Lena Dunham revealed that she became so “obsessed” with Vanderpump Rules that she wanted to make a film starring Andrew Scott and Jennifer Lawrence.
Appearing on the podcast Shut Up Evan, the Girls star said she got really into the Bravo reality TV series and wanted to shoot a serious version of the widely publicised Season 10 affair known as “Scandoval” which shocked both the cast and longtime fans of Vanderpump Rules in 2023, culminating in a dramatic reunion.
Cast members Tom Sandoval, 42, and Ariana Madix, 39, ended their nearly 10-year partnership after it was discovered that the former had a months-long affair with their co-star Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, former fiancé of cast member James Kennedy.
“I literally became so obsessed that I thought, ‘What can we do while the writers’ strike is down?’” Dunham told host Evan Ross Katz.
“We should do a reenactment of the reunion in which Ariana confronts Tom and then takes Rachel/Raquel to town with trained actors. We should basically create like a mini movie in which actors treat this as canon and get up and perform with all the passion and virtuosity of Shakespeare. I went so far as to abuse Andy Cohen‘s contact information to pitch him the idea.”
Cohen, a talk show host and producer of The Real Housewives franchise, hosted the infamous reunion.
The Too Much creator added that she even had a cast list ready for her adaptation. “I kept being like, ‘Andrew Scott is Tom Sandoval.’ You know? ‘Jennifer Lawrence is Ariana.’ I sounded like someone who was having a break with reality and thought I was Jesus. That’s how obsessive I was,” she said “I want to take these words and direct them like it's really serious theatre.”
Whether the Scandoval film will ever get made remains a mystery, but fans of the reunion may know that Cohen hosted a live reading of the reunion on Sirius XM’s Radio Andy in 2024, featuring Chrissy Teigen, Amber Tamblyn, Leslie Grossman, Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman, Cheyenne Jackson, Susan Lucci, Carson Kressley, Brad Goreski, and John Arthur Hill.
The cheating scandal ultimately led to a fallout among the cast of the show as some employees were reportedly upset that Madix refused to shoot scenes with Sandoval.
Bravo subsequently announced that the series, after it had wrapped the 11th season, would be taking an extended hiatus before filming the season 12 with an all-new cast.
Lisa Vanderpump, the matriarch figure and owner of several restaurants and bars staffed by the cast, will be the only original Vanderpump Rules star to return.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills spin-off debuted in 2013, featuring Vanderpump’s then-staff at her West Hollywood mainstay SUR Restaurant & Lounge: Scheana Shay, Katie Maloney, Tom Sandoval, Kristen Doute, Jax Taylor, and Stassi Schroeder.
Over the years, the cast grew to include Madix, Sandoval, Tom Schwartz, James Kennedy, Lala Kent, and Brittany Cartwright.
