PHOTO BY MIKE PISCITELLI
FAUX REAL
Reality show? Soap opera? Who cares? The Hills - and Kristin Cavallari - is back.
Kristin Cavallari doesn’t seem like a bitch. Sitting at a French café in West Hollywood, gracefully sipping an iced tea, she fails to conjure the villainous, backstabbing drama queen her reputation suggests. She smiles sweetly. Laughs frequently. She even politely offers to pay for our drinks. Nonetheless, MTV has trumpeted Cavallari’s presence on the upcoming season of the absurdly popular cultural phenomenon The Hills with the slogan: “The Bitch Is Back.” Could it be that-much like the contrived conflicts of the so-called “reality show” itself- Cavallari’s persona is just…an act?
Like, duh.
The 22-year-old freely admits she’s just playing a part-happily flaunting her nasty little title like a pair of $1,000 Louboutins. “Nobody remember the nice girl, you know?” she says. “So it’s fun to play the bad girl. Like Heather Locklear on Melrose Place- she was awesome.” She has a point: Courtney Thorne-Smith, anyone?
Back in 2003, when MTV was casting for Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County - the show from which The Hills spun-off - Cavallari, then just a sophomore at Laguna Beach High, already had an innate sense of what producers and audiences craved. Her Locklear-ean potential was impossible to miss. “One of the questions was, ‘Who do you think’s going to be prom queen?” she recalls of the audition form. “And I said, ‘I don’t know, and I don’t care as long as it’s not Lauren Conrad.’ So it’s like, I know what I’m doing, and obviously they’re not going to put on some boring person that doesn’t make good TV.”
What makes The Hills so infuriatingly captivating is that we’re never quite sure if these brats we love to hate are real or fake. Do these rich and beautiful, shallow and insipid people truly exist? Do the “characters” on the show cleverly dream up their vacuous personalities, or are they simply the producer’s hand puppets?
It seems pretty clear that Cavallari, herself a devotee of such guilty pleasures as The Girls Next Door and Rock of Love With Bret Michaels (“all of those train-wreck shows”), understands the genre implicity and what’s more, knows how to manipulate her assumed facade to her advantage.
After a four-year hiatus from reality TV to pursue her thespian dream garnered mixed results (her most recent film role was in the straight-to-DVD Van Wilder: Freshman Year), Cavallari is coming home to the role that made her famous in the first place: herself.
Cavallari will be replacing her sworn frenemy since time immemorial (or at least sophomore year), the notoriously bland Conrad. Naturally, the blogs have been all ablaze with Team Lauren versus Team Kristin, each weighing in on the show’s future. But one thing Cavallari’s haters and supporters can agree upon is that her presence on The Hills will inject some much-needed drama into a show on which, as most everyone who watches it acknowledges, nothing much happens.
Of the little that does happen (jealous infighting, mostly), do the show’s fans suspect of even care if it’s not real? “Maybe some do,” Cavallari speculates. “Maybe some really want to believe that these really are our lives. It’s like any other TV show- obviously these people are playing characters, nobody really cares if it’s their real life.”
Fictional or not, the glamorati who populate The Hills must exert some kind of influence on its millions of viewers’ tastes and styles. What flyover-state-dwelling teenager isn’t vaguely curious about what it would be like to live this alluring lifestyle? Curious to hear Cavallari’s reaction, I tell her that when I interviewed self-proclaimed reality-TV junkie Diablo Cody (see page 150), Cody told me, “It’s kind of creepy that there could be a 17-year-old in Miami who is acting like Spencer Pratt because he saw it on television.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Cavallari says. “The thing is, people believe everything they see on TV: That’s what’s cool, and that’s what I need to be in order to be cool. It goes back to the pressure for girls to be skinny and everyone having an eating disorder in Colorado or wherever. It’s sad; it’s really sad.”
Still, Cavallari insists that the show isn’t her reality.
“It’s a soap opera about 20-year-olds living in L.A. with lots of money. If it was a reality show,” she says her eyes darting self-consciously down to my digital recorder on the table, “they would focus on me being an actress. You know what I mean?”
DAN CRANE
Like, duh.
