Both Ariana Madix and Brittany Cartwright are on the outside of the infamous Vanderpump Rules clique that consists of Stassi Schroeder, Katie Maloney, and Kristen Doute. Yes, I know that everyone adores Brittany, but when I say she’s “on the outside,” I mean that she is outside of the drama. And if you watch this show, you know that those three aren’t the biggest Ariana fans. Either way, both of these ladies became a part of the Pump Rules cast later on in the series so it’s interesting to get their take on all of the controversy.
Ariana and Brittany opened about about how Katie’s wedding planning behavior can be misinterpreted, the cast drama, and the accusations of homophobia against Brittany’s mom Sherri Cartwright after her reaction to Jax Taylor’s birthday roast.
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Even though Ariana and Brittany aren’t at the center of most of the Pump Rules drama, these two opened up about a lot of the major things that happened this season during an interview on the Pump Rules podcast.
It doesn’t seem like Ariana has had the best time dealing with her fellow cast members this season and it seems like a lot of the unfavorable things people said about her happened behind her back- who would have thought. But anyway, Ariana was pretty shocked to see Katie telling Tom Schwartz “This is why I didn’t want her in the wedding.”
Ariana shared her reaction to watching that scene: “It was like one of those things where I was trying to tune out what Katie was saying about me because my feelings weren’t necessarily hurt by what she was saying because I knew that what she was saying was not true. It hurt me that she was taking her anger out on me in a way that I felt was misplaced.” I mean, yeah. There’s no way that Ariana and Tom Sandoval are responsible for “all of the problems” in Katie and Schwartz’s relationship even though Katie rage texted that exact sentiment. Clearly harping on Ariana was a result of some misplaced anger about other issues.
Ariana explained why she wasn’t super mad at Katie by comparing it to the way she views James Kennedy: “In the same way that I’ve learned to separate James from James’s behavior at times, in my mind watching that scene I was doing this separation of Katie as Katie my friend that I know and this behavior that I’m seeing from Katie. I certainly think that conversations like that exposed something in their relationship that I didn’t really know because I don’t see those things when we hang out.” That’s a very generous way to be looking at the situation, but then again any rational person who watches this show knows that Ariana has nothing to do with Katie and Schwartz’s problems and it seems like Ariana is just trying to look at the bigger picture when it comes to making comments.
This season Katie turned into the queen of the clique which makes sense since Stassi and Kristen were both on the outs before and had just earned their way back into her inner circle. That could explain why these two never seemed to question anything Katie said or did.
Ariana hypothesized, “I think that Stassi and Katie are excited to be friends again, but they had only been friends again for a short period of time. I think there’s something in Stassi that just wants to please Katie because she’s back in good graces so she’s like ‘I’m going to go to bat for her. Now I’m going to make up for lost time. I’m almost going to like overcompensate in a way.'” Ariana added, “I feel like that’s not a conscious thing by any means, but I think there’s something there where they’re like ‘now we’re gonna be the best friends that we could have ever been.’ And it’s all about having each other’s back no matter what.” That seems like a spot-on assessment to me.
Ariana eloquently stated, “I don’t think that me licking Katie’s butt hole dry is being a good friend to her.” A visual that I did not need. Ariana added, “I want her to be happy, but I don’t think if I just support everything that she says. If I support her sending rage texts, I don’t think that’s being a good friend.” I concur. She also said what we are all thinking when we watch Pump Rules: “I can see people like Stassi and Kristen disagreeing on their faces, but then not saying anything.” Maybe they fear her wrath? Plus Katie’s wedding is the central story line this season, so it does make sense to want to be involved with that…. I’m kidding, kind of. But still, Katie is the new queen so I guess they have all bowed down.
Saint Brittany finally joined in on the interview when she said, “I just felt like Katie had a lot to do his summer. She had to plan everything herself and I think that the stress was very hard on her.”
Still Ariana echoed Brittany’s point and defended Katie as well: “I also feel like she was dragging her fiance along kicking and screaming because he would make these jokes.” She also remarked, “Schwartz had very minimal responsibilities with this wedding. And I feel like he wasn’t always… He was kind of doing the bare minimum at times.” Yeah, I’m sure that had to be frustrating as hell to be stressing out over a wedding when the man you’re marrying doesn’t seem to be taking the process seriously. I just don’t get what that has to do with the rest of the people in your life who bore the brunt of that stress, but I guess that we can all misplace anger.
Even after getting shit on the entire season, Ariana continued to defend Katie. She said, “Katie is good when it comes to pushing those confrontational feelings away, then it’s like she can’t hold it in anymore. And then it’s worse than when it started because it’s been festering.” I feel like we can all relate to that. It happens to the best of us, but unfortunately for Katie these scenes make for great reality TV and her dignity was not spared.
