The Duke vs. North Carolina rivalry is arguably the best in college sports. Two shades of blue dominate the college hoops hotbed that is the state of North Carolina, and their men’s basketball teams have battled it out every year since 1920.
One-hundred and five years later, the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels feature prominently in the third season of HBO’s hit show “The White Lotus” via two of the main characters. Timothy Ratliff (played by Jason Isaacs) went to Duke, and his wife, Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey), is a North Carolina alumna. [Spoiler alert: The next paragraph includes a description of content from multiple episodes.]
However, Duke is none too happy with its inclusion due to some specific scenes involving Timothy, according to a report from Bloomberg. In the fifth and sixth episodes, Timothy, donning a Duke shirt, contemplates suicide and murder-suicide and even holds a gun to his head.
“The White Lotus 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,” Frank Tramble, Duke’s vice president for communications, marketing and public affairs, said as part of a statement. “Suicide is the second-leading cause of death on college campuses. As imagery from the show is being shared widely across social media, we are using our brand to promote mental health awareness and remind people that help is available.”
Still images from the scene have emerged across social media recently as the Blue Devils men’s and women’s teams are in the NCAA Tournament. In Sweet 16 action, the men, a No. 1 seed, face (4) Arizona on Thursday night, and the women, a No. 2 seed, coincidentally face (3) North Carolina on Friday.
