How The Arrangement Hides Hollywood’s Dark Side in Plain Sight
Photo: E! Network
In Season Two of The Arrangement, up-and-coming starlet Megan Morrison (Christine Evangelista) follows her fiancé’s ex, Lisbeth (Ashley Hinshaw), to a distinctly un-relaxing meditation class. When the pair comes face to face after the gong sounds, though, the latter, easily spooked, unleashes a very L.A. version of “Back the fuck off”: “Your energy,” she says, “is really dark and destructive.”
You wouldn’t know from the set of The Arrangement that darkness and destruction were part of the vibe, but that’s exactly the point. In E!’s sophomore drama, filmed at Vancouver’s North Shore Studios and set in the glamorous Tinseltown of the network’s celebrity news and red carpet coverage, appearances are everything. And, as we all know, appearances are deceptive, especially in the hometown of movie magic.
“Everybody [has] their own agenda, and [is] looking out for themselves in some way, or being manipulated by something,” Evangelista says, sitting on the mock-up patio of a cliff-top Malibu mansion, replete with trompe l’oeil “ocean view.” “Nothing is really what it seems to be.”
In the first season, Evangelista’s character, a struggling actress, receives the offer of a lifetime—literally: a contract marriage with Hollywood’s number one leading man, Kyle West (Josh Henderson), who also happens to be the public face of a “self-help group”/religion/cult known as The Institute for the Higher Mind. It’s unclear, exactly, what the Institute’s “faith” entails, beyond countless self-analytical seminars and the usual jargon. What is clear, from the start, is that the Institute’s enigmatic leader, Terence Anderson (Alias’ Michael Vartan), and his wife, Deann (Lexa Doig), orchestrate Kyle’s life and career, down to the most minute details. (“Big smiles, very in love, very romantic,” Deann coaches the couple in the Season Two premiere, as the celebrity wedding publicity mill whirs into action. “The headline is, ‘Hollywood’s It Couple Having the Time of Their Lives.’”)
Though E! Network, creator Jonathan Abrahams, and the members of the cast are careful disclaim any specific connection to Scientology, no one who’s picked up a copy of Us Weekly in the last 15 years will fail to be reminded of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. (The second season, which picks up after Megan vows to “burn the whole thing down,” is reminiscent of Leah Remini’s campaign to expose the “church” in A&E’s Scientology and Its Aftermath.) As Evangelista suggests, part the appeal of The Arrangement—as with films and TV series such as The Master, The Invitation, and The Path—is its attempt to pull back the curtain on institutions that tend to shy away from probing eyes.