I'm going to go out on a limb and make an observation: The girls from The Hills are really just normal girls... who happen to be on a really popular TV show.

I, like most fans of The Hills, watch the show religiously and just want to be friends with Lauren, Audrina, Whitney and Heidi. So, when I went to their live finale party, you can bet I was giddy.

I arrived at 5:30 p.m. when the girls were getting ready in their dressing room for the rehearsal. When I say girls, I mean Lauren, Audrina and Whitney. If you watched the finale party on MTV last night, you know Heidi was noticeably absent. Perhaps it's because she moved in with Evil Spencer, left Lauren in the dust, and now the girls pretty much hate her.

Anyway, Lauren, Audrina and Whitney were getting ready, and looked gorgeous. Absolutely, positively gorgeous. Okay, so maybe they're normal girls... who happen to be on a really popular TV show... and who happen to be beautiful. But still, normal girls.

Yet, I couldn't stop thinking to myself, "Holy whoa! That's The Hills Girls!" About fifteen minutes later, I went with the trio into a room where we could sit down and chat. That's when the "Holy whoa!" stopped and the "Wow, they're pretty normal" sank in. Lauren was complaining about having to go to dinner when all she really wanted to do was change her outfit, Whitney was totally the mom figure that she seems like, reassuring Lauren she'd have time for dinner and an outfit change, and Audrina was a super sweetheart making sure the other girls got started on the interview.

I wanted to know if Lauren, Whitney and Audrina have gotten used to the fact that sooooo many people (me included) are fascinated by their lives and feel as if they know them. Lauren doesn't think too much of it, and said it's just like in school, "when everyone wants to know everyone else's gossip." Audrina commented, "It's taken some getting used to. It's still weird when people are coming up to you, wanting advice, and they don't know you."

Last summer I interviewed Heidi (in her fantastic pre-Spencer days), and she explained how hard it was for people to really understand their lives, when sometimes two months go by in between episodes, and the viewers don't see that. Whitney doesn't necessarily agree. "What we do and how we are on the show is how we are off the show," she explained.

Lauren added, "People think we have so much drama in our lives. I don't think we do. It's just that we have nine months worth of drama shown in only a few episodes, so it seems like we have so much more going on. We really don't."

There is drama when it comes to the girls' dating lives, however. When I asked them if it's hard to date, they couldn't be more passionate about their answer - a resounding "Yes!" Audrina clarified, "We'll meet guys who only want to date us to be on the show, and then the guys you like and want to date, don't want to be on the show."

Whitney enlightened me that she's been in a relationship for the past thirteen months, none of which was revealed on The Hills. He didn't want to be on camera, and Whitney said, "I'd feel really uncomfortable, like we couldn't be intimate with each other while everyone was standing around watching." Luckily for Whitney, her work at Teen Vogue was more central to her character on the show. It's doubtful that Lauren would be able to succeed in having an off-screen boyfriend - what would the show be about?


Lauren, who has had her share of experience with the subject, said, "It puts a lot of strain on your relationship when you're on TV... it doesn't help when all these people are watching and telling you that you shouldn't be together."

Audrina piped in, "You can't care." Lauren said, "You can never please everyone." Audrina added, "You can't let that in. You have to be strong and overlook it," referring to the fact that viewers feel like they know the girls and have stanch opinions about their every move. Whitney admitted, "Sometimes I wonder if people are thinking 'Oh she's so annoying." I shook my head when Whitney said that, letting her know the majority of The Hills fans love her and have no problem with her at all!

Speaking of Whitney, I had to ask about Emily, the Teen Vogue super-intern. Lauren laughed, and said, "I love that you call her super-intern." "She's actually really nice, and really, really...." Whitney said, searching for a word until she came up with "driven." Lauren said, "I think it's just the NY mentality. We're more laid back in LA." Lauren may have loved that I called Emily "super-intern," but I loved how they all tried to be nice about Emily, calling her "driven," when you know they are so not her fan.

After all, Emily and Whitney are both still vying for the full-time gig at Teen Vogue. Emily did come to the finale party last night to sit in the audience (with, I might add, her super cute and very laid back looking man). During a commercial break Lauren pointed out to Whitney that Emily was in the audience, but that was that. No one waved or said hi, and Emily left before the taping even ended. I smell draaaama.

For all you The Hills fans out there, while it hasn't been formally announced, there will be a third season of the beloved show. Thank you to Lauren for accidentally letting that fact slip out during rehearsal. Now let's all cross our fingers and pray that when the third season does come around, Evil Spencer will be gone, Heidi will be back to normal, and our girls will continue to entertain us every Monday night.

Oh, and one last piece of drama: during rehearsal, they had a spot in the finale party for Heidi to call in and answer a question or two. If you watched the finale, you know that phone call never happened.

source: MediaVillage.com.

posted by Lysandra @ 1:56 PM