Randall Emmett’s Ex-Employees, Lala Kent’s Family Speak Out in ‘The Randall Scandal’: Biggest Bombshells About Bruce Willis, Ocean’s Birth, More

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Randall Emmett's Ex-Employees, Lala Kent's Family Speak Out in 'The Randall Scandal': Biggest Bombshells About Bruce Willis, Ocean's Birth, More

Lala Kent's family members didn't hold back about her ex Randall Emmett in a new Hulu documentary — and neither did some of his former employees. The producer, 52, is the subject of a movie called The Randall Scandal: Love, Loathing, and Vanderpump, which dropped on Hulu Monday, May 22. The film expands on the allegations against Emmett from a June 2022 exposé in the Los Angeles Times and includes interviews with former assistants as well as Kent's mother, Lisa Burningham, and brother, Easton Burningham. "The first time I met Randall was at dinner, and it was in Salt Lake City. And it was great," Easton recalled of his initial encounter with the film mogul. "[Lala] loved his energy. She loved the way that he loved her. I feel like just all of that and everything that he was doing for her was amazing." By late 2021, however, the Burningham family's opinion on Emmett had soured. "Randall and Lauren's relationship started to fall apart really when Ocean came," Lisa explained in the documentary, referring to the March 2021 birth of Kent and Emmett's daughter, now 2. "I think [Lala] was seeing the red flags. She wasn't happy. I told her she was depressed." [jwplayer npZhNbYq-zhNYySv2] The Give Them Lala author, 32, and the Emmett/Furla Oasis Films cofounder met in 2015 while Emmett was in the middle of his split from ex-wife Ambyr Childers, with whom he shares daughter London, 13, and Rylee, 9. After going public with their romance in 2018, Kent and Emmett got engaged later that year. The duo called it quits in October 2021 after reports circulated that the Midnight in the Switchgrass producer had cheated on the Vanderpump Rules star. While The Randall Scandal features clips of Kent talking about her relationship with Emmett during various podcast appearances, she did not participate in the documentary. The beauty mogul did, however, give an interview to the Los Angeles Times that was published on Monday, May 22. “If there was nothing to write about, and there was no story to tell … there wouldn’t be a documentary,” the Bravo personality told the newspaper, referring to Emmett's previous claim that the original exposé was part of a "smear campaign" by Kent to "sway" their custody battle. “I can’t just pick up the phone and tell the L.A. Times to create an article. I don’t have that kind of power.” While the former SURver wasn't part of The Randall Scandal, she did praise the filmmakers for producing the movie. "I appreciate @abcnews @hulu @latimes for continuing to find the truth," she wrote via her Instagram Story on Monday. "My heart goes out to all of his victims, even those who have not shared their stories yet. Proud of my mom and brother, these brave assistants ... anyone and everyone who has been unafraid. I stand with you." The "Give Them Lala" podcast host went on to apologize for her past defense of Emmett, writing: "For all the times I went to bat for this 'person,' I am truly sorry. I now know the truth. Even the truths that have yet to be exposed." Emmett, for his part, declined to participate in The Randall Scandal, calling the documentary "nothing more than a vindictive hit piece" and "a cheap attempt to capitalize on the current Vanderpump Rules fever" in a statement to the L.A. Times. Keep scrolling for the biggest bombshells from The Randall Scandal:

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The Failed Arnold Schwarzenegger Show

Teresa Huang, who was supposed to work with Emmett on a TV project called Pumped, claimed that the producer lied about having secured Schwarzenegger's involvement when hiring writers. "I was under the impression that Arnold was already signed on as an executive producer and [would] also play a role in the show," Huang recalled. "At the end of the pitch, [Randall] said something sort of in passing. He said, 'This is great. Now we can get Arnold to sign on.' There was no deal in place with Arnold Schwarzenegger. There was no contract signed. And in order to get that contract signed, we then had to pitch Arnold himself."

The True Lies actor, 75, allegedly loved the idea, but the show never got made — and the writers never got paid. In November 2020, the Writers Guild of America placed EFO Films on the guild’s Strike/Unfair List “for their failure to comply with an arbitration award” of nearly $500,000. "Randall Emmett continued to refuse to pay," Leila Azari, a lawyer for WGA, said in the documentary. "As of [February 2023], that judgment amounts to over $630,000 that are owed to our four members."

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How Lala's Brother Feels

Easton said that Emmett was initially very supportive after his and dad, Kent Burningham, died in 2018. "He stepped up to the plate and he really did do a lot," Easton recalled. "He made it easier for us to kind of mourn the loss of my father."