The 22-year-old freely admits she’s just playing a part-happily flaunting her nasty little title like a pair of $1,000 Louboutins. “Nobody remember the nice girl, you know?” she says. “So it’s fun to play the bad girl. Like Heather Locklear on Melrose Place- she was awesome.” She has a point: Courtney Thorne-Smith, anyone?
Back in 2003, when MTV was casting for Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County - the show from which The Hills spun-off - Cavallari, then just a sophomore at Laguna Beach High, already had an innate sense of what producers and audiences craved. Her Locklear-ean potential was impossible to miss. “One of the questions was, ‘Who do you think’s going to be prom queen?” she recalls of the audition form. “And I said, ‘I don’t know, and I don’t care as long as it’s not Lauren Conrad.’ So it’s like, I know what I’m doing, and obviously they’re not going to put on some boring person that doesn’t make good TV.”
What makes The Hills so infuriatingly captivating is that we’re never quite sure if these brats we love to hate are real or fake. Do these rich and beautiful, shallow and insipid people truly exist? Do the “characters” on the show cleverly dream up their vacuous personalities, or are they simply the producer’s hand puppets?
It seems pretty clear that Cavallari, herself a devotee of such guilty pleasures as The Girls Next Door and Rock of Love With Bret Michaels (“all of those train-wreck shows”), understands the genre implicity and what’s more, knows how to manipulate her assumed facade to her advantage.
After a four-year hiatus from reality TV to pursue her thespian dream garnered mixed results (her most recent film role was in the straight-to-DVD Van Wilder: Freshman Year), Cavallari is coming home to the role that made her famous in the first place: herself.
Cavallari will be replacing her sworn frenemy since time immemorial (or at least sophomore year), the notoriously bland Conrad. Naturally, the blogs have been all ablaze with Team Lauren versus Team Kristin, each weighing in on the show’s future. But one thing Cavallari’s haters and supporters can agree upon is that her presence on The Hills will inject some much-needed drama into a show on which, as most everyone who watches it acknowledges, nothing much happens.
Of the little that does happen (jealous infighting, mostly), do the show’s fans suspect of even care if it’s not real? “Maybe some do,” Cavallari speculates. “Maybe some really want to believe that these really are our lives. It’s like any other TV show- obviously these people are playing characters, nobody really cares if it’s their real life.”
Fictional or not, the glamorati who populate The Hills must exert some kind of influence on its millions of viewers’ tastes and styles. What flyover-state-dwelling teenager isn’t vaguely curious about what it would be like to live this alluring lifestyle? Curious to hear Cavallari’s reaction, I tell her that when I interviewed self-proclaimed reality-TV junkie Diablo Cody (see page 150), Cody told me, “It’s kind of creepy that there could be a 17-year-old in Miami who is acting like Spencer Pratt because he saw it on television.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Cavallari says. “The thing is, people believe everything they see on TV: That’s what’s cool, and that’s what I need to be in order to be cool. It goes back to the pressure for girls to be skinny and everyone having an eating disorder in Colorado or wherever. It’s sad; it’s really sad.”
Still, Cavallari insists that the show isn’t her reality.
“It’s a soap opera about 20-year-olds living in L.A. with lots of money. If it was a reality show,” she says her eyes darting self-consciously down to my digital recorder on the table, “they would focus on me being an actress. You know what I mean?”
DAN CRANE
This story was published on August 31, 2009.
CONTENT RATING:
( 20 )
( 20 )
ryan
08/31/2009
kristin looks too glam for these shots to be in nylon
Alley
08/31/2009
Nylon never disappoints, thanks for shedding an unseen light on Kristin.
JO
08/31/2009
Nylon has disappointed me. Kristin is far from Nylon material! she dresses like crap and would never be seen in these amazing clothes. Nylon needs so stick to the girls that resemble Nylon, not some reality tv trash! You tried to hard to make her look Nylonish!
hailee
08/31/2009
she sounds so ignorant and self consumed. i used to own a tee-shirt that said team LC. guess what? i wish i still had it. and as jo points out, kirstin cavalari doesn't belong in nylon.
