Sunday, June 01, 2008 || Former members of 'The Hills' complain of bad editing
So when its West Coast director, Jessica Trent, and a few underlings gathered to discuss the Pussycat Dolls lingerie show at L.A. Fashion Week in March, Cutrone put their feet to the fire. She wanted to know whether any celebrities had committed.
"Working on that," Trent said.
"It's a little late," Cutrone snapped.
"I know we were . . . "
"We . . . we . . . nothing."
"That was supposed to be your responsibility, Jessica," sniped Cutrone's partner.
Trent was nearly in tears, and then the camera cut -- to a sweeping panorama of Los Angeles.
It was just another painful day on "The Hills," the docudrama everyone loves to hate. Its stars -- Lauren Conrad, Heidi Montag, Audrina Patridge and Whitney Port -- relentlessly pursue the perfect blend of work and partying, largely in the confines of the L.A. fashion community, be it People's Revolution or the offices of Teen Vogue. Woe betide anyone outside their circle.
While Conrad and her cronies have happily morphed from SoCal teens to paparazzi-hunted celebrities with cosmetic contracts, clothing lines and movie deals, other minor players have become roadkill on the highway of public spectacle. Sure, the star foursome graced the cover of Rolling Stone last month, but a growing sorority of "Hills" outcasts was loudly grumbling.
Not long after Trent's humiliation -- in front of more than 3 million viewers -- she left People's Revolution and explained her befuddlement in her blog, LA Steel Magnolia. "Ah well," she wrote, "for some it probably gave them great pleasure to see me appear dimwitted or sad on the mocu-drama, and you know that's fine if it gives some folks some satisfaction. Honestly. For others with more developed minds, they'll see crafty editing turning a real person into some faux dolt persona for the entertainment sake of the televised machine."
Trent's is not the only attempt to resurrect a reputation tainted by "The Hills." Gavin Beasley spoke to bestweekever.tv about his portrayal in the third season. In one episode, the handsome, tousled-hair young fashion model took Conrad out for sushi after meeting her at a photo shoot. The conversation was not only strained and mundane, but Beasley looked like a lout as he reached across the table and tried -- to Conrad's horror -- to force a salmon roll down her throat.
"I guess people should just try to remember that this is all entertainment," he said, claiming the sushi incident was the result of selective editing. "I'm not the boring dork they made me out to be."
Faux dolt? Boring dork? File these complaints under "Be careful what you wish for" -- especially in Elodie Otto's case. There she was, working at Bolthouse Productions, the Hollywood party-planning powerhouse, when Montag -- and her entourage of cameras -- snagged a job answering phones and stuffing envelopes. Otto was quickly smitten.
"I was like 'God, I want to be on TV,' " she said. "So then I made friends with her. And then they started filming us, and we had really good chemistry."
Soon she couldn't stand in line at Starbucks without being recognized. Her presence on "The Hills" parted the velvet rope, where she posed at MTV red carpet events and chatted up Lindsay Lohan.
Hoping to capitalize on her 15 minutes, Otto quit Bolthouse and started a line of bath and body products, but nothing worked out according to plan. Her time on the show was cut back, and as she waited for a loan to clear on her fledgling company, she tried to find work elsewhere.
"It's just hard," she says. During job interviews, prospective employers ignore her resume and just want to know what it was like to work with Montag.
"Everybody thinks my whole life is great," she says, "that I have my own company and I live at the beach and have a boyfriend and I have my own line and I'm a gazillionaire. But no."
During one low moment in her post-"Hills" career, Otto claims she got a phone call from MTV asking her to return. They needed Otto to fill in a gap in the story line. (The show's creator, Adam Divello, didn't return calls to confirm.)
Otto immediately agreed, and when the cameras started to roll, Otto played out her part: She asked Montag whether she had heard about the opening for an events director; Montag feigned ignorance. And when we next see Montag, she's sitting behind the desk in her new office. Otto regrets agreeing to this scene and worries that she's marked for having lost the job to an inexperienced, younger colleague.
