Why Ariana Madix lost her appeal in ‘Scandoval’ revenge porn case
Rachel Leviss’ lawsuit can move forward against her former “Vanderpump Rules” reality television castmate Ariana Madix, after a California appeals court rejected Madix’s bid to strike the suit that stems from the “Scandoval” controversy.
Leviss had an affair with their fellow former castmate Tom Sandoval, who was Madix’s boyfriend at the time. Madix found sexually explicit videos of Leviss on Sandoval’s phone. Madix then recorded the videos and sent them to Leviss, who sued Madix in turn.
Wednesday’s appeals court ruling against Madix upheld a trial judge’s rejection of her motion to strike. The appeals court said Madix failed to meet her burden of showing that Leviss’ claims against her arose from constitutionally protected activity.
Madix had argued that her alleged conduct concerned an issue of public interest about an individual in the public eye. But the appeals court said Leviss’ status as a public person doesn’t make every aspect of her personal life a matter of public concern.
The court noted that the case was about video recordings of Leviss engaging in a private sexual act at a private residence during a private FaceTime call with Sandoval. Even if the affair was known at the time, the court said public interest in it wouldn’t extend to private recordings depicting the most intimate aspects of the relationship.
Recommended
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro,” a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
Latest Post