Now, however, Easton feels very differently about the man who almost became his brother-in-law. "I hate him," the Utah native told the camera. "I hate Randall Emmett."

Credit: Courtesy of Lala Kent/Instagram

Lala in Labor

According to Lisa, Emmett wanted to get a hotel room the night Kent was in labor with Ocean. Instead he secured a room in the hospital, allegedly asking his assistant to bring him NyQuil, Fireball whiskey and bedsheets. "I remember driving home in the car with the baby and Randall and Lauren, and Randall was driving and he was very curt with her," Lisa claimed, adding that Emmett left the hospital soon after Ocean's arrival. "And I basically had to tell him that he needed to change his tone with her because she had just had a baby. And it was very upsetting to the point where he brought me to tears."

Lisa went on to allege that the Miami native told Easton that he wouldn't need to be around for the first two years of Ocean's life because children "don't remember it."  

Emmett denied Lisa's account of Ocean's birth in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, saying: "The birth of Ocean was one of the most wonderful moments of my life and I was present for every second of it.”

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Working With Bruce Willis

Alicia Haverland, who worked as a prop master on Midnight in the Switchgrass, alleged that Emmett knew more than he let on about the Die Hard actor's declining ability to remember his lines. (Willis' family announced his retirement from acting in March 2022 after his diagnosis with aphasia.)

"As the day progressed, you could tell that he was getting tired and he would start to clip the lines," Haverland recalled of filming a scene with Willis, 68, who worked on several EFO projects over the years. "I started to realize it wasn't clipping. I started to realize that what he was doing was actually forgetting what was being said to him."

At another point, Haverland alleged that Willis didn't realize he was filming a movie and instead thought he was in a real diner having his coffee refilled. In one scene, he was having trouble kicking in a door, which allegedly upset Emmett. "[Randall] gets up and he slams the script down and said, 'What the f–k, can't we just get this done?'" Haverland claimed. "Everyone is just real quiet. Randall turns around and walks away, and Bruce looks at, I believe our DP at the time, and goes, 'Did I do something wrong?' And we're all just like, 'No, of course not.'"

Haverland went on to claim that Emmett's sets in general were unlike anything she'd seen in Hollywood. "I have never met a director in my entire career that in the middle of a take will get up, get on the phone and walk away," she claimed. "It's disrespectful at all angles."

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What Assistants Allegedly Saw

Brett Pearson, who worked as an assistant for Emmett, claimed his former boss was wearing only underwear during their first interaction. "You had to have a certain mentality and a certain bravado and a certain level of arrogance to be there," Pearson said, claiming that he dropped 60 pounds while working for Emmett and only got three hours of sleep a night. "It was like a f–king Animal House for a production company in L.A."

Pearson alleged that Emmett once asked him whether he was "retarded" because he needed to take anxiety medication. "I don't think I was calm or not riddled with anxiety at any point once I met Randall Emmett," the former assistant added.

Martin G'Blae, who sued Emmett in November 2022 for racial discrimination, claimed that he had to pay for many of his former employer's expenses out of his own pocket. At one point, he allegedly fronted $1,500 to ship Emmett's poker table to Puerto Rico, then spent $400 on a plane ticket to receive it and another $280 for an Airbnb. During that trip, Emmett allegedly sent G'Blae to his hotel room to retrieve something from the safe, which G'Blae said was a bag of cocaine. "He's putting me in a situation now where I could be arrested," G'Blae claimed. "And that he had us do it was just so nonchalant, and that's the type of s–t I had to do for this person."

When G'Blae filed his lawsuit, Emmett's attorney called the allegations "beyond fictitious." Emmett and G'Blae eventually came to a confidential settlement and the case was dismissed.

Anna Szymanska, who worked for Emmett from 2021 to 2022, claimed that she once had to bring coconut water and Muscle Milk to Emmett's home when his blood pressure dropped. "He wasn't wearing any shirt. He shows me with a hand gesture to come in," she alleged. "I take two steps in and I see him being totally naked. I was, like, shocked. And then [he] took a pillow and covered his intimate parts. It was so disturbing to me. It's impossible to think that it was an accident."

She continued: "The way he acted around you was just disgusting, terrifying and so disrespectful. He would talk to you with his hand down his pants. He would pee with [an] open door. He would always take a phone call in the bathroom, so he never flushed. I was just, like, walking in, flushing his pee."

Szymanska also claimed that Emmett called her "Lovebox," a slang term for a vagina, and once threw a ping-pong paddle across the room so hard he broke a glass door.