It may still be winter in San Antonio, but things are heating up for the reality TV show centering the Alamo City. Days after MySA learned of a second cast member stepping away from Socialites of San Antonio, the apparent “silent investor” behind its reported $80,000 budget is coming forward with claims of their own.
The investor, who requested to remain anonymous, told MySA they had pulled funding for Socialites just days after signing on in early January due to concerns over return on investment. According to the investor, they were sent an initial contract after a January 1 meeting with director-showrunner Luiggi Svagelj of For the People Pictures, as well as cast members Bryce Simmons and Alyse Zagada. However, the investor alleges they didn’t sign until a revision was made to include return on investment. But “at that point every flag was going off.”
“[Luiggi] then sent a [second] contract, which was signed but voided over violation of our terms of agreement [telling] me I couldn’t pull out or get out of this, which has since then been disputed and resolved,” the investor told MySA. “I have nothing but positivity to say about each person on that team! Everyone was polite and respectful.”
MySA was shown email exchanges between the investor and Svagelj, as well as documents detailing that an agreement for $80,000 towards “development, production, filming, post-production, editing, and delivery” was reached on January 5. In return, the investor would own 20 percent of the intellectual property rights, although “no financial return is guaranteed.”
However, the investor claims they pulled out of the show on January 6, just three days after Svagelj first teased it on TikTok. In a January 5 update on TikTok, Svagelj said the wire transfer was “pending,” telling MySA a few days later that the show was fully funded to the tune of $80,000. But the investor says that money was never sent.
At the outset, the investor wanted to remain anonymous for privacy and to avoid “dealing with people who would want me to invest into their idea because I was going to help someone else out.” As for why they stayed silent even after backing out, the investor tells MySA they “have no clue.” However, they did claim to be “very surprised” that Svagelj continued to build buzz for the show.
“I didn’t know him long enough to judge his full character, but I can say as a professional and someone who values work and [work] ethic, it’s very misleading and not right to create hype for something that doesn’t have any funds,” they said. “He should come on or make a video, or someone, stating, ‘Hey we dropped the ball’ or something taking accountability for not being able to make this happen. Because [yeah] it was looking favorable! But you can’t create a full 8 episode production with no money.”
MySA reached out to Svagelj for comment about the claims, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
This article originally published at San Antonio reality TV show can’t be made ‘with no money,’ investor says.