|
|
Lauren Conrad Covers Entertainment Weekly
The Kress, a four-story Asian-inspired L.A. club, has barely been open one week, but tonight it's hosting the nightclub equivalent of a meeting with the Pope — that is, a visit from the cast and crew of MTV's reality hit The Hills. With stars Lauren Conrad and Audrina Patridge due to arrive at 8:30 p.m. for their standard videotaped girl talk over cocktails, the crew is busy prepping the space for the cameras. Two seats at the corner of the bar are reserved, and a production assistant laps around the room handing out forms asking bystanders to agree to appear on camera. If they don't, production will ask them to move, or shoot around them. Most comply easily, unimpressed by the fact that MTV's highest-rated series will be shooting a scene mere feet from their plates of lobster sashimi and beef carpaccio. Clearly, they don't know that roommates Lauren and Audrina are having major tension at home, and this could be, like, a totally important conversation.
Finally, Lauren and Audrina coast into the restaurant and take their seats at the bar. No direction. No rehearsals. They just start talking. Upstairs, the director and four producers, including creator and executive producer Adam DiVello, huddle around three portable monitors. Lauren and Audrina segue into a conversation about tomorrow's barbecue at the house of Lauren's ex-boyfriend Doug. Will it be awkward, Audrina wonders, since Doug recently went on a date with Lauren's friend Stephanie? Lauren admits, ''Tomorrow, I'm gonna need to drink.'' DiVello, catching a shot of Lauren laughing that he thinks will work well for this season's updated opening credits montage, runs over to the story editor to have him jot down the time code. When the girls prepare to depart, the director sends one of the cameras across the street to capture them leaving. Strolling down the boulevard, Lauren, who has been living her life on television for four years and knows how to end a scene, turns to Audrina and smiles. ''Tomorrow,'' she says, ''is gonna be a crazy, fun day.''
It's a wrap. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you make one of the most addictive, hated, beloved, vapid, influential, successful shows on television.
The phenomenon of The Hills — which returns for season 4 on Aug. 18 at 10 p.m. — has gone beyond the weekly tabloid covers (mostly chronicling Lauren's feud with her former BFF Heidi Montag), the endless spoofs (see Mila Kunis and James Franco's dead-on Audrina/ Justin Bobby on FunnyOrDie.com), or even its place in the current presidential campaign. (After Heidi endorsed John McCain, he joked that he never ''misses an episode of The Hills''; Barack Obama promised David Letterman, ''My first act as president will be to stop the fighting between Lauren and Heidi.'') The series has also transformed an ordinary California girl into a West Coast reincarnation of Carrie Bradshaw (if Carrie were a millionaire), while giving MTV its biggest success in years. Season 3 averaged 3.9 million viewers, making it MTV's highest-rated show since 2004's Real World: San Diego, and its May 12 finale topped even the broadcast networks in the 12-to-34 demographic. ''I would go out on a limb and say this is probably the biggest show we've ever had,'' says MTV Networks' president of entertainment, Brian Graden. ''With Lauren Conrad, a whole generation of women see themselves in her.'' Says Tony DiSanto, MTV's exec VP of series programming and development, ''It's almost becoming like a novel at this point, like this generation's A Tale of Two Cities or Oliver Twist.''
Whether or not you equate drunken nights at Hyde and Les Deux to the classic literary works of Dickens, the show's success is undeniable. And no one has reaped more benefits than Lauren. While she has yet to graduate from L.A.'s Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, where she majors in product development, she's already launched her own eponymous clothing line (in partnership with MTV), which is sold in 500 boutiques across the country. Forbes estimated her 2007–08 income to be $1.5 million — and Lauren says she used her own money to purchase the reported $2.3 million home she lives in on The Hills. ''I see her as a global brand,'' says Max Stubblefield, Lauren's agent at UTA. ''Fashion and beauty are the drivers, but we've had a lot of interest from a lot of different categories.'' Since The Hills premiered in 2006, Lauren has landed endorsement deals with Mark cosmetics and AT&T, has a book proposal in the works, and wants to launch her own television and film production company. ''It's about empowering girls,'' says Lauren, when asked to describe what she represents as a brand. ''You're gonna have bad boyfriends and best friends-turned-enemies. You need to be yourself, you need to work hard, and you'll get there.'' And if you can get someone to give you a reality show along the way, it can't hurt.
Up in a posh stretch of the Hollywood Hills — the same neighborhood where Jennifer Aniston lives — The Hills gang has gathered for the barbecue hosted by Lauren's ex Doug Reinhardt, whose dad lays claim to inventing the frozen burrito. Most of the show's main players are gathered around the backyard pool: Lauren, her roommate Lo Bosworth, Whitney Port, Frankie Delgado, and Stephanie Pratt. Audrina and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Justin ''Bobby'' Brescia will arrive later, after being chased up the hill by paparazzi. (Alas, Aniston never does drift over for a beer.) Four cameras prowl around the house; the producers have turned Doug's guest room into a makeshift production base. The command center is tense when a partygoer says that Brody Jenner, Lauren's ex–turned–best friend, will be bringing Heidi's boyfriend, Spencer Pratt — who Lauren believes started a sex-tape rumor about her last year. Doug goes to greet Brody at the door, and Lauren warns, ''Don't let him in.'' But it's a false alarm — Brody arrives sans the toothy blond villain. Doug, Brody, and Frankie hover on one side of the pool, the girls on the other. Lauren watches as the fratty guys laugh and joke. ''That's really gross,'' she says. ''I've kissed two out of three of those.''
