Was Tom Sandoval, Raquel Cheating Scandal Staged?
The news that "Vanderpump Rules" stars Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss were having an affair reignited interest in the show.
Some Vanderpump podcasters think the affair was orchestrated by producers of the Bravo show.
"Production at least knew there was a strong flirtation," said Sarah Cee of the "Vanderpump Rules Party" podcast.
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On March 3, TMZ broke the news that "Vanderpump Rules" stars Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss were involved in an affair, ending Sandoval's nearly decadelong relationship with his fellow cast member Ariana Madix and reigniting interest in the struggling reality show. The revelation sent shock waves rippling through the show's fandom and cast, with the latter often taking to Instagram to express their dismay.
The affair, uncovered after Madix found a sexually explicit video of Leviss on Sandoval's phone, seemed to come as a surprise to everyone — including the show's producers. But do episodes of the show filmed in September tell a different story? Is it possible that the affair was not a spontaneous happening, but a producer-driven orchestration?
"I saw Sandoval and Raquel dancing together at The Abbey," Ally Lewber, a cast newcomer, said in a confessional during an April episode of the show. She was recounting a conversation she had with Lala Kent; they both found the behavior — between a young, single woman and an older man in a very public long-term relationship — somewhat odd.
Lewber had already spoken about the sighting with her fellow cast members Katie Maloney and Kristina Kelly, and later told her boyfriend, James Kennedy, who's also on the show. Eventually the entire group knew.
The Abbey spotting warmed embers of suspicion among cast members prone to be wary of Sandoval — a group that was already quite large, due in part to Sandoval's particularly hostile relationship with Maloney. The flame grew after Sandoval and Leviss spent a night together alone (innocent, according to them) in his house while Madix was away at her grandmother's funeral. New episodes, filmed last year, are now primarily focused on suspicion around Sandoval and Leviss.
The "Vanderpump Rules" cast Tommy Garcia/Bravo
It's odd the cast members seemed surprised by the affair, some podcasters said
Viewers of the show have been quick to point out that this seems incongruous with the idea that the cast was shocked at the March announcement. We spoke to a few podcasters who don't believe the cast fabricated their reaction, but do think producers might have had a bigger hand than Bravo is letting on.
Sarah Cee and Hollie Bohorquez, the hosts of the "Vanderpump Rules Party" podcast, told me that it's odd the cast seemed "bamboozled" by the announcement given their monthslong speculation. Cee thinks each cast member likely has a different reason for not being more vocal about their suspicions: Maloney, for example, didn't have many allies in the cast while filming, and potentially didn't want to jeopardize her relationship with Madix unless she had hard proof of Sandoval's indiscretion.
Kate Casey, the host of "Reality Life With Kate Casey," agreed. Leviss "presented herself as a wounded bird" and a good friend, and Casey said that people on reality TV constantly "have to weigh the risks" that come with calling out the misbehavior of a cast member who is potentially more well-liked. "Will this alienate them with the cast, and more importantly the audience?" she said.
But Cee thinks production knew. Bravo has stressed there's been no reediting of the season to account for the discovery of the affair, "so with that in mind," Cee said, the show's producers "had to have known or had very strong inklings." (Kent has claimed on her podcast, "Give Them Lala," that they did not.)
One theory: Sandoval and producers were producing a story arc to keep show ratings up
Cee cited an April episode highlighting Sandoval patting Leviss' butt as an example, and Bohorquez agreed: "I personally feel like they were mapping this out."
Bohorquez thinks producers, and perhaps even Sandoval himself, might have been attempting to produce a story arc — of Sandoval falling out of love with Madix and falling in love with Leviss — to carry the show into another season. "Production at least knew there was a strong flirtation," Cee said. "I think they were trying to milk it."
Bohorquez suggested the cast might have known it would come out during this season, offering potentially damning pieces of evidence that any conspiracy theorist would envy: sly mentions on podcasts of explosive things to come and an odd interaction with the exiled cast member Kristen Doute among them.
Podcasters found a filming permit from after the season wrapped in front of a cast member's building
But the most damning involved a filming permit Bohorquez and Cee retrieved from in front of a cast member's building. The permit was in effect until April 2, long after filming for the season had wrapped. After news of the affair came out in March, Bravo infamously resumed filming. "So before Scandoval even broke, they had the filming permits in place to record with when cameras went back."
Carey O'Donnell and Lara Schoenhals, who host "Sexy Unique Podcast," aren't quite as conspiracy-minded. But Schoenhals does think there is "something suspect" about the Scandoval rollout, particularly considering how viewership had waned over the past few seasons. "They needed something to get shaken up, to get people's interest back," she said.
Lala Kent, Ariana Madix, and Tom Sandoval in 2017. Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Gersh
Her theory is that producers intended to follow the Sandoval-Leviss rumor as a B or C plot that would eventually fall to the wayside. But after Madix found the evidence, they understood immediately that it was what the show needed to regain attention and started leaking the news for marketing purposes.
"I just don't think I don't think people in this world specifically, aside from Lisa Vanderpump, are calculated enough and strategic enough," Schoenhals said, to successfully fabricate something like this. (It's a good point.)
O'Donnell joked on the show that he "feels like a 9/11 truther" but thinks Bravo went back and added things to episodes to make Leviss and Sandoval more central to the plot, despite the network's statements to the contrary. He noted a scene from the episode that aired on May 3, where Lala Kent shares with James Kennedy her suspicions about Sandoval and Leviss. "I feel like they did that in, like, March or April," O'Donnell said, suggesting that editors recut the episode to fit the new narrative. "God bless those editors," he said.
When reached by Insider, Bravo declined to comment on the podcasters' theories.
Suspicion that the cast was exaggerating their shock for effect or that Bravo was planning to follow Sandoval and Leviss all along, hasn't diminished "Vanderpump Rules" fans' ravenous interest in the scandal. In fact, it might serve to propel it further. Speculating on producers' plot machinations is "as fun as the show for me," Bohorquez told me. "It's fun to see how they put it together."
Source: Insider
