Friday, March 21, 2008 || Selling Lauren Conrad
Ms. Conrad, 22, is the star of "The Hills," the reality show that was MTV's highest-rated program last fall. For the past two years, cameras have captured her days as a fashion-magazine intern and nights as a club-hopper who flirts with guys and spars with friends. To translate her fame into a fashion career, she and her father have hired a team of Hollywood-industry advisers and signed several licensing and endorsement deals. The process isn't always smooth. The network that made her famous won't promote her enterprises on air. And Ms. Conrad, determined to assert her fashion vision, sometimes ignores the suggestions of her more seasoned advisers.
"I'm sure a lot of people don't take me seriously," she says.
Many young celebrities are trying to follow the success of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who parlayed roles on a TV sitcom into a multimillion-dollar conglomerate that has sold books, videos, films and clothes. Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton have made licensing deals based on pop-music success and a famous last name. Ms. Conrad represents the next generation of branders -- reality stars who are famous only for their willingness to let cameras into their private lives. Last week, Ms. Conrad's nemesis on "The Hills," Heidi Montag, announced her own plans to launch a clothing line. And from E! Entertainment Television reality show "Sunset Tan," tanning-salon owners Devin Haman and Jeff Bozz recently came out with a line of tanning moisturizers.
To keep themselves in the spotlight, Ms. Conrad and her contemporaries are willing citizens of a tabloid world. During a recent breakfast interview at an outdoor café in Los Angeles, Ms. Conrad said she suspected a photographer was taking pictures of her from across the street. She declined to move to an inside table. Instead, she looked left and right before taking quick bites of her egg whites. "No one eats pretty," she said.
Less than three hours later, Ms. Conrad sent her breakfast companion an email with a photo attached of her enjoying her eggs. She had found the photo after a Google search. "Haha they always get it!" she wrote.
Ms. Conrad's team monitors the star's symbiotic relationship with the press. It's essential that she hit the hot spots, where tabloid photographers lurk. Yet because Ms. Conrad's corporate relationships benefit from her good-girl image, they want her to go to a lot of parties without partying a lot.
When Ms. Conrad turned 21, her publicist, Nicole Perez, sat down with her client to discuss responsible drinking. "It's the same conversation you'd have as a parent with a child," she says. Ms. Conrad's parents watch over her, too, by logging on to gossip blogs. If their daughter appears too tipsy in a photo, she hears from them. "We will tell her to ratchet it back," says her father, Jim Conrad.
This article is really long so read the rest here.
posted by Lysandra @ 11:17 AM
"New City, New Drama"
2 Comments:
Nice article...so much more informative than those fluff magazine ones.
Lauren is a smart girl. I commend her parents for raising her well.
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