As with most scenes on The Hills, the cast knew ahead of time that cameras would be present at the barbecue. Almost everything is planned in advance, which is why production of The Hills has always faced tremendous skepticism — is it contrived? Is it fake? The answer is...to a point. The Hills is, essentially, scheduled reality. A typical week begins with producers calling the core cast members on Sunday and getting intel on what's happened to them over the weekend. An e-mail update is sent to the staff that night so everyone can prepare for Monday's ''story meeting,'' in which the producers and story editors sit around and dissect the Hills girls' personal and social lives. From that, they determine whom to film during the week. (On average, it takes editors four to six weeks to cull through the footage and put together an episode.) Lauren and her costars are forbidden to attend these meetings. ''I would love to sit through one of those,'' says Lauren, ''because it's really them being like, 'Yo, did you hear what this person said?'''
Plotting out the shooting schedule is an elaborate process: Depending on where the girls are going and whom they'll be with, production will call ahead and clear the locations — restaurants, cafés, retail outlets — for the crews to come in. Once everything is set up, Lauren gets her shooting schedule e-mailed to her, usually the night before. If the idea of coordinating your real life with a film crew sounds surreal, it's even more so now that Lauren — thanks to The Hills and Laguna Beach before it — is too famous to have anything resembling a real life. Her schedule is packed with photo shoots, fashion shows, and red-carpet events like the Dark Knight premiere or the White House Correspondents' Dinner (her highlight of the evening was meeting the Jonas Brothers — sorry, Mr. President!). All that glitz seems perfect fodder for reality TV, but producers insist on keeping the celebrity side off camera. The series' original premise — and the stories that made it successful in the first place — are all about the relatable aspects of Lauren's life, like dating, heartbreak, and friendship. ''We have a hard line because we really enjoy the world of The Hills we've created,'' says DiSanto. ''But you never say never, because as they get more and more famous, their non-fame lives get smaller and smaller.'' Adds exec producer Liz Gateley, ''We give people the access that they're not getting in the tabloids. They're getting their private life.''
Keeping things private is tricky, given that the cast is hounded daily by L.A.'s paparazzi. ''Anywhere between 6 and 12 are out there [during filming],'' says DiVello. Adds Lauren, ''We'll be filming at a restaurant and it will be us at a table, three cameras, and then a row of photographers behind the cameras.'' Out of necessity, DiVello and his crew have formed a tentative We'll get our shots, then you'll get yours alliance with the paparazzi. ''We don't want to [shoot] in the back of a restaurant so people can't see us,'' says DiVello. ''You want them on the patios. The paparazzi really work with us. They stay behind the cameras.''
Still, the hovering shutterbugs are occasionally to blame for inciting rumors that the show is heavily manipulated. According to Lauren, many times the paps and their incessant flashbulbs will ruin establishing shots of the girls entering, say, a restaurant, so production will ask Lauren and her friends to do another take. Explains DiVello, ''If we lose something, or there's no audio and we need them to talk about something [again], we'll ask them to talk about it. Anyone that's making a reality television show that tells you they aren't doing [the same thing] is probably lying.'' Lauren says she understands why fans cry foul about scenes that reek of ''take 2'' awkwardness. ''I get that there are certain scenes where someone's like, 'Sooo, last night was weird....' And then there are people on the show who really don't help, because they are very fake. We know who we're talking about — like, you need to stop rehearsing your breakfast.'' Lauren won't name names, but we're guessing she's referring to series villains Heidi and Spencer. The duo did tell EW last year that they had faked arguments for the cameras, which DiVello admits he can't control. ''We work with what they're giving us,'' he says. ''I don't think any of these kids are making up stuff, but I don't know.'' (Heidi and Spencer declined to be interviewed for this story once they learned Lauren was on the cover.)
Feuding will continue to fuel the story lines on season 4 of The Hills: Lauren will attend Stephanie's birthday party — even though it means being in the same room as Heidi and Spencer — but DiVello says she doesn't stay too long in the presence of her enemies. The tension between Lauren, Audrina, and Lo will culminate in a teary blowout that had even producers crying. There will be trips to New York and Vegas — in the latter, Brody ends up in casino jail, which we're guessing is somewhere near the slots. And DiVello promises lots of dating for the ladies, including male model dating!
If it were up to MTV, The Hills would keep rolling indefinitely, but Lauren is ready for a break. ''Every season, I think it's the last,'' she admits. ''Right now, I think this is the last season.'' After all, being the subject of a never-ending home video takes its toll on a girl. ''I go through phases when I've been filming where I wake up in the middle of the night and I think I'm being filmed,'' says Lauren. ''That's when I have to take a vacation.'' (Lauren's nightmare served as inspiration for this issue's cover photo.) DiVello says he can see the show going at least one more season, but ideally, ''I'd love to stay with it until Lauren gets married.''
Unless she elopes with a busboy at Crown Bar next week, MTV knows DiVello's dream is unlikely to become their reality, so they're busy readying spin-offs for her costars. Brody will star in his own reality series, Bromance (scheduled for this winter), in which alpha males compete to join his posse. ''It'll be like Swingers,'' says Brody. ''Not your typical elimination show like Tila Tequila — it's very loose.'' Meanwhile, rumors persist that Whitney — the statuesque blonde Lauren befriended while interning at Teen Vogue — will be getting her own spin-off, focusing on her job at fashion PR firm People's Revolution in New York City. (MTV won't confirm the plans.) ''There are rumors that I've heard from people at MTV, but nothing is set in stone yet,'' says Whitney. ''It's definitely something I'm willing to do.'' As for Lauren, she's not entirely sure what's in her future, which makes her dad nervous. ''He's like, 'Let's talk about your five-year plan,''' she says. ''I go, 'Let's talk about my five-day plan. I don't even know that.''' It's safe to say, though, that at least three of those five days will be on camera.
|
