Over the weekend, the internet erupted in speculation about a potential earthquake in the Bravo universe. This time, with the Summer House cast. Fans began to piece together some clues from cryptic social media posts to damning photo evidence of hoodie-swapping. The culprits? West Wilson and recently separated Amanda Batula — housemates in the Hamptons sharehouse — who are rumored to have either “hooked up” or are casually seeing each other. The kicker is that West had previously dated another housemate, Ciara Miller, a close friend of Amanda’s. This bombshell comes at an interesting time, only a couple weeks after an episode aired where the cast members discussed how the interracial element of Ciara and West’s will-they-won’t-they situationship affects Ciara, including social media comments like “You let a white man play you on national TV.”

A blind item on Deuxmoi first surfaced on March 5, and was picked up by other reality blogs like Reality Blurb and Reality TV. After a quasi-denial in US Weekly where an insider pushes back, saying “she is going out with friends,” the rumors fell quiet for a few weeks until a branded Instagram Live event that was meant to feature both Ciara and Amanda ended up being broken into two separate events, with Ciara and Amanda attending separately. This led to the re-ignition of the rumors and added evidence – photos of Amanda wearing West’s clothes. A source in fashion working with Ciara’s team told Entertainment Now she received verbal confirmation something happened between Amanda and West, and has been adjusting professional plans accordingly.

West Wilson represents a very specific archetype of white man. He’s the guy who gravitates toward Black people for the cultural cache – the fashion, the music, the energy. He surrounds himself with Black friends, absorbs Black culture as his entire personality, and uses that proximity as evidence of his open-mindedness. He’ll mess around with Black women, because he is attracted to them, but that attraction doesn’t extend into commitment or protection. He said as much at the Season 8 reunion, when he admitted he wouldn’t commit to Ciara for “show-related reasons” — translation, he didn’t want to be locked down publicly while building his Bravo brand. Despite this, he took her to meet his family in Missouri, introduced her to his brother in Chicago and attended weddings with her. And then when it was time to make it official, he cited the fanbase. The Black cultural fluency is simply a performance, functioning as a shield that makes men like West read as “safe,” as allies, as the good guys, when their behavior quite pointedly contradicts this.

Another prime example of this archetype is Travis Kelce, who dated influencer Kayla Nicole on and off for five years, but never quite truly committed. There were whispers of infidelity and even financial manipulation. And then when Taylor Swift entered the picture, Kayla became a target. She was harassed, racially mocked, leading her to pen an open letter to Black women just to assert her own worth — while neither Travis nor Taylor said anything publicly to call it off. “You’ll hope the ones closest will protect you, but you will quickly find out people don’t protect what they don’t value,” Kayla said at the time.

This love triangle exposes what was always true about West and Ciara – Ciara wasn’t the person West wanted to hitch his reality TV wagon to. She was the person for the moment, until a white girl became available.

Men like West and Travis are attracted to Black women, but they don’t value them. They excuse misogynoir and even perpetuate it — casting Black women as too intimidating, too emotional, too much, the moment those women have a feeling that inconveniences them. West described Ciara as someone he had to “tiptoe around.” Travis let an entire fanbase harass Kayla Nicole into writing an open letter just to remind herself she was worthy. Neither man said a word.

And then, right on cue, they both turned toward someone softer. Someone safer. Someone the world would celebrate them for choosing, and notably, damsels in distress just coming out of tumultuous relationships where they felt undervalued and not chosen. Men like West and Travis aren’t looking for love –– they’re looking for a hero arc. Strong, self-assured Black women don’t fit that bill. Choosing a Black woman publicly, loudly, and fully costs something. And both men have made clear, through their actions and their silence, that they aren’t willing to pay it.

Ultimately, this is a story of a Black woman who gave this man her vulnerability, her forgiveness, and her friendship being hung out to dry. Again. And this time, in favor of her close friend. In Kayla’s words, the people closest to Ciara should have protected what they claimed to value. The fact that they didn’t tells you everything about how much they actually did.

