Things may be changing behind-the-scenes of Vanderpump Rules if Raquel Leviss doesn’t drop her order of protection against Scheana Shay.
“It’s really up to Bravo executives, but I mean, they cannot be physically within 100 yards of each other as of the current order,” Shay’s lawyer, Neama Rahmani, exclusively told Us Weekly about the upcoming season 10 reunion taping. “So one of them may have to skip the reunion, or maybe Raquel will have to Zoom in, but they can’t be within close proximity of one another, and they can’t be directly communicating with one another. So it’s gonna be tough to make this reunion show happen with both of them.”
The attorney clarified that even if Leviss is present via Zoom and Shay is there in person, “There can be no direct communication or even communication through any intermediaries.”
If the date is changed, however, both women could be present. While Rahmani noted that it’s “possible” for the restraining order to be made permanent at the hearing on March 29, Shay “intends to present her witnesses and her evidence and to disprove these allegations. And she’s excited to have her day in court and have the judge hear both sides of the story.”
Leviss took legal action against Shay earlier this month after an alleged altercation in the early hours of March 2 when the former beauty queen admitted to having an affair with Tom Sandoval — the longtime boyfriend of Shay’s best friend Ariana Madix.
“[Scheana] pushed me against [a] brick wall causing injury to back of [my] head and punched me in the face causing injury to my left eye,” Leviss alleged in the court documents, alleging she has a cut above her left eye and “blurred vision.”
Shay denied the allegations through Rahmani on Thursday, March 9.
Scheana Shay and Raquel Leviss. Shutterstock(2)
“This case is a fabrication by a known liar and a cheat who has betrayed everyone close to her. Scheana never punched Raquel, period,” the statement read. “The supposed dark markings around her left eye have been there for months. Neither Scheana nor other cast members want anything to do with Raquel going forward. The judge has only heard a one-sided account of what happened, and we look forward to presenting the full and true story at the March 29 hearing.”
Leviss and Sandoval have both publicly apologized to Madix, who allegedly found out about their romance on March 1 when she discovered a video taken by the TomTom co-owner.
“During Tom’s performance, his phone fell out of his pocket or something and somebody — a mutual friend — picks up the phone, hands it to Ariana. … Ariana had his phone and she told me that she just had this gut intuition to look at it,” former costar Kristen Doute recalled on her “Sex, Love and What Else Matters” podcast on Wednesday, March 8. “They are, like, a trusting couple … She just found, like, she had to look. So she went into his photos. He had screen recorded a FaceTime of him and Raquel masturbating with each other. That’s the truth.”
Doute also spoke about Shay’s reaction to the scandal.
“[Ariana] called Raquel. Raquel and Scheana were together after Watch What Happens Live,” Doute said. “And she’s like, walking around all Raquel-like, and Scheana’s like, ‘Who are you on the phone with? What is going on?’ And too casually, [Raquel] says, ‘I’m talking to Ariana. Sandoval and I had a 7-month affair.’ You’re telling this to Ariana’s best friend. So she threw Raquel’s phone in the gutter.”
Andy Cohen previously teased on Wednesday that the reunion was set to be filmed in “two and a half weeks.”
“I think there will be a lot happening in the two and a half weeks. There’s so much happening every single day, so I don’t know,” he said on his radio show about whether Leviss’ legal action will change the plan.
Shay, meanwhile, joked about the need for more security on the Friday, March 10, episode of her podcast, “Scheananigans.”
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“We need to have cages,” she said. “Everyone needs their own personal bodyguard because oof.”