OnlyFans lovers

By · 23 comments · Updated on January 26, 2024
Image Credits, left to right: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race‘ (MTV), The Real Friends Of WeHo (MTV), @chrissalvatore (Instagram)

We’re not even a full week into 2023 and already a new reality show has the internet in shambles. Ladies, gays, and theys: Welcome back to the discourse.

Yesterday, MTV portended the arrival of the six horsemen of the apocalypse The Real Friends Of WeHo, a clear riff of Bravo’s Real Housewives formula that will see a group of successful and mildly famous gay men living, laughing, and loving in the titular LA “gayborhood.”

A brief teaser clip announced its January 20 premiere date, with a cast that features celebrity stylist Brad Goreski (of Fashion Police, The Rachel Zoe Project, and Canada’s Drag Race fame) and beleaguered musician-choreographer Todrick Hall, among others.

Specifically, it’s Hall’s inclusion that has rankled Gay Twitter™’s collective ire, as the star has been mired in controversies over the past few years, everything from shady Celebrity Big Brother gameplay to unpaid rent to claims of verbal abuse from a former assistant.

Per the promotional clip, Hall will be addressing some of these “scandals”—or, at the very least, not completely ignoring them—in hopes that he can let people know “his truth.”

But that’s not the only issue folks have with the show. All we’ve seen so far is that 30 second clip, but The Real Friends Of WeHo is already rubbing fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race the wrong way, and has upset others for allegedly booting a potential star because of his links to Onlyfans.

Let’s get into it…

This Is Not RuPaul’s Real Friends Race!

In a sly move, MTV has slated Real Friends to air new episodes on Fridays, right after RuPaul’s Drag Race (which moved to the network for its current 15th season). Ideally, fans that tune in for Mama Ru’s long-running competition series will stick around for the follow-up—or at least forget they left their TVs on.

Sure, makes sense from a programming standpoint!

But, if you read between the lines, you realize that Real Friends airing at 9/8c means that Drag Race—which airs at 8/7c—only has an hour slot to fill, as opposed to the 90-minute episodes that the show has run since Season 10 (in other words, most of its VH1 era).

Related: The strangest and most surprising things we’ve learned about the cast of ‘Drag Race’ season 15

This change in episode length, which was reported by Deadline, has left fans baffled. While some might argue that the ever-expanding franchise could stand to reign things in a bit, it’s a bit odd this is happening to what’s been billed as the “biggest season ever.”

And, with 16 queens competing, that’s cutting back on quality screen time that these performers have worked very, very hard for. Surely, some storylines and personal moments of triumph will be left on the cutting room floor.

As a source tells Deadline, the decision was made so that the network could “lean into the opportunity to build a destination night by using the existing hit franchise to launch a new series like The Real Friends of WeHo.”

Of course, that’s assuming Drag Race viewers actually want to tune into Real Friends sight unseen, which—at least according to Twitter—does not seem to be the case. Fans of the competition series and even some of its past contestants have taken to the platform to share their frustration:

Are the Real Friends not real fans of Chris Salvatore?

Amid the scuttlebutt over The Real Friends of WeHo, questions arose about casting and how this group of gays, in particular, was selected. Are they actually friends? If you’re familiar at all with the Real Housewives template, you’ll know the answer is “probably not.”

And, honestly? The show could be better for it! There’s a higher likelihood of drama if this sextet is being forced together against their better judgment. But we digress…

The thing is, there’s already been some (heavily rumored) drama around casting. Yesterday, in what almost certainly was not a coincidence, actor-model-influencer Chris Salvatore tweeted that three gays “from a certain reality show” refused to film with him because he has an active account on OnlyFans, the subscriber-based social media platform largely used by adult film performers to share content.

As Salvatore alleges, it’s due to his association with OnlyFans that he was fired from the show in question after only a week of filming.

Obviously it’s a all hearsay, but it’s not been difficult for followers to connect the dots between the performer’s “blind item” and The Real Friends Of WeHo, especially because he posted his claim to Twitter less than two hours after the show’s teaser clip dropped.

While some have expressed relief that Salvatore dodged a bullet, others have taken issue with the fact that the decision to boot him from the show speaks to a harmful and discriminatory view toward adult film performers. Whether or not it was actually Real Friends, Twitter users are criticizing the fact that a queer-inclusive series and network would choose to block or censor a sex worker.

In response to a sympathetic fan who told the performer, “you are sexy, not a sex worker,” Salvatore tweeted the following:

“I will be the first person to call myself a sex worker, there is nothing wrong with that and there are different types of sex work which all of them are WORK! AND nobody should ever feel judged or less than because of it!”

Read on below for more reactions to Salvatore’s claim he was booted from a reality show:

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