Meanwhile, the show chugs on, now filming its fourth season. For her part, Trent is still licking her wounds, trying to freelance her way toward her own People's Revolution. Not long after the last episode of the third season aired, she sat in her Beachwood Canyon home and organized her closets, while Conrad and friends danced at the packed West Hollywood hot spot Crown Bar. Next to Conrad sat Lindsay Lohan, who looked like she wanted someone to talk to.
source: latimes.com
posted by Lysandra @ 7:36 PM
"New City, New Drama"
13 Comments:
wow, sucks for them :(
I know the hills is fake, but it's so addicting!!
Freaking riduculous!! i'm so pissed that they added all that elodie stuff in AFTER she quit! How much does it suck that all of that revenge stuff (not showing up at the event on heidi's anniversary) was staged.
Spencer and Heidi brought the fake with them and it has infiltrated every area of the show : (
Elodie rocks and always will.
sorry but how does elodie rock if she took part in staging all of that crap?
Wow, Elodie's really desperate for fame...all that job-stealing shit was fake? Plus the standing up? She even called into the after-show one time talking about the whole ordeal and all this time it was staged?
I think that is the saddest thing I've ever heard.
This is a must read article for every fan and critic of the show. If the Elodie scenes were fake, imagine what other story lines are fiction as well. That's why I no longer accept that Audrina is a victim, or Whitney is most likeable, or Lo is a bitch. In fact, if we are to believe in-person accounts of the girls: Aurdina is a bitch and dumb as f*ck, Whitney is a bitch, Lauren is painfully insecure, and Heidi is Paris Hilton Ebola 2.0. Who knows what is real and what isnt on the Hills, when MTV can so cleverly fake a story line!
And for your reading enjoyment, provided is the link about the Rolling Stone cover shoot chronicling the girls' true personalities off camera. It doesn't get any better than this: http://www.laineygossip.com/The_Hills_Rolling_Stone_cover.aspx
I agree, this show has gone downhill. I'm dissapointed that Lauren would continue on with this facade for so long, I thought she was the only real one :/
The show makes money, the girls make money on endorsements from appearing on the show- so why stop the money train now? But the longer the show continues the worse it gets. Because it's considered "Lauren's show" she bares the brunt of the show's failure. Speidi, et al have it made. They can continue to ruin the show by faking scenes and when it ends they will probably walk away relatively unscathed, richer, and moderately famous. Well played.
the show was scripted/fake the minute they announced Lauren "earned" an internship at Teen Vogue and "moved into the Hillside Villas".
5:07 i agree the show has been getting worse every season and i think it's because of some added "characters." the hills should come to an end while it's still on top or else it's gonna crash and burn.
actually if the creators were smart they would boot speidi the hell out. the numbers may be up in the ratings but not if you compare them to normal network viewing - an average night of say survivor or greys anatomy gets 20 million viewers, the hills gets 2 million or slightly less. Don't get me wrong, I know the numbers are great by MTV standards but while you have the viewers wouldn't you want to expand on that empire instead of sinking it into tila tequila territory? because let's face it, speidi is no different that that tila idiot. fake looks, fake story. And that fakenes has spread in the form of Brody and Stephanie.
If I were Adam I would give Speidi a newlyweds type show - let them have their fake marriage etc - people will tune in beause it's like watching a train wreck.
I honestly wish the show would add a few more girls to the series, they don't have to be friends with Lauren they could all just be living in a complex kind of like Melrose place. Even if they didn't interact, it would be easy to segway from one scene to another thru their comings and goings. not a hard concept right? take normal girls and follow them living their lives, clubbing, trying to go to school and make a career for themselves, falling in and out of love and all the friendship dynamics (or not) between them . Isn't that what the Hills was supposed to be about??? it would also alleviate the need for "fake' friendships. Because who here honestly thinks Lauren & Audrina are still friends? not me! Lauren is also more work budies than actual friends w/ Whitney which allows for very limited interaction. That leaves Lauren & Lo. While I love Lauren, I don't find Lo particuliary interesting so the new people would hopefully add more intrigue/interest. Mind you - I know NONE of this is going to happen : ( but hey a girl can dream can't she ? ;)
Ratings are typically lower on cable show.
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