Tiffany
08/31/2009
I am beyond horrified by this. Kristin Cavallari? Seriously? Can't you put someone cool on the cover like Shirley Manson (yeah, I know she hasn't made music in a while) or how about someone like Mila Kunis, Rose Byrne, or Plastiscines? Please, anything but this tripe!
Sarah P
08/31/2009
Kristin was the only reason I watched Laguna 1 and 2. Pure hilarity. So long as she strays from the script, this will actually make The Hills worth watching. I love the anti-Kristin rhetoric from commentors though..."she's not Nylon material!" Why don't you let the editors be the judge of that?
ALANA
08/31/2009
I love Kristin. A lively breathe of fresh air on Laguna Beach and hopefully on the Hills as well. Catty? Sure, sometimes. Fun? Always.
Cydny
08/31/2009
I love Kristen she's funny as hell and she's smart in the way Paris Hilton is smart.These bitches know how to work America's dim brains into thinking the persona they've created is some real person.People need to chill out,i'm over people thinking Nylon has to follow some hipster manual to appeal to it's readers.
alyssa
09/01/2009
To tiffany: calm down, she's not on the cover, anna paquin is. but i do agree in the sense that i miss when nylon put more "obscure" people on the cover like lizzy jagger or shirley manson. Also HELL YES! PUT MILA KUNIS ON THE COVER, NYLON!
Laura
09/01/2009
gorgeous photos. simply stunning! And thanks for the great interview too. I've loved Kristin since the LB days. She's hilarious and refreshingly candid. Thanks for featuring her.
ash
09/01/2009
really dissappointed with nylon.
Lauren
09/06/2009
Wow. I'm shocked to see Kristen Cavallari in Nylon, but this is a good article that def shed some light on the reality t.v. world. She's not some evil, villianous bitch in real life. 'The Hills' is NOT real life.
lindsay
09/10/2009
kristen is awesome, shes funny and real (to those who says shes fake) i think Nylon wouldn't put her in the mag if she didn't belong, douchebags. And to you "hipsters" who say she is a "follower" and not a "trend-setter" you guys are just followers too. Followers of the "hip" crowd. You all think your so different, lol but you totally aren't. You all look the same. So stop trying so hard to be different Now, that's fake. Just be yourself.
Kureo
09/27/2009
I loved Laguna!!
I also love Kristen too!!
All I have to say is:
"It is what it is. Nothing else!"
123
09/28/2009
She does look very cute in her shots, But i dont think she fits the niche that the other Nylon girls do.
Sara
09/28/2009
I can't decide whether I like her or not. But one thing's for sure, the photo shoot is a let down.
JANICE
09/29/2009
Whether Kristen herself is really Nylon or not, over the years The Hills has cultivated a relationship with fashion via LC, Whitney, Lisa Love and Kelly Cutrone. I think that's what makes the feature on Kristen relevant to Nylon culture...
Plus, look at all this conversation around her. The editors didn't choose a dead topic, that's for sure.
Shelly
10/16/2009
"In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes"-Andy Warhol. He was right. I dislike all these "reality TV stars", they're so pretentious.They’ve plagued every medium not only television but also print, radio and the Internet. I am sick and tired of their lives being plastered all over magazines (not just tabloid ones because I don't read that trash) and newspapers. Who really gives a F***? We need people with talent on television (and film) not arrogant fools who run their mouths off and say absolutely nothing. Unfortunately we live in a society where most people but not all (thank God) find it amusing and entertaining. I pity them. Nylon, why her? I gave it one heart because that's the lowest score I can give but I would rather give it none.
Shelly
10/16/2009
P.S I didn't bother reading the article because she annoys me.
Ella
10/26/2009
What I find totally dumb is not the article on Kristin, or even the photos. As a photographer, I can appreciate the photos. What I do find hilarious are the majority of the comments, with so many people trying so hard to be cool. And while doing so, being incredibly pretentious. Everyone, just get over yourselves, stop taking everything so seriously, and just enjoy everything for what it is. Or alternatively, go and indulge in a new pair of Rays to assure yourselves of your hipness. Then you may continue to whine about how cool you are on your Tumblr. In any case, this makes for excellent entertainment for me, more than the Hills ever would.
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