‘Stars on Mars’ Was a ‘Good Escape’ for Tom Schwartz – Cast Didn’t Talk Scandoval
Tom Schwartz had to “go to Mars” to get a break from the Vanderpump Rules Scandoval. Weeks after wrapping the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 reunion, Schwartz signed up for the new FOX reality show Stars on Mars, about a group of celebrities dropped into conditions that mimic Mars. They have to figure out how to live and survive.
Fresh off of the drama, Schwartz likely braced himself for a slew of questions from the cast. However, according to Olympian and Mars explorer Adam Rippon, the Stars on Mars cast generally weren’t too concerned about the Scandoval.
‘Nobody was really in on the Scandoval,’ Adam Rippon recalled
“Well, I think, lucky for Tom nobody was really in on the Scandoval,” Rippon recalled on the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast. “Yes, have I seen Vandepump Rules? Of course, I’m only human, but I haven’t seen it and I was like, OK, I need to start watching the season.”
“And I never got around to it because then I went to space so I didn’t really know what was going on. I think for Tom, it was probably like a good escape to get away, go to Mars, recollect,” he said.
Rippon added that the set was extremely realistic– something that allowed the Stars on Mars to focus on the task at hand (and probably not on the Vanderpump Rules cheating scandal).
“So when we got there, the base camp reminded me of being at an Olympic training center before,” he said. “So it’s like very camp vibes. We got out there, we did our first mission, and it was completely chaotic. I had no idea what was going on. I was like, OK it was much harder than I thought.”
“But then I saw clips of it, and I was shocked at how unreal this footage looks. It looks like the best space movie I’ve ever seen,” he exclaimed. “All the money they put in was so well worth it for the visuals that everybody’s gonna see because we really haven’t seen anything [like it]. I’ve just seen like raw footage of what was happening, but that footage is like, unbelievable.”
Not every cast member ignored Scandoval
At least one Mars on Stars cast member asked about Scandoval. During the premiere episode, Natasha Leggero asked about the scandal. “Oh, man. They say that it puts their relationship problems in perspective when they watch the train wreck that is sometimes our lives. You know what I mean?” Schwartz said.
“He had a torrid affair,” Schwartz said, referring to the affair between Tom Sandoval and friend Raquel Leviss.
‘It’s horrible, and I feel complicit because I didn’t cover for him, but I had his back. He came to me and confided in me that he was in love with someone else,” Schwartz revealed.
Schwartz added more context in a confessional. “My friend had an affair that just happened to sweep the nation, and it’s incredibly messed up,” he said. “But the thing is, I’ve become mired in it. That’s been a huge source of just angst in my life. I’ve been in this extended funk.”
