MTV's The Hills: Season 3.5 already filled with controversy
With ten episodes of The Hills: Season 3.5 just around the weekend, Lauren, Audrina, Whitney, and Lo have been busy on the media circuit for MTV’s most popular show.
While Audrina’s just-surfaced “nudies” have been taking most of the spotlight, controversy (and good press coverage) never seems to far away from the girls of The Hills.
Audrina has gone the MySpace bulletin route to explain the surprisingly pretty tasteful and not that scandalacious pictures of her that surfaced this week, saying:
“I’m not ashamed of these photos, but I dont want my young fans to think they have to do what I did. I hope people can learn from my inexperience. It’s been almost five years since I posed for that shoot, and during that time I have learned many lessons about this business. xoxo Audrina”
xoxo to you too, Audrina! I still find that really cute that she signed the bulletin like that.
And besides, former Laguna Beach star and still Lauren Conrad frienemy Kristin Cavallari said of Audrina, “Her body is bangin!” Considering Kristin Cavallari has a body that seems like it was made to wear bikinis, this statement is not only accurate, but quite the compliment from one of the hottest girls in reality TV history.
The Hills‘ star Lauren Conrad had to go the same route to defend her good name, picture perfect hair, face, and skin against a misleading magazine cover from US Weekly that reads “BETRAYED BY BRODY & AUDRINA – HOW I WAS STABBED IN THE BACK: Lauren Conrad Exclusive.”
Seeing as Lauren and the girls of The Hills are some of the most frequently mentioned people on the cover of US Weekly, it seems like the magazine took a huge gamble to twist the words of the reality television starlet who hopes to build her own empire.
Will this be their last exclusive with the current queen of reality TV? They’re rolling the dice.
In a MySpace blog entitled “Clearing Things Up…” Lauren wrote of the misleading headline:
“Unfortunately it was turned into yet another ‘poor me’ story. The article itself is a nice one but it follows headlines that, in no way, represent my words or feelings. I do not feel betrayed by Audrina or Brody. I love them both and said nothing to contradict this. I understand that headlines sell magazines, but I value my friendships above magazine sales any day. ”
And that’s why we love you, Lauren Conrad. You dreamboat, you.
I was watching E! News Weekend, like I do every weekend, and they showed video of Lauren, Lo, and Whitney being interviewed on On-Air with Ryan Seacrest. The girls talked about how they’re now living in a house, away from The Grove, and how they’re working for a fashion PR agency during the new season.
While they didn’t give away too much, having Lo in on the interview makes it appear promising that we’ll see a lot of Lauren’s childhood friend this season and less Audrina, which pretty much everyone likes because Lo is the girl that every girl wishes was her best friend. Not that Audrina isn’t cool, nor Justin Bobby, but Lo will keep the show upbeat a little bit more than Audrina’s tear filled “I’m DONE!! I’m SOOO DONE!!!” rants.
Following the story about The Hills‘ girls was a story about Mischa Barton, who I thought was hot for about five minutes when I was obsessed with The OC . Then, I saw Autumn Reeser as Taylor Townsend and I forgot who Mischa Barton was.
Anyways, I realized that the publicity machine that is The Hills has made the show matter more in pop culture than someone like a Mischa Barton, who has been in scripted television, feature length movies, and even has her share of celebrity mishaps.
The reality TV girls not only matter, but they sell magazines and get people to watch celebrity news shows because they feel like some of the most regular, yet fabulous stars around today. This past Christmas, Lauren Conrad’s name was publicized next to Gladys Knight’s for the lighting of the Christmas tree at The Grove!
And really, in the mind of many who don’t want to pretend like they’re really classy. Lauren Conrad > Gladys Knight in terms of celebrity power.
It’s hard to call the girls from the phenomenon reality show C-listers or D-listers because people care so much about these shows because we feel like we know them. We care about their lives, what they do, and their relationships.
We never want Lauren to have her heart broken by another sucky person and we wonder why Heidi is a director at event production company Bolthouse even though she doesn’t even work there, while we’re toiling away at assistant gigs in the entertainment industry after going to graduate school (ok that’s just me).
Whether you were a Kappa Alpha Theta at USC and love Whitney, or you met Lauren in the bathroom at a USC fraternity invite, or you just love Lo from Laguna Beach and tune in to see her be funny, there are plenty of things that make people love The Hills. MTV has turned a silly reality show into a pop culture phenomenon that is one of the “must watch” shows if you’re under 25 and want to be able to tell jokes with girls that are around your age.
Can The Hills: Season 3.5 carry the same magic that has made the show what it is? They already have the hype and the show has been off the air for months. For now, we await Lauren’s voiceover telling us “Previously, on The Hills” as we look forward to watching the girls’ trip to Paris.
This coming Monday at 10:00PM, I’ll be watching, along with one of my blogging BFF’s Recovering Sorority Girl, and whether you like it or not, a crapload of other people will be watching too because the girls from The Hills matter in the pop culture driven world that we live in.
Loading ...
Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
Thanks for the shout out…I CANNOT wait.
“Whether you were a Kappa Alpha Theta at USC and love Whitney, or you met Lauren in the bathroom at a USC fraternity invite, or you just love Lo from Laguna Beach and tune in to see her be funny, there are plenty of things that make people love The Hills.”
Loved that. Don’t forget having Jen Bunney stumble into you at the 9-0 or running into Jason at Tuscany.
So excited for more Lo and SHE PRATT!