Is MTV's "The Hills" real?

After some quick+dirty googling, the answer is - just like it was with the show's predecessor, Laguna Beach - a resounding "sorta." (one of the biggest questions ever recorded on google searches during the show's run was "Is Laguna Beach real?").

Okay, so yes, Lauren Conrad, our protagonist, is a real girl, with real ambitions. The show is kind of all about how she's trying to make it in the 'real world,' with, you know, an actual job, which she seems to be willing to do, as opposed to certain people who appear on MTV reality shows and then take the rest of their lives off (ahem, Tonya from The Real World: Chicago.)

But at the same time, let's apply the smell test, here. It seems unlikely that a magazine like Teen Vogue would hand a high-profile internship to a 19-year-old with no actual experience unless there was some other force greasing the wheels. And she probably wouldn't have been able to pull the shit from last Tuesday's episode and stick around (although it wasn't really her fault.) It's almost as though they're giving her some sort of special treatment, like, say, keeping her around because she's an MTV reality star and Teen Vogue smartly recognizes that they're getting crazy publicity out of the deal. Hey, whatever works.

So now that you fell into this google trap, all of you who wound up here looking for the definitive answer to your question get this answer: Who cares if it's real or not? It's one of the most watchable MTV shows to come around in a while. It's superior to Laguna Beach, for sure - less teen drama, more early adulthood drama. And the juxtaposition of Lauren with her friend Heidi - who does take the attitude of "who needs school?, who needs to work their way up a ladder?; I'm on MTV" - is fun to watch play out.