Duke University has hit out at The White Lotus after one of the characters was shown to be wearing their merchandise during a shocking murder-suicide scene in Monday’s (March 24) episode.
In episode six of season three, Jason Isaacs’ character Timothy Ratliff (having stolen a gun in a previous episode) is shown to be daydreaming about shooting himself and his wife Victoria (Parker Posey).
The vision comes after days of rapidly increasing pressure for the character, as Timothy has learned that he could face jail time and lose everything due to some fraudulent business dealings back home in the US.
In these scenes, Timothy is wearing a T-shirt from Duke University, his former college that has also been mentioned by several other characters in the show. It appears that the university is unhappy about being associated with The White Lotus and this storyline specifically, with its president for communications, marketing and public affairs, Frank Tramble, sharing a statement with The New York Times.
He wrote: “Duke appreciates artistic expression and creative storytelling, but characters prominently wearing apparel bearing Duke’s federally registered trademarks creates confusion and mistakenly suggests an endorsement or affiliation where none exists.”
He continued that the show “not only uses our brand without permission, but in our view uses it on imagery that is troubling, does not reflect our values or who we are, and simply goes too far.”
The latest season of Mike White’s acclaimed HBO drama has really ramped up over the past couple of weeks, with an incest storyline between Ratliff brothers Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola) sending the internet into meltdown. Nivola spoke out about the controversial sex scene earlier this week, saying he found it “stressful” to shoot.
Isaacs has also already faced some heat online during this season after he made comments about a “double standard for men” regarding nudity on screen, which he later walked back.