Scheana Shay’s new book, My Good Side, is full of SURprising details for Vanderpump Rules fans — including the reveal that she wasn’t a series regular for seasons 8 and 10.
“They said, ‘The audience is never going to know. You’re still going to be in every episode, you’re still going to be in opening credits. You’re still a main character, you’re not anyone’s ‘friend’ of,’” Shay, 40, tells Us Weekly during an interview for her cover story, noting that the same thing happened to Kristen Doute for season 7 and James Kennedy for season 8. “It was a way to save some money but still have us perform.”
Shay says “people-pleasing Scheana” still showed up to do her job and then some. (On season 8, Shay notes she “bridged the new people with the OG cast,” and on season 10, she “gave them a wedding.”)
“My story from watching the show every episode, you would never know that I wasn’t being paid the same,” Shay tells Us. “It was the same expectations, less pay.” (One exception was for the post-Scandoval episode: “Because I was on the day rate when we picked back up cameras, the amount of days that I filmed equaled more than every other cast member made in that episode.”)
Shay says that she’s in “hindsight, she’s grateful” for the demotion — at least for season 8.
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“It forced me to start my YouTube channel, to be more open on my podcast, to put some more notes in my tab of things I want to talk about in a book one day,” she says. “I feel like if I had stayed on my same salary, I might not have tried to think outside of the box as much as I did.”
When it happened again ahead of season 10, however, Shay says it was “a kick in the ass.” After Scandoval, Shay reached out to production.
“I was like, ‘Are you guys going to put me back on my normal salary season 11, seeing how imperative I am?’ And they did, and I feel like I am valued, finally,” Shay, who has made appearances on season 2 of The Valley, says. “I feel like I know my worth. The network knows my worth. They see what a big part of everyone’s story I am. I am everyone’s friend and that’s OK. That doesn’t mean I’m disloyal, it just means that I have a lot of friends. I see a lot of perspectives.”
In the book, Shay notes that the cast never came together to negotiate.
“Tom Sandoval was actually the only person who called [Alex] Baskin and everyone in charge and was like, ‘This isn’t fair. We’ve got to fight for Scheana,’” she tells Us. “And it was everyone [saying], ‘It’s not my call, it’s not my call, it’s not my call.’ I’m like, ‘Well, whose call is it?’”
Another story that made Us do a double take was Shay admitting to preplanning a scene during the season 9 finale of Vanderpump Rules when she and now-husband Brock Davies were accused of trying to steal the thunder from James Kennedy and Rachel “Raquel” Leviss’ engagement.
“We absolutely scripted that finale without production or anyone knowing. [Lala Kent and I] had made so much headway and didn’t want to fight at the finale, but we also knew we had a job to do and that this story needed to be told for James and Raquel to finish out the narrative,” Shay says. “[Lala and I] pulled Ariana [Madix] and Katie [Maloney] aside, and we’re like, ‘OK, we’re going to show up and do our job, but we’re not going to tell production that we’re going to fake a fight.’”
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While Maloney agreed to be the one to bring it up on camera — “We fight every season over something,” Shay says — Maloney “wasn’t able to play her part” after visiting the open bar.
“So Lala did her job and she went and told them. That’s where you got the iconic line from Ariana, ‘Babe, I was born cool.’ It was a great scene. Production won’t know we did that until this comes out,” Shay says.
And to the fans who have heard the cast insist the show has always been real? “That was a one-off and the only time we faked something. It was desperation over wanting to save our jobs and get another season,” Shay tells Us. “We were doing photos of toes that season — and we needed something.”
My Good Side is available now.