At least Ariana isn’t alone in the list of people who became victims of Katie and Schwartz’s wedding planning. Scheana Shay and Katie got into during the spa day. It seemed like that fight went from zero to one hundred- real quick- and that a lot of important context probably got cut out from the episode. Ariana confirmed, “There were a lot of layers to that fight and it went on, and on, and on, and on. By the time Scheana stormed away from that table, it was like forty five minutes.” And apparently some of that fight had to do with Katie disapproving of the decision Brittany and Scheana made to attend James’s concert just to taunt him. That would have been great to show because I feel like most viewers would have actually agreed with her, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to fit in with the ongoing narrative for this season.
The story line that keeps getting played out is that Scheana wants to be friends with Katie, Stassi, and Kristen, but she can’t seem to please them. Ariana remarked, “I feel like sometimes Scheana is a hamster running in a wheel. She’s doing everything she can to make everybody happy.” I feel like it’s only human nature to want to be liked, but that’s easier said than done on a reality show full of cliquey, fame hungry young adults.
Ariana explained Scheana’s role at the lowest level of the totem pole, “Scheana is always the scapegoat. Stassi can say or do whatever the f**k she wants. Kristen and Katie can do whatever the fuck they want and say whatever the f**k they want to each other. The one that gets the rage texts is Scheana. It’s always Scheana who gets the brunt. Whatever anger there is, it’s always placed on Scheana.”
Brittany reminded us that she was present for the interview when she declared, “It’s hard for me to talk about any of this stuff. I get along with everyone. I love all these girls. I love Ariana and I also love Stassi and Katie– and especially Scheana. She’s the best friend that I have here. It’s just hard for me to talk about people.”
Ariana immediately responded to that one by declaring, “I’m cool with them all hating me. It’s fine.” And Brittany immediately said, “I don’t want them to hate you- that’s my thing. I don’t want anyone to hate anyone.” Ariana clarified what she meant, “I don’t want anyone to hate me, but if that happens because I spoke my piece, then so be it: send me rage texts. I will ignore them.” Brittany declared, “I want to be like a peace maker.” And I so don’t blame her for wanting that within her group of friends, but that would make for a pretty boring reality TV show if everyone in the cast got along.
Brittany’s best friend Zack Wickham popped in on the interview just in time to talk about Brittany’s mom Sherri and her reaction to the gay jokes made during Jax’s birthday roast. Zack adamantly defended Sherri saying, “I think that sometimes things can easily be taken out of context. Especially when you have Brittany’s mom coming to LA for the first time. She’s never had to worry about the public’s perception of what she’s saying when her intentions don’t match that perception.” Watching the episode, it really didn’t seem like Sherri was mean-spirited or homophobic. It just seemed like she had incredibly insensitive word choice.
Zack continued, “When I saw the episode and everything else, I immediately took it upon myself being Brittany’s best friend and someone who is gay to defend that on Twitter. Her mom is a great person who is so open and has never once been a gay hater by any means. She loves everyone and she has always supported me and I think that speaks volumes more because that’s actions over words.”
Zack added, “She might have misspoke on something because she could have worded it better maybe, but that does not take away from the fact that she is one of the greatest people and a huge supporter of LGBT rights.”
Brittany agreed with her best friend when she said, “She is one hundred percent not that way and I felt so bad that it looked like that because it is not at all how she is. She is an amazing women and it broke my heart to think that people think the opposite of what she is.”
Don’t forget that tonight is an all new episode of Vanderpump Rules at 9/8CST! Tonight’s episode summary: Ariana and the groomsmen go on a manly gator tour, but when talk turns to Schwartz’s relationship troubles the boys are reduced to tears. Meanwhile, gender stereotypes are flipped when Kristen hires a female stripper for the girls while the boys tuck in, tape up, and get beautiful in full drag. Back at SUR, Lisa tests out new dishes in hopes of spicing up the menu. Finally, Kristen reveals the root of Katie’s anger towards Schwartz all summer, sparking a massive fight between angry drag queens, bitter boyfriends and scorned fiancés.
TELL US- DO YOU THINK THAT KATIE, KRISTEN & STASSI ARE HARD ON ARIANA? OR SHOULD SHE MAKE MORE OF AN EFFORT TO BE ON GOOD TERMS WITH THEM? DO YOU AGREE THAT SCHEANA IS THE CLIQUE SCAPEGOAT? DO YOU THINK THINK THAT BRITTANY’S MOM IS ACTUALLY HOMOPHOBIC?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
