Kristin Cavallari is calling out MTV for filming her while in a dressing room on Laguna Beach. The reality TV star has been reconnecting with her ex-boyfriend Stephen Colletti as they revisit the good, the bad, and the heavily edited scenes from their time on the MTV series. The two launched their podcast Back to the Beach with Kristin and Stephen in July and have received a lot of positive feedback from fans. Kristin and Stephen have not held back with letting listeners know how fabricated some storylines were and how producers created narratives for them that weren't necessarily true.
Stephen recently called out the series for framing him as a cheater. Throughout the series, Stephen was caught up in a love triangle with Kristin and Lauren Conrad. However, the reality star insists that there were times when he and Kristin had broken up, but the show didn't make that clear to its audience. Instead, they made it seem like he was going on dates with Lauren while in a relationship with Kristin. Kristin also called out the show for how they pinned her and Lauren up against each other to create an entertaining feud where both girls were fighting over a guy.
After recapping another Laguna Beach episode, Kristin's calling the show out again for one of the scenes she shot. On Back to the Beach with Kristin and Stephen, the Uncommon James founder discussed a scene where she was trying on bathing suits and MTV was filming her in and out of the dressing room. "They had us trying on these bathing suits, and they made us come out of the dressing room and show off our bathing suits, and I was so uncomfortable. I hated every second." Stephen then admitted that he felt uncomfortable watching the scene back since Kristin and her friends were only 17 at the time.
The One Tree Hill actor then pointed out that in one scene, the cameras were in the dressing room with Kristin. "Look, they need the sex appeal," Stephen said. Kristin then drew