Tom Sandoval Compares Scandoval Coverage to George Floyd, O.J. Simpson

Well, here’s a post that should come as no surprise to Tom Sandoval’s PR team, or the public relations folks at Bravo, or even Vanderpump Rules executive producer Alex Baskin: The widely reviled reality star went ahead and tossed out a half-baked comparison between the media attention garnered by “Scandoval” with that of the O.J. Simpson trial or the police murder of George Floyd in The New York Times.

The quotes appear in an extensive profile of Sandoval that digs into how the villain of the infamous Vanderpump cheating scandal has navigated the past year. He provided the dubious comparison after being asked why he thought the scandal became such a sensation, especially considering Vanderpump had been flagging in the ratings after nine seasons on air. 

“I’m not a pop-culture historian really, but I witnessed the O.J. Simpson thing and George Floyd and all these big things, which is really weird to compare this to that, I think, but do you think in a weird way it’s a little bit the same?”

To be fair, even Sandoval seemed to recognize, in the moment, that this probably was not the most appropriate thing to say — not that that stops him from saying it, which is, let’s be honest, what we want from our reality stars. 

Fittingly for a story that examines the murky lines between reality and “reality,” the profile documents the real-time reactions of the various entertainment industry institutions with vested interests in making sure Sandoval comes across as the good kind of bad — and not the bad kind of bad. Journalist Irina Aleksander says word of Sandoval’s comment quickly got back to his PR team, who asked that she not attend a confessional taping the next day; Baskin, the Vanderpump EP, also called, as did a Bravo rep, apparently offering an interview with another cast member instead. When Aleksander was allowed to see Sandoval again, both a Bravo publicist and a senior NBCUniversal executive were present. 

One thing the story — which is truly excellent; go read it in full — does not make clear is whether all these people were similarly concerned by one of the other bonkers quotes Sandoval dropped when describing the intense vitriol he received in the wake of Scandoval: “I feel like I got more hate than Danny Masterson and he’s a convicted rapist.”

Yeesh, cue the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme music. 

Well, here’s a post that should come as no surprise to Tom Sandoval’s PR team, or the public relations folks at Bravo, or even Vanderpump Rules executive producer Alex Baskin: The widely reviled reality star went ahead and tossed out a half-baked comparison between the media attention garnered by “Scandoval” with that of the O.J. Simpson trial or the police murder of George Floyd in The New York Times.

The quotes appear in an extensive profile of Sandoval that digs into how the villain of the infamous Vanderpump cheating scandal has navigated the past year. He provided the dubious comparison after being asked why he thought the scandal became such a sensation, especially considering Vanderpump had been flagging in the ratings after nine seasons on air. 

“I’m not a pop-culture historian really, but I witnessed the O.J. Simpson thing and George Floyd and all these big things, which is really weird to compare this to that, I think, but do you think in a weird way it’s a little bit the same?”

To be fair, even Sandoval seemed to recognize, in the moment, that this probably was not the most appropriate thing to say — not that that stops him from saying it, which is, let’s be honest, what we want from our reality stars. 

Fittingly for a story that examines the murky lines between reality and “reality,” the profile documents the real-time reactions of the various entertainment industry institutions with vested interests in making sure Sandoval comes across as the good kind of bad — and not the bad kind of bad. Journalist Irina Aleksander says word of Sandoval’s comment quickly got back to his PR team, who asked that she not attend a confessional taping the next day; Baskin, the Vanderpump EP, also called, as did a Bravo rep, apparently offering an interview with another cast member instead. When Aleksander was allowed to see Sandoval again, both a Bravo publicist and a senior NBCUniversal executive were present. 

One thing the story — which is truly excellent; go read it in full — does not make clear is whether all these people were similarly concerned by one of the other bonkers quotes Sandoval dropped when describing the intense vitriol he received in the wake of Scandoval: “I feel like I got more hate than Danny Masterson and he’s a convicted rapist.”

Yeesh, cue the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme music.