POP CULTURE: Beached

Does Paris Hilton spell death for Laguna Beach?

Josh Bell

Last week, Paris Hilton was involved in a minor car accident outside an LA nightclub. Hilton getting into a fender-bender is not particularly newsworthy, but what's interesting to note is that among her companions (who included shipping heir Stavros Niarchos and Rod Stewart's daughter Kimberly) was a name not as familiar to tabloid readers as Hilton's: Talan Torriero, one of the stars of MTV's "reality drama" Laguna Beach.


For the uninformed, Laguna Beach is something of a pop-cultural phenomenon, a sleeper hit that's become one of MTV's highest-rated shows. Originally conceived as a response to Fox's The O.C., Laguna Beach has quickly taken on a life of its own, surpassing the tired O.C. as a subject of obsession among teens and Internet geeks. Although it follows the real lives of a group of rich high-schoolers in the titular Southern California town, Laguna Beach isn't packaged like your typical reality show. There's no narration, no on-camera interviews with cast members, and the visual style is deliberately tailored to look more like a narrative show than a reality-based one.


Either because of or in spite of the show's awe-inspiring vacuity, it's built up a healthy viewing audience, and its stars have become minor celebrities. This isn't uncommon among reality stars, although they usually end up fraternizing primarily with other reality stars; hence the thriving industry of reality shows whose concepts are based entirely on featuring former cast members of other reality shows (The Real World/Road Rules Challenge, Kill Reality).


The difference is that since Laguna Beach is packaged as a drama, it's also structured like a drama. This means that the just-concluded second season featured the same cast members as the first, the same cast members that will presumably return for the third season, unlike most reality shows that change casts with each time around. Although the concept of the show is that its stars are rich and pretty, they haven't actually been hobnobbing with celebrities until recently, and Torriero isn't the only LB cast member who's made time with Paris Hilton. He and some of his castmates have also followed the tried and true reality TV tradition of getting themselves bit parts in low-budget movies.


None of this would be notable except that viewers of Laguna Beach are expected to continue buying into the world that the show has created. There's nothing wrong with the LB stars parlaying their TV fame into something else, but when the show returns, producers will be faced with a tough choice: Either they show the way that the stars have worked their way into Hollywood and risk destroying the core concept of the show, or they ignore all of the fame and leave out any footage that might indicate that the stars are anything more than the well-off but anonymous teens they were when the show started.


The problem is that both approaches are disingenuous and false. Everyone knows that reality TV isn't strictly real, and LB, with its often carefully crafted drama, is even more contrived than most. But there is still a certain core understanding of the show's concept that audiences have to buy into. Even if Paris Hilton never shows up on an LB episode, pretending that she's not lurking just around the corner ruins the show's illusion. Think of it this way: If there were widespread press reports that Survivor cast members were sleeping in luxurious hotel rooms every night, the show would lose credibility, even if it continued to show only the same meager living conditions for which it's known.


It may seem silly to parse a frivolous reality show so finely, but without a carefully crafted suspension of disbelief, the show loses its appeal and may likely lose viewers as well. Talan Torriero and his friends are welcome to pal around with Paris Hilton and get chased by the paparazzi if they want to, but in doing so they might forfeit the privilege of having their own reality show.



Josh Bell takes no sides in the great LC/Kristin debate. Read more of his takes on pop culture at
http://signalbleed.blogspot.com.

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