Between the release of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 4 and the scheduled premiere of The Bachelorette Season 22, an alarming video surfaced via TMZ including footage from Taylor Frankie Paul’s 2023 domestic violence arrest, depicting her hitting, kicking, and throwing furniture at her ex, Dakota Mortensen. Her child was present throughout. While this incident had always been publicly known, the public had never seen the footage… until now.

In the video, Taylor grabs a metal barstool and hurls it at Dakota. He can be heard saying, “your daughter is sitting right there.” At that moment, the 5-year-old girl — curled up on the couch — begins crying. Even this doesn’t break Taylor away from her rage in that moment. She remains transfixed. The police report states she later had a “goose egg on her head.”

Shortly after the footage was published, ABC confirmed the season was canceled — the same day Taylor was trotted out for several interviews on the morning show circuit to promote the series.

“In light of the newly released video that surfaced today, we have made the decision not to move forward with the new season of The Bachelorette at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” a spokesperson for Disney Entertainment Television said in a statement. The season had been set to premiere this Sunday.

Taylor’s spokesperson’s response to the TMZ video called it “the latest installment of [Mortensen’s] never-ending, desperate, attention-seeking, destructive campaign to harm Taylor without any regard for the consequences for their child.”

I want to be careful here, because Taylor’s relationship with Dakota is genuinely complicated, and I believe he is capable of his own despicable behavior. The show has documented that complexity across its four seasons. But from a pure crisis communications standpoint, this statement is a disaster.

The moment footage exists — especially behavior involving a child — the only defensible response is accountability and forward-looking messaging. Pivoting immediately to attack the person who released the video, before acknowledging what’s in it, reads as evasive. And evasive, in a moment like this, is worse than silence.

Whoever is doing her PR is not familiar with crisis comms, and this speaks to just how many so-called industry professionals are steering these women in the wrong direction, collecting a check while the house burns down.

Follow the Money

When ABC cast Taylor Frankie Paul as its next Bachelorette, the network knew they were making a ballsy move. TFP was a significant departure from the squeaky-clean Christian leads of most seasons past — already a reality star in her own right, with three young children from two different fathers, a divorcée. Even the way the news broke was unconventional, announcing the news on an episode of Call Her Daddy rather than through their own channels.

Despite all these qualifications and the flashy marketing, the casting is simply low-hanging fruit. The kind of idea that looks brilliant in a slide deck and falls apart the moment someone asks a single question. Yeah, okay, she has 6.1 million TikTok followers who are deeply invested in her love life. Sure, it makes sense… if your only filter is buzz, with no regard for consequence.

It’s also worth noting that a Black woman with this exact record would never have gotten an opportunity to lead a legacy franchise. ABC’s willingness to rationalize Taylor Paul’s red flags is not unrelated to the grace that gets extended to white women in the public eye. Whiteness functioned as a mitigating factor in that risk assessment, whether anyone in that room said so out loud or not.

Part of my job is vetting talent for campaigns and activations. When we go through that exercise, we weigh “risk factors” against a talent’s “mediability” or their cultural cache, against any mitigating factors. When it comes to legal issues, violent charges are always the worst-case scenario. They are uniquely difficult to defend, uniquely repellent to brand partners and audiences, and uniquely impossible to contextualize your way out of once footage exists.

Taylor Frankie Paul was cast as the next Bachelorette when her 2023 arrest was already fully public. The incident was covered during Season 1 of the Hulu series, meaning ABC knowingly cast a talent with a violent charge on her record and a chaotic, still-ongoing situationship with her accuser, then proceeded to film an entire season and plan a premiere. Paul’s Bachelorette season wrapped production in December — two months before the latest alleged domestic incident with Dakota.

The network probably saw Paul and the chaos that followed her as a calculated risk, figuring ratings would be worth whatever controversy her season could create. I can say with near certainty that the PR and corp comms teams at ABC and Disney fought against this, but the marketing team won.

To be abundantly clear: nothing here is a defense of Taylor Paul or her behavior. What was shown in the video is inexcusable. A child was physically harmed. But accountability for her actions and accountability for the industry machine that put her in this position are not mutually exclusive, and the latter has gone largely unscathed.

