Once Lauren Conrad rocketed to girly-girl popularity on “The Hills,” MTV realized that they had a potentially gold-spinning formula on their hands: throw a vapid fish into shark-infested waters; add some cool clothes, and a hit is born.
Starting tomorrow night, the new guppy in the shark tank is former Hills bit player Whitney Port, star of MTV’s new “reality” show “The City.” While one might think that some of the original’s more rabid personas – such as the train wreck that is Speidi – would have made for livelier TV fare, it’s Port’s bland appeal that has now thrust her into the spotlight.
“It goes back to Lauren,” says Adam DiVello, creator of both “The City” and “The Hills.” “When we took her off ‘Laguna Beach’ and put her on ‘The Hills’ there was the same concern, because she wasn’t the one causing drama. But she was the one kids related to, and it’s the same with Whitney. You take someone relatable and put them with all new characters, so there’s an all-new cast and all-new stories.”
“The City” is set in New York because Port, who formerly worked for fashion PR firm People’s Revolution, had secured an entry-level job here as an “image coordinator” at Diane von Furstenberg, helping coordinate photo shoots, window displays, store openings and the like.
As with its predecessor, “The City” will feature conflicts galore. Judging from the eight minutes of clips we viewed (no full episodes were completed at press time), Port, the moon-faced innocent, plays the Anne Hathaway to her co-stars collectively scene-stealing Emily Blunts. Potentially sinister creatures circling the chum include Olivia Palermo, a socialite co-worker who, judging from the looks she throws Port’s way, is being set up as the show’s resident back-stabber; and Jay Lyon, Port’s laughably self-absorbed boyfriend (and former beau of current Promises resident Tara Reid). A long-haired Aussie with perfectly manicured stubble and a recording contract, he refuses in one scene to accompany Port to a party by telling her, “The one thing I have is, I always do what I want, and that’s it.” Dreamy!
But the success of “The City” will depend not just on the maelstrom that surrounds the New York newbie, but also on her whirlwind universe of glamour. In addition to working for DVF, Port has her own Manhattan apartment, and is invited to such fabulous events as, DiVello says, a “ball” – just like every other 23-year-old in the big city.
Considering the manufactured nature of “reality” television – including prior revelations that “The Hills” producers both reshot scenes and arranged hook-ups for some of the show’s cast – we have to wonder how much of Port’s fabulous new life in the city was organic, and how much was an MTV production.
DiVello insists that in every case, it’s the former. She got the interview for her job at DVF, he says, through a contact of People’s Revolution founder Kelly Cutrone. Lyon helped her find her apartment.
Port comes upon her enviable social life naturally – as a perk, it seems, of being young, pretty, employed by a fashion icon, and a longtime cast member of the buzziest of reality shows.
“Her social life is completely organic,” says DiVello. “We do get involved in where they go because we have to clear spaces in advance. If they’re going out to dinner, we put calls in and clear the location [for the shoot]. But if they want to go to one bar that we can’t go to, then we just can’t follow them.”
One aspect of Port’s life on which DiVello demurs is whether MTV helped pay for her apartment, saying that it’s “part of her contract” with MTV, and that he couldn’t speak to it.
Then again, even without the network’s help, we can assume that Port can afford something swank. It’s been reported that Port made $20,000 an episode for her relatively minor role on “The Hills,” while the show’s stars brought in $65,000-$75,000 per. Assuming Port received a substantial raise for “The City,” a swank Manhattan apartment is well within her reach even without her DVF paycheck. But as with “The Hills,” the show’s reflection of reality is hardly the point. Fans will supposedly glom on because they somehow see themselves through Port’s often expressionless affect.
“Viewers relate to her because she’s the level-headed one” says DiVello. “She’s super sweet and has her head on straight. On ‘The City,’ you’re gonna get the whole story. People are genuinely attracted to her, so it’ll be great to see more of Whitney.”And while you’re watching her and relating, keep your eyes open for any quite little squeakmouse hanging out on the fringes. If the formula holds, MTV’s hot new show next year at this time could well be hers.
THE CITY
Monday, 10 p.m., MTV
REALITY WAVE HITTING MTV
Sixteen new reality series are scheduled to bow on MTV. Next month, “Girls of Hedsor Hall” will debut follows a bunch of hard-living young women who are packed off to finishing school. “College Life” is the name of a show in which University of Wisconsin freshmen shoot their own lives on camcorders.
The big namesserving as producers are Sean Combs, Donald Trump, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and Nick Lachey.-Robert Rorke
MTV REAL-LIFE ‘ENTOURAGE’
Whitney Port isn’t the only “Hills” graduate getting a series of his own this week. Party boy Brody Jenner, the on-again, off-again love interest of Lauren Conrad, stars in “Bromance,” a reality series that aims to find the party bond a brother figure to bond with. MTV is thinking Matt Damon and Ben Affleck or George Clooney and Brad Pitt, but since Jenner bears no resemblance to those movie stars, it will be interesting to see what MTV comes up with.
Nine guys live in a frat house and are sent on group “dream dates,” like skydiving in Las Vegas, cruising the Pacific on a 50-foot yacht and hanging out with Playboy playmates. Jenner scrutinizes each potential bro to see who always has his back. Brace yourself for lots of limos, , lingerie parties, blowup dolls, bar brawls, backstabbing and emotional breakdowns.
BROMANCE
Monday, 9 p.m., MTV