If you never watched “The Hills,” uh, why? I don’t care what demographic you fall into, everyone can enjoy scripted, terribly-edited, trashy MTV drama. “The Hills” aired six seasons starting in 2006 with a revolving door of cast members gleaned from another scripted, terribly-edited, trashy MTV drama, “Laguna Beach.” The major players included Lauren Conrad (LC), Heidi Montag, Audrina Patridge, Whitney Port and their smattering of periphery friends, frenemies and hookups.
Popular for portraying life in upper-middle-class Los Angeles and notorious for depicting the friendship-ending fight between Conrad and Montag, “The Hills” should honestly join the ranks of cult classics at this point. Now, a reboot called “The Hills: New Beginnings” is starting up, and though the cast is older, the type of drama that Stephanie Pratt is starting is nothing new. Except Heidi’s nose...that’s new.
Background
It’s been nearly 10 years since the group from “The Hills” went their separate ways, building lives for themselves and finding new ventures. LC is pregnant with her second child, Spencer and Heidi are doing appearances together while caring for their 1-year-old sun Gunner, Audrina has been married and divorced already and Whitney has appeared in various TV shows and movies while starting her own family.
While we won’t see Conrad on “The Hills: New Beginnings” (as expected), we can expect the other original gals (minus Kristen Cavallari, because obviously, and Lo Bosworth, as loyalty to Lauren, I’m sure) as well as man candy Brody Jenner, original f**kboy Jason Wahler, Audrina’s recurrent flame Justin “Bobby” Brescia and, in a curveball move, Mischa Barton (do with that information what you will).
Stephanie Pratt, who only appeared on “The Hills” in a recurring role until she was upgraded to series regular for its final season, is returning to American television after a stint on U.K. reality show “Made in Chelsea.” In 2013, she moved to London and joined a cast that included Spencer Matthews (Pippa Middleton’s brother-in-law) and fashion designer Rosie Fortescue.
“Being in another country, making it on my own over there, making new friends, I moved there not knowing anyone,” she told Page Six. “It was the dream, because I could actually be me and not be scared of my brother.”
She was also randomly in the Meghan Markle “An American Princess” special on Fox as a “London socialite,” so there’s that.
Now that she’s back in the states, though, it seems that her drama with her family is spilling over into other parts of her life. For example, in March of this year, Pratt began dating Derek Peth, a Bachelor Nation alum who first appeared on JoJo Fletcher’s season of "The Bachelorette" and went on to season 4 of “Bachelor in Paradise” (which he got engaged on -- an engagement that didn't last). Stephanie announced their split earlier this month, explaining to Us Weekly that her life was too all over the place to pursue a relationship at the time, though she hopes they meet again.
“Oh, gosh. We both just know that [with] long distance, it just wasn’t working. My life is way too drama right now and I would never want to subject that to him,” she said. “But God, he’s just -- this is so selfish -- but I hope he’s single in a year.”
However, Peth has since signed on to this upcoming season of BiP, beginning Aug. 5. So, uh, maybe stay away from ABC, Steph?
What happened?
In a surprising twist (in the sense that it’s usually the male Pratt that causes the most trouble), Stephanie is casting herself as the sh*t-stirrer this season. Stephanie has been vocal about a feud between herself and the couple since this past spring, letting loose on her podcast “Pratt Cast” in April: “We are not on good terms. We are not on speaking terms, I do not consider them my family,” she said. “I’m not going to pretend Spencer and Heidi are good people like I was doing for most of the series, for my parents. They are the most toxic people I’ve ever met. They are Bonnie and Clyde 'til they die, so if they say this sky is black, all of us are morons for saying it’s blue.”
From what I can gather, it sounds like this is more of a girl-on-girl battle than anything else, with Stephanie claiming that Montag has worked to distance Spencer from his family. “I’ve literally protected her for 10 years,” she said. “If it weren’t for Heidi, I would have an epic relationship with my brother, so would my parents. But Heidi does not want my brother to be connected to my mom, dad or me.”
Basically, Stephanie is popping off, dragging her brother and sister-in-law’s names through the dirt seemingly unprovoked. She’s gone so far as to alert the media that she was hospitalized due to stress from the situation...of which there is little to no evidence.
Stephanie sounds like she’s witnessed some upsetting behavior from the two of them and has had her fill. But, again, she’s never gone into detail about what exactly sparked the issue.
As far as Spencer and his wife, who of course are no strangers to igniting fights, are concerned, though, there’s no issue.
“We have nothing but love for her,” Montag told Entertainment Tonight at the “New Beginnings” premiere in LA on Wednesday. “And we never did. “You will see that on the show,” Spencer added.
What do we think about it?
One word: publicity.
Stephanie claims that she and Spencer have been on the outs for the better part of the last decade, citing it as the reason she moved to London. Stephanie’s a published author and has sure as hell had access to platforms she could use “expose” her brother like she says she intends to, but she chose right before “New Beginnings” airs to let it all out. Fishy?
Of course, the timing could be authentic. After all, the Pratts just filmed a season together and were most likely in the same room during production meetings and the like. Perhaps it’s truly been an out of sight, out of mind situation for the most part until MTV put them back at each other’s throats.
That, and Montag and Spencer weren't displayed in the best light during the original "Hills" seasons. They were always creating enemies and not taking responsibility for any of their actions. Do we just take Stephanie's claims at face value, considering how the Pratt couple was displayed on TV?
We won’t be able to get a good enough read on the supposed feud unless we watch the episodes, which, I mean, twist my arm.
What does everyone else think?
I don’t think anyone’s concerned with the Stephanie drama at all, which just feeds my suspicions that she’s trying to become relevant even more. Fans do have opinions on this cast coming back to television again, though.