In late February, police made contact with both Taylor and Dakota on February 24 and 25 amid a new alleged domestic incident, with the Draper City Police Department confirming an open domestic assault investigation and that “allegations have been made in both directions.” Details remain limited as the investigation is ongoing.

On March 7, Disney convened a Zoom with the full Mormon Wives cast. Three Disney executives attended, including Rob Mills, EVP of unscripted and alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television. Cast members agreed on the call to pause filming until TFP’s legal situation was resolved. One cast member told executives: “It’s a dangerous situation, it’s a sad situation, and we don’t know how to navigate it because Taylor is our friend.”

As cast members shared their accounts of Paul’s alleged behavior, Mills said, “I don’t know a lot, nor do I want to know too much.” When a cast member asked directly if he was “aware she’s hurt a child,” Mills replied, “I don’t think, for us, getting into it is right.”

So there we have it: Taylor Frankie Paul was not remotely ready to become the Bachelorette. Her friends knew it. Her castmates knew it. ABC and Hulu knew it — and then kept filming anyway, kept promoting anyway, kept her on a press run through the week of the premiere. As recently as Wednesday, a network source told Yahoo the show was still expected to premiere as scheduled. The Bachelor franchise has been dying for quite some time, yet instead of evolving, ABC clung onto it and attempted to breathe life back into it with guaranteed drama and a disregard for what actually made the show compelling at one time.

This is the outcome of viewing human beings as content and drama as dollars. When you put profit over quality, when you disregard the flags, when you mistake cultural momentum for personal readiness — this is what you get. You face plant, you lose revenue, brand partners pull out, and you cause genuine turmoil in people’s real lives.

The Issue Going Unaddressed

Danielle Pistotnik at Select Management Group first signed Taylor, Mayci and others, about two years before the swinging scandal broke. Select’s Lisa Filipelli later stepped in and brought on a production partner with a relationship at Hulu, ultimately landing the deal for SLOMW. These folks are largely credited with making these women famous, as all six cast members are managed by this agency.

This season, I found myself questioning their approach. We saw Jen Affleck join Dancing with the Stars eight weeks postpartum. Whitney had to balance her existing career, motherhood, DWTS, and a million different opportunities including a Broadway run as Roxie Hart in Chicago. Mayci was juggling being postpartum while going on a book tour for her memoir. And Layla, a single mom, was being prepared to potentially move to New York City for three months had Ford Models signed her. All of this, under a nearly relentless filming schedule. (Notice they’ve released 4 seasons in 2 years!)

Select also manages Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles, who in the months following the very public and painful stripping of her bronze medal was simultaneously competing collegiately at UCLA, appearing on Dancing with the Stars, releasing a memoir, and maintaining ambassador deals with Nike, Beats by Dre and Netflix.

It’s one thing to help talent level up and ~get their bag.~ It’s another to optimize for revenue at the expense of sustainability and of the personal lives these women have explicitly put on camera as their entire brand. When a single mom is being prepared to move to New York City for three months, when a woman who just gave birth is being booked for DWTS eight weeks postpartum, someone in the room should be asking: is this right for her life, or just right for her career? The entertainment industry runs on relationships, and it’s perfectly normal for deals to take time to come to fruition. “We’re interested, but now is not the right time” is a very common, perfectly acceptable statement to make when booking gigs.

The House Always Wins

As corporations grow desperate in a sinking economy, the machine gets hungrier. ABC didn’t cast Taylor Frankie Paul because someone believed in her. They cast her because someone sold her a view-booster, and everyone in that room was too busy chasing the numbers to push back. Meanwhile, the reps who built these women into a franchise are playing the same game — optimizing for maximum output in minimum time, because that’s what the market rewards. Nobody in this story set out to blow up a person’s life. They set out to make money. The difference between those two things stopped mattering a long time ago.

