Ice-T Under Fire After Tweet About Russell Armstrong's Suicide
Posted on Thu Aug 18th, 2011 8:45am PDT By X17 Staff
Right Photo Courtesy of Bravo
After learning of the suicide of Russell Armstrong, estranged husband of the The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' Taylor Armstrong, rapper Ice-T Tweeted, "Bad joke..but alotta those wives would make me consider it."
Russell hanged himself on Monday night. The rapper is now responding to criticism from the media and the public, arguing, "The lack of people caring about REAL issues has caused the media to focus on dumb s--t like TWITTER comments."Well, you said it -- whether it was on Twitter or not.
The controversy comes as discussions spark of whether the Real Housewives franchise is to blame for Russell's suicide. A family friend of the Armstrongs, William Ratner, called the show Russell's "downfall," telling The Los Angeles Times: "The TV show put a lot of pressure on him to produce financially. You're on a show with a couple like the Maloofs, who are verifiable billionaires, and you're not."
Russell was reportedly having debt problems and was being sued for $1.5 million. Ratner then made allegations against Bravo -- see what he said the network told Russell after the jump.
UPDATE: Thursday afternoon, the LA coroner's office confirmed that Russell's had been dead for at least 24 hours before his body was found.
- " ... the producers at Bravo told Russell and Taylor that they picked them as the 'disaster couple,' and if they weren't going to have drama in the second season, they would cut them and replace them with someone else."
Bravo told The Times there was no truth to his claims.
