Taylor Frankie Paul is the latest red flag from clout-chasing legacy media

Taylor Frankie Paul is addressing the bombshell news of an open domestic assault investigation into her and her ex, Dakota Mortensen. Earlier this week, PEOPLE reported that a spokesperson for the Draper City Police Department confirmed the investigation, saying allegations were made against both parties and contact was made with each of them in late February but didn’t say much else as the investigation was still pending.

"Honestly…my heart hurts to see it, to go through it, especially at this time," Taylor told the outlet yesterday. "Just the timing is hard, and it's a big deal. I feel like every premiere that I've experienced, I've never enjoyed fully, so this is another one...it's extremely hard, and it took everything to get me here today.”

It’s an interesting statement, for sure, considering there’s no vehement denial. I mean, if you’re going to claim innocence, a press tour for an upcoming show starring you would be a golden opportunity to do so. She’s clearly keeping the focus on how much of a challenge it is for her, which, if you’re familiar with Taylor, is fairly on brand, whether it does her any favours or not.

"It's just heavy. It's a heavy time, and it's unfortunate. I'm struggling for sure, but also at the same time I feel like if I don't show up, then I'm just giving these opportunities away and not enjoying what we've worked on and something super exciting that's coming. I just feel like it was the right thing to do...show up even though it's hard."

It’s a pretty flippant response – but a strategic one considering the confusion surrounding the details of the allegations. According to TMZ, Dakota reported that Taylor has been abusive to their toddler, Ever, which she’s denied. Her camp says a few weeks ago there was a dispute in a car and he attacked her; his camp says she choked him, ripped his chain off and a day later, scratched his neck.

Though the cast members of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives have distanced themselves from Taylor amid the disturbing allegations and filming is currently on hold, The Bachelorette is still set to premiere this weekend without interruption. But the men on the show are not happy with the news of the investigation.

When Taylor was first cast, I wrote this piece exploring whether the decision to have her be the star of the show was, and I quote, ‘a genius move or a recipe for disaster’. My prediction was that it could go either way and that we’d have to watch it to see how it unfolded. And even now, days before the premiere, that still stands.

This could either turn people off of the show or make them more invested to watch. We saw the same thing with Scandoval. Once again the question is whether grimy instances involving scandal, betrayal, infidelity and in this case, abuse, turn us off or on to reality TV? And whether the prioritization of casting influencers or reality stars with massive followings is a solid strategy or not.

This is something we’re seeing in other spaces, too. Take this year’s Oscars, for example. Influencer Jake Shane has had a rough few days following articles, like this Variety piece, criticizing his Vanity Fair carpet coverage. This was also the subject of a piece I wrote last year when two of my absolute favourite podcast hosts, Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo, were brought on to do the same gig as Jake. But when Hannah insinuated that Megan Thee Stallion’s music amped her up to ‘fight’, things went a bit left considering the racial implications and tropes underpinning a statement like that. And let’s not forget about the disastrous interview on Viall Files when Nick’s wife Natalie Joy asked the most insensitive question at the most insensitive time to Southern Charm star, Austen Kroll. More on that here.

These are the things that happen when decision makers get blinded by someone’s follower count – no one is stopping to ask the important questions. In Jake’s case, does his role as a podcaster and social media influencer qualify him to know the subject matter of any given film he might be discussing? Can he discern the right times to speak, the right times to listen? Is he a graceful red carpet host and interviewer? In Hannah’s case – is she aware of the racial implications that can come from posing certain questions to women of colour? In Nick’s case, are you making your wife your cohost because she’s skilled? Or because it’s easy? And in Taylor’s case – can she present herself as an honest and honourable woman genuinely looking for love?

Had the vetting process been as thorough as it needed to have been in any of these scenarios, but certainly in Taylor’s, the hazards would have been foreseeable. And it’s not to say she still wouldn’t have been cast, but the producers would not be ‘blindsided’ by the news of the investigation.

This is not Taylor’s first brush with the law. In 2023, she was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence following an argument with Dakota. It’s alleged that she threw a chair at him which ended up hitting her daughter. This led to her receiving misdemeanour charges of assault, criminal mischief and domestic violence in the presence of a child. She pled guilty in abeyance to aggravated assault – which translates to, if you comply with the conditions of the plea, the charge gets dismissed. The other charges were also dismissed. Would your average person have been cast with this being part of their history? Can you imagine if they would have cast a Black woman or man with this kind of lore and what people would have to say about that?

And Dakota did try to inform producers that she was high-risk. TMZ says Dakota was in talks with Bachelorette producers about his concerns and past abuse but all of it was to no avail. Why? Because they wanted her and they wanted her audience. They knew she had the ability to bring in a new generation of audience members to the show. And that’s a very logical reason, because we know the demographic for the show is aging. But they didn’t have to grab the first person that came to mind and then go on to skip all the typical stages of vetting.

It's the exact same thing we’re seeing with these red carpets. The concern over aging, stale audiences and products is pushing decision makers to bring in influencers in hopes it will get new eyes on their red carpet parties and keep them at the top spot in the highly competitive space. I get the rationale. But in doing so, you run the risk of bad press that comes from people who have quite literally made a living doing audacious things for likes, clicks and the followers producers so deeply desire to tap in to.

Moving forward, the challenge seems to be finding the balance between meeting people where they’re at in a way that doesn’t cheapen things – not red carpets, not podcasts and not legacy shows like The Bachelorette. How do we capture the TikTok audience, the podcast audience or the reality TV audience without completely jeopardizing the brand we’ve built?

The other sad alternative is that maybe this is the future. Just a bunch of influencers and reality TV stars trying to quench their thirst for more fame and more followers and doing so at the expense of legacy brands like Vanity Fair. But if so, things are looking really grim – and that’s coming from a long-time reality TV lover herself.