Rebecca Minkoff to Join Cast of RHONY

The reinstallment of the Real Housewives of New York just got a little bit more glamorous. Rebecca Minkoff, cofounder of the Rebecca Minkoff fashion label, is rumored to join the cast of RHONY for its 15th season. However, neither the fashion diva nor Bravo has confirmed the news yet. If she does join the cast, this will create an interesting dynamic with Jenna Lyons, who is the Editor in Chief of Coveteur and a former executive at J. Crew, aka fellow bonafide Fashion Girlie.

Robyn Dixon Confirms Firing From RHOP

On Monday, April 15, the controversial Real Housewife of Potomac broke the news on the latest episode of her podcast with castmate and fellow Green Eyed Bandit Gizelle Bryant, Reasonably Shady.

"Yes, I will not be returning for season 9 of The Real Housewives of Potomac. It's reality. The network did not invite me back. I was fired, for lack of better words. I will not sugar-coat the situation and say, 'Ooh I am walking away and this is a break' or anything like this. This is a network decision,” she said.

Robyn has been a contentious figure on RHOP since season one, as you can always find her in the center of a squabble. Despite coming across as domineering and vocal on the show, Robin exhibits opposite qualities in her marriage, turning a blind eye to her husband, former NBA player, Juan Dixon’s frequent indiscretions.

Crystal Announced She Will Not Return to RHOBH

Crystal Kung Minkoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills announced her departure from the show after three seasons via Instagram. Minkoff joined the cast in season 11 as the first Asian American housewife on the franchise.

Crystal has always been a cast member that divided Bravo fans as she sometimes appeared to be disjointed from her fellow castmates. In her first season, Crystal was only 37 when she first joined the franchise while most of the women entered their 50s. She struggled to get along with the other women who labeled her a “dramatic millennial.” Same.

Candiace and Chris Bassett are Expecting

Candiace Dillard Bassett recently announced her exit from RHOP to a mixed reaction from fans. The former beauty queen-turned-singer was, like Robyn, always mixed up in the drama on Potomac. She made a name for herself when she first appeared on the series in its third season with her signature cry-angle and lethal clapbacks.

In recent seasons, Candiace’s marriage had been a target of the Green Eyed Bandits (Gizelle Bryant and Robyn Dixon) who brought up concerns about Candiace’s husband Chris’ behavior toward them among other rumors of infidelity. Following the season 8 reunion, tensions remained high among the cast, which is why Candiace’s exit, while devastating to many Bravo fans, did not come as a complete surprise.

This week, Candiace and Chris announced their pregnancy exclusively with Entertainment Tonight. Candiace expressed her excitement about becoming a mother and her gratitude for this new chapter in their lives

Alexia and Todd Split

Alexia Nepola, OG of the Real Housewives of Miami, is splitting from her husband Todd Nepola, whom she married on season six in 2021. Yesterday, she took to her Instagram after Page Six reported that Todd filed for divorce to say she was “shocked” and “heartbroken” by Todd’s decision to file.

Mood:

It’s been almost exactly three months since the news of #Scandoval first broke, keeping the nation captivated by the brazenness of it all. In March, Ariana Madix learned that Tom Sandoval, her partner of nearly a decade had been having a 7-month affair with their costar and close friend Raquel (Rachel) Leviss. While the cast has had their fair share of cheating scandals, this one easily takes the cake due to the many layers of manipulation at play as well as the longevity and seriousness of the relationship.

The news broke after the season had already wrapped, so the Bravo! production team scrambled to get filming back up and running, eventually borrowing a crew from The Real Housewives of Beverley Hills. Only the last three episodes of the season were filmed following the revelations.

In these recent episodes, Tom Sandoval has attempted to discredit Ariana by attacking her character, citing intimacy issues, and even questioning why she didn’t press him harder. In a scene following the fallout, Tom Sandoval says to Tom Schwartz, “She could’ve, like, followed me to see I wasn’t where I said I was.”

Later, in the first scene with Raquel since the news broke, Tom expresses his frustration that Ariana had friends at their shared home to support her. Raquel expresses that she is glad that she has that support, to which Tom responds, “Yeah it’s just that she would always get mad at me when I would like have birthday parties and stuff.”

