Lisa Vanderpump shut down Jax Taylor’s claim that only the early seasons of “Vanderpump Rules” were “organic” and “real” while the recent installments are “fake” and “scripted.”
via: ET Online
ET sat down with the reality TV vet inside her latest restaurant venture, Wolf by Vanderpump at Harveys Lake Tahoe, for a little state of the union on her various shows, starting with Vanderpump Rules. At a recent viewing party for the series and its newly launched spinoff, The Valley — both of which Lisa executive produces — at Jax’s eponymously named bar in Studio City, California, Jax provided real-time commentary on an episode of VPR into a microphone, repeatedly blasting his former TV home.
“They don’t even hang out with each other,” he told the crowd, in a clip captured by TikTok user Kate Riccio. “Show me a scripted show and I’ll show you f**king Vanderpump Rules. Scripted! Scripted!”
@katericcio Jax Taylor slams Vanderpump Rules saying it’s all “scripted” then tells us about Tom Schwartz and his new girlfriend (and yes, that IS Stephen McGee from Summer House sitting next to him) #vanderpumprules #thevalley #jaxtaylor #tomschwartz #lalakent #arianamadix #katiemaloney #andycohen #lisavanderpump #tomsandoval #jameskennedy #vanderpumprulesseason11 #jax #kristendoute #brittanycartwright #summerhouse #bravo #bravotv #realitytv ? original sound – Kate Riccio | Recaps & Gossip
“I’ve been on this show for nine f**king years, this is scripted,” Jax continued, referencing his tenure on the series — which he once called “my show” — before the network let him go in 2020 ahead of season 9.
“l’ll be on next week, and I’ll tell you what: it was scripted!” he spouted. Jax turned up on Tuesday’s episode for an awkward chat with Lisa, during which she shamed him for calling her “superfluous” on Vanderpump Rules now that it no longer revolves around her businesses. Jax denied even knowing the word “superfluous.”
“This is disastrous,” he continued ranting. “Don’t get me wrong, when we started, it was awesome. About seasons 1 through 6, it was organic, it was real. Now everybody starts to have money, now it becomes fake. Everything after six seasons is a wash, it’s a f**king wash.”
“Now you have a real show!” he announced when The Valley came on the bar’s televisions. “Back to where we started. It’s organic, it’s real.”
“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to say ‘scripted,'” Lisa claps back. “Nobody can write a script like Vanderpump Rules.”
“Oh my goodness,” she adds. “Maybe what Jax says is scripted. Maybe he sits at home, in his little bedroom and writes his own scripts. Well, what do I know? Anyway, for the most part, anything Jax says doesn’t make any sense to me.”
After the clip went viral, Jax walked back the comments on his podcast with estranged wife Brittany Cartwright, When Reality Hits.
“I have a big mouth, and it gets me in trouble from time to time,” he told listeners. “I regretfully went on a rant about how Vanderpump Rules is scripted. I’m incredibly embarrassed by that.”
Jax went on to praise the show for being “the most authentic” reality series out there, especially as season 11 chronicles the aftershocks of Scandoval, the cheating scandal that turned the show into Bravo’s No. 1 piece of programming. Last month, Lisa taped the all-cast reunion; soon after, reports circulated that something major went down between Lala Kent and Ariana Madix, a potentially friendship-ending feud.
“They can always come back from it,” Lisa clarifies. “This group has been so divided so many times, and you would think that this one would never talk to that one again and, somehow, they manage to find their way back to each other.”
While Lisa shuts down speculation that the VPR cast seems more divided than ever after reunion (“It’s always something different with those lot, isn’t it?”), the series does seem to be at a pivot point going into a potential 12th year. It doesn’t seem plausible for breakout star Ariana to exist in the same television universe as her cheating ex-boyfriend, Tom Sandoval, beyond season 11; and, with The Valley in play, legacy cast members could easily “graduate” to that series, while Vanderpump Rules refocuses on the show’s original premise, repopulated with fresh-faced servers (or rather, SUR-vers) who actually work at Lisa’s Los Angeles eateries.
“I just think people are so attached to this cast, and there’s always a story to tell,” she offers. “So we’ll see. We’ll know when the time is right [to shake things up].”
