RTE refuses to comment on Bellamianta links after video of Co Tyrone founder's bar bust-up
RTE has said it has no comment to make concerning its sponsorship arrangements with cosmetics firm Bellamianta.
It follows footage of the brand’s founder Linda Stinson arguing with a man in a Co Donegal hotel bar.
Bellamianta lists itself as the “official tan a beauty sponsor of RTE's Dancing With The Stars Ireland” – one of the most popular shows in the Republic.
Ms Stinson, from the Aughnacloy area of Co Tyrone, has since apologised over the footage.
The video was filmed, apparently surreptitiously, on a mobile phone.
It shows a verbal confrontation between Ms Stinson and an unidentified man in a bar.
They mock one another’s clothes and make tit-for-tat jibes at each other.
The man calls her a “weirdo”, and she tells him: “I will kill you.”
"You were the one being cheeky to me,” she says.
"No you were being cheeky to me,” replies the man, referencing some earlier incident in the lobby.
"Here’s me: go and f**k yourself,” she says, before calling him a “rod”, a “wee c**t”, and a slang term for a mentally disabled person.
"Button it,” the man tells her.
She tells him “you never knew what pain was”, before the clip ends.
The exchange formed the basis of this week’s Sunday Life front page, and has been widely covered elsewhere in the media.
She has since issued a statement saying: “I want to sincerely apologise for the language I used.
"It was inappropriate and entirely unacceptable.”
Asked if any of this had any effect on RTE’s relationship with her brand, the broadcaster said: “We have no comment.”