We see Tom have one-on-one conversations with four individuals: Ariana, Schwartz, Lisa, and Raquel. Out of those four conversations, he only breaks down when speaking to Schwartz and Lisa: his business partners. He is icy and resentful when speaking to Ariana, and awkward and guarded with Raquel

.

In the two reunion episodes that have aired so far, he has taken cheap shots and low blows at several of his cast mates. First, James Kennedy expresses how betrayed he felt by Tom’s actions, to which Ariana adds that they were like brothers. Tom then scoffs at this, and says that no, they weren’t. A clearly hurt James, close to tears, shouts that yes they were, and Tom says, “You said that, I never did.” Later, he calls Lala a “moron” and says she “pulled out her IUD the day she found out Stassi was pregnant.” In the preview for the next episode, he angrily calls Ariana “motherf*cker” out of frustration, and is admonished by Lisa.

During the lunch break, Tom attempts to persuade production to allow an off-camera chat alone with Raquel, which they decline. This then prompts him to go ballistic on the producer, shouting and cursing about how he needs a break. Production continues to urge him to take his lunch alone, off camera, or concede to having his lunch with Raquel filmed. Eventually, they seem to enjoy an off-camera smoke break together.

We then get to see Raquel’s one-on-one interview with Andy during which she admits some shocking claims including that she had originally thought her friendship with Ariana would be able to be salvaged. She also repeat’s Tom’s talking points blaming Ariana for not pressing Tom harder, never confronting Raquel, and generally not looking hard enough. When Andy asked what was taking them so long to come clean, Raquel then says, “We wanted to get our story straight.”

What was made clear in the second episode of the reunion is that there is a stark difference between Raquel and Tom Sandoval. Raquel truly doesn’t seem to grasp the magnitude of what she’s done, while Tom Sandoval does, but is trying to manipulate his way out of suffering the full extent of his consequences. While I’m not a clinician, I do have my fair share of experience with narcissistic abuse and recognize some frightening patterns at play here. If Lala Kent has ever been right about anything, it’s that Tom Sandoval is a dangerous person.

Ahead of last night’s episode of Vanderpump Rules, Bravo’s overlord Andy Cohen warned us of this episode’s explosive content and assured us that it had not been altered since the news of #Scandoval (aka Tomfoolery) had broken. We’ve been on pins and needles ever since, wondering what it could possibly reveal.

Since the news broke a little over a week ago, Bravo fans have been glued to our phones as information has been revealed in bits and pieces via tweets, Instagram stories, podcast episodes and finally even episodes of the show itself. It’s been fascinating to watch this play out in real time. As my friend Deaven put it, “This is my Pearl Harbor!”

On Wednesday night’s episode of Vanderpump Rules, Katie and the girls travel from Las Vegas to a lake in Arizona on a trip to celebrate Katie’s divorce from Tom Schwartz. Despite Raquel trying to “make out” with Schwartz, Katie invites Raquel, but doesn’t invite Scheana because she encouraged her. Ariana stays behind because her dog had to be put down.

On last week’s episode featuring the Vegas portion of the trip, we saw Raquel kiss Garcelle Beaveau’s son, Oliver Saunders, who was allegedly still married at the time. He told Lala on camera that he was separated after Lala had clearly expressed interest in him. After leaving the club, Raquel and Lala had an argument, in which Lala said to Raquel she wouldn’t trust her around her man in a situation where alcohol was involved. Raquel’s response was a slurred, “Well, it’s a good thing you don’t have a man to, like, have around.”

Lala took offense to this but cut her some slack, considering Raquel was drunk and Lala was sober. They sent her to bed. However, Raquel was shown on camera listening around the corner while Katie, Kristina Kelly, and Lala giggled about how they all needed to watch their men around Raquel.

In a profetic moment, Katie says in her confessional that she's seen a “pattern” in Raquel: that she only wants a man if one of her friends wants or has him first.

This week on the girl’s trip after Charli showed up, Raquel decided she no longer felt welcome and chose to go home after having a panic attack on the drive from Vegas to Arizona. However, after returning to LA, Charli and Raquel decide to crash the boy’s night Scheana and Brock have arranged for Schwartz back home.

The group is entirely displeased to see the pair considering it’s supposed to be “guy’s night” and Scheana’s presence is only allowed because she planned (and probably funded) the event. I noticed that this included Sandoval, but his eyes were wide and he looked guilty, until the group eventually accepts the two of them, and then he he appears happy. Smug, even

During Watch What Happens Live, the question arose whether the affair between Raquel and Sandoval had begun at this point yet and Katie answered that she believes it either just had or did very soon after, but did not provide a comment based on the episode she’d just seen. Andy noted that the episode was shot in August.

In my opinion, I think that something had recently begun with Sandoval and both Raquel and Tom were panicking about how to cover it up while filming.

Regarding Tom Schwartz’s knowledge of the debacle, his ex wife Katie Maloney currently believes that he was duped by the pair and didn’t find out about the affair until recently, but she did not disclose when exactly she believes she found out. She mentioned she hopes to clarify that at the reunion, in addition to when and how the affair between Tom Sandoval and Raquel began.

In addition, today it was revealed that the reunion is scheduled to film on March 23, but the hearing for Raquel’s restraining order on Scheana isn’t until March 29. Fans on Twitter are calling for Scheana to stay home and Zoom in, but unfortunately even that isn’t satisfactory because she cannot have any contact with Raquel even via Zoom. That being said, it’s likely the reunion filming will have to be rescheduled.

This thing is just heating up. Stay tuned for more updates!

During my daily morning TikTok scroll, I stumbled across comedian Heather McDonald dragging former Real Housewife of New York, Bethenny Frankel by her Snow White bob. Apparently, there’s been murmurs going on this week, but I’ve been too distracted by the feuding female rappers. Here’s the Skinnygirl of it: Bethenny (much like Nicki Minaj) cannot and will not stop beefing with every woman with any success she deems them unworthy of. *Cue “The Man” by Taylor Swift*

Source: PageSix

So, back to the TikTok: Heather McDonald, former regular on “Chelsea Lately” and current host of the popular podcast, “Juicy Scoop” was absolutely coming for B’s throat. She called her “the biggest hypocrite in Hollywood” and claimed that Bethenny did not support women, citing Ramona Singer’s famous zinger. In the video, she brought up Bethenny’s recent PR crisis involving her lawyers and a small creator. Remember those murmurs I mentioned earlier?

Meredith Lynch (@meredithmlynch) recently announced to her followers that she had to delete videos pertaining to a “certain” former RHONY cast member after receiving a cease and desist, which sparked a conversation surrounding Frankel’s pattern of “shutting down” small content creators. McDonald pointed out that Bethenny had become famous due to speaking her mind and sharing her opinions, and intimidating others for doing the same earned her the title of Biggest Hypocrite in Hollywood.

Bethenny fired back, saying Heather was trying to “stay relevant” and that she doesn’t even live in Hollywood. Good one, B.

The entrepreneur and philanthropist has been stirring up controversy on social media in a constant and seemingly compulsive manner. She’s recently begun a semi-regular series on TikTok in which she gives unfiltered reviews of celebrity’s beauty brands, labeling Kylie Jenner’s lip products a “scam” and Hailey Bieber’s skincare line “basic.” She’s also currently suing TikTok over an unchecked ad. After Kim Kardashian was booed at the LA Rams game, B said she wasn’t surprised because football “fans are people with daughters and sons who have hope for realistic role models for their children,” unlike people in the fashion industry. (Sure, Jan.) Last month, she criticized Meghan Markle for like, idk, existing, calling her a “terrible businessperson” and “sanctimonious.”

Who is Bethenny’s publicist? Does she have one? If so, she needs to get rid of them. The All PR is Good PR approach is about as promising as the “Our marriage is crumbling, let’s have a baby,” method. It will never be beneficial to your brand to regularly and viciously tear down other woman on the internet, but especially not in 2022.

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