“You’re promoting your soul, primarily,” former Vanderpump Guidelines star Rachel Leviss stated of taking part within the Bravo actuality sequence throughout half two of a bombshell interview with Bethenny Frankel of Actual Housewives fame.
Leviss has seemingly give up Vanderpump Guidelines after her affair with Tom Sandoval, often called Scandoval, blew up the sequence (and boosted its rankings). Now she’s telling her facet of the story on Frankel’s Simply B podcast amid Frankel’s burgeoning struggle to unionize actuality TV stars. When filming one thing like a hyper-contentious reunion particular, “there actually isn’t anyone that’s a protected place to go to,” Leviss stated. “I don’t assume that anyone on that present has my finest curiosity at coronary heart. So it’s arduous for me to be so trusting like I as soon as was.”
Partially two of the reunion, Leviss requested host Andy Cohen to ship fellow solid member Scheana Shay paperwork declaring her request to dismiss a restraining order towards Shay. The safety order was first positioned as a result of Shay allegedly punched Leviss within the face when she first heard that Leviss and Sandoval have been having an affair. On the time, Shay denied this incident through her lawyer Neama Rahmani, who advised Web page Six on March 9: “Scheana by no means punched Rachel, interval. This complete case is a fabrication by a identified liar and a cheat who has betrayed everybody near her.” At one level within the reunion, Leviss stated, “I fully remorse submitting the restraining order.” It was later dismissed after a court docket date during which Leviss failed to seem earlier than the decide.
Months later, Leviss has reverted again to her unique declare. “Scheana did bodily assault me that night time and I’ve a everlasting scar on my eyebrow,” she advised Frankel. “And, in the mean time, I assumed I deserved it. That’s why I simply stood there and let it occur.” Leviss continued, “It’s simply nuts that she’s doubled down on this narrative that I’m a liar and a cheat and that I fully fabricated this assault for no matter motive. I don’t assume that submitting a restraining order was out of query.”
Leviss then lobbed some allegations towards Sandoval, revealing that she confronted him on-camera about filming an intimate second of hers with out consent. “He admitted to it,” Leviss stated, “however then after that scene wrapped he stated, ‘Why did you say that on digicam? You made me look dangerous.’ And I used to be like, ‘Nicely, as a result of that’s what occurred.’” She then claimed that Sandoval “ended up boycotting filming the remainder of Scandoval in order that he might have modifying rights to that scene.”
When requested by Frankel if Sandoval is an official Vanderpump Guidelines producer, like Lisa Vanderpump, Leviss replied, “I don’t even know if I’m capable of disclose this data, however he did inform me throughout negotiations for season 11 that he was supplied a producer credit score for season 11. So I believe he was being rewarded for the Scandoval of all of it.”
In Scandoval’s aftermath, beforehand departed solid members Jax Taylor and his spouse, Brittany Cartwright, in addition to Kristen Doute, have been tapped to seem in a Vanderpump spinoff sequence. In response to Leviss, this provide was made, partially, to maintain Doute quiet about her earlier relationship with Vanderpump Guidelines solid member James Kennedy, to whom Leviss was beforehand engaged. “Kristen was simply beginning to speak about her tumultuous relationship with James and what occurred behind closed doorways. After which, swiftly she’s offered with this spinoff,” Leviss stated, “which I imagine is a method to silence her to maintain that beneath wraps in order that the longevity of Vanderpump Guidelines can proceed.”
Leviss wasn’t the one Bravolebrity podcasting this week. Vanderpump herself lately spoke to The Los Angeles Instances, expressing misgivings a couple of union for reality-TV expertise. “One of many nice issues about actuality reveals is that they’ve at all times been capable of be produced for much less cash than scripted reveals,” Vanderpump stated of Frankel’s assertion that actuality stars ought to be a part of actors and writers in placing for higher working situations. “And I don’t actually perceive how one can have a union for those who are usually plucked out of obscurity.”
Added Vanderpump Guidelines govt producer Alex Baskin, “I believe it’s one thing that’s price consideration and I do perceive the premise that these reveals are run many instances over, however on the similar time, there’s the financial actuality of, as Lisa indicated, that unscripted programming exists largely as a result of it’s a greater value level.”
Vainness Honest has reached out to reps for Bravo, Sandoval, Shay, and Doute for remark.
