'Vanderpump Rules' producer hints Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval can't avoid each other while filming

Vanderpump Rules' executive producer Alex Baskin apparently believes it's going to be almost impossible for Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval to avoid each other while filming Season 11.


Vanderpump Rules began filming its eleventh season on June 28, and Baskin told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview that Tom and Ariana have managed to stay away from each other when cameras are rolling.

However, Baskin doesn't think that dynamic is going to last for long.

"We always deal with pushback if different parties don't want to shoot with each other because of strained relations," Baskin told The Hollywood Reporter.

"Obviously, this is more extreme. But Ariana and Tom, I would hasten to point out, they still live together."


He added, "The idea that they wouldn't shoot together is a little bit hard to digest. They're in the same home."

Ariana and Tom appeared to end their relationship in March after headlines surfaced that Tom, her then-boyfriend of nearly a decade, had been cheating on her with their Vanderpump Rules co-star -- and Ariana's former best friend -- Raquel Leviss for about six months.

Ariana broke her silence about her breakup with Tom on NBC's Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in May and revealed, "We do not interact on any level."

While Ariana and Tom are still living in the same $2 million Los Angeles home, temporarily, Ariana said they only communicate through "go betweens" and that her family "hates" him and Tom is "dead" to her brother.

Ariana also previously told Raquel that she's "dead" to her and their friendship is over. Ariana said Raquel seems "lost and empty" and she doesn't know who Raquel is anymore.


When asked what it would take for her to forgive Tom and Raquel, Ariana bluntly announced, "That's not happening."

Raquel, meanwhile, had entered a treatment facility to check her mental health in April amid backlash over the affair, and Baskin said there are "ongoing conversations" about whether she'll return for the new season.

"I imagine there will be an update fairly soon. But, for now, we're still in dialogue with her," the executive producer noted.

Looking back on Season 10, Baskin admitted he "felt like a complete moron" once Raquel and Tom's betrayal came to light.

"It looks so obvious after the fact. I can't believe the brazenness in some cases," he admitted.


"This affair was happening right there in front of us. It's our job to be skeptical, to document and to ask the questions and probe. And then we have to let it play out in front of us, without our judgment."

Baskin assured fans that "really is what happened" last season, adding, "We really didn't know until Ariana knew. But looking back, everything really was obvious."

But Baskin feels like it's time to "move on" from "Scandoval," explaining that Vanderpump Rules has "never been static" and producers don't want to harp on the subject.

"We'd disappoint the audience if we started just sleuthing," he said. "Everyone is trying to move on with their lives. If that creeps back in, then it creeps back in."

Baskin insisted the cast "needs to focus" and "let all of that go."


The Vanderpump Rules producer reasoned, "We don't want to get to a place where we are covering the coverage of the show. We'd hoped that it would have died down, but there's still a hysteria surrounding it."

But for the time being, Baskin said the show's production team has returned to the show's "normal, pretty aggressive timeline" of filming and they're not rushing to put out the finished product.

"Things are still unsettled within the group whose lives we're following," Baskin noted.

"I've never headed into a season having less of a sense of where we're going to be when we wrap in a few months."

Baskin believes that in six months, the new season will be dropped.


"It's good to make the audience miss you a little bit," Baskin shared.

After a chaotic and emotionally-charged six months of Vanderpump Rules drama, twists and turns, Baskin joked that he's "still standing."

"It's been a lot of fun. It's been wild. It's been an adventure that keeps unfolding," he concluded.

Despite being subjected to hate and shaming, Raquel filmed Vanderpump Rules' three-part Season 10 reunion before checking herself into rehab.

Bravo executive Andy Cohen joked about -- and later apologized for -- how Raquel seemed "unemotional" and heavily medicated at the time of the reunion.

According to Us Weekly, Raquel is very apologetic for having slept with Tom and for hurting Ariana.


Raquel even previously expressed how she hated being secretive and so deceitful, sneaking around with Tom even around the time Ariana's had grandmother passed away.

Looking back on her decade-long romance with Tom, Ariana shared with Glamour magazine in June, "I feel like I'm someone who craves intimacy outside of just penetrative sex, and that was something that I was deprived of for so long."

"As women, we might bring something up a bunch of times and then we just stop," Ariana continued.

"That's where I was at. I was like, 'I cannot keep nagging this man to want to come home and spend time with me.'"

Ariana went on to vent about how "so many men" in general feel "entitled" to a woman's body.

"[They act] entitled to sex because you're in a relationship with them," Ariana said. "I am not your Fleshlight. I spelled out what I needed, but hello. It's a two-person situation."


But Ariana was able to move on from the scandal with the help of Daniel, whom she began dating in April.

While Ariana played coy about her love life on Watch What Happens Live, she teased to viewers, "I'll just say that I am very happy and very satisfied."

A source recently told Us that Ariana is "definitely open to seeing where things go" with Daniel but she "isn't totally ready to jump into a serious relationship."

Meanwhile, Tom told TMZ in late April that he was "really happy" to see Ariana doing so well.

After all, an insider source claimed to Us on March 3 that Tom and Ariana had been "having problems for a while." The insider claimed the pair's relationship "only came to a breaking point" the day prior to their split on March 1.

But Tom claimed he officially broke up with Ariana on Valentine's Day in February.


Tom also shared on the April 11 episode of the "Howie Mandel Does Stuff" podcast how his romance with Raquel started with a "magnetic" kiss last summer.

"I felt something that I hadn't felt in so long emotionally," Tom explained. "The feelings were something very, very strong."

Tom claimed that he had attempted to break up with Ariana once he realized he had strong feelings for Raquel.

"Like many relationships, it felt like it became more of like a best friends, family [thing] -- sometimes roommates," Tom continued.

"There were a lot of ways where the relationship was just lacking the intimacy, the connection. We would travel more by ourselves than we would together. I would go to weddings by myself."

Tom said he was seeing and FaceTiming with Raquel "as often" as he could," even though that "sounds horrible."


"And Ariana didn't even notice because that's just how separate our lives were," Tom claimed. "I had to actually tell her, 'How have you not noticed how distant I've been lately?'"

Ariana apparently believes Tom even had sex with Raquel in one of their guest rooms while she was sleeping in their bed.

Ariana's fame skyrocketed because of Tom's affair. She was even asked to make an appearance on Love Island's fifth season and compete on Dancing with the Stars this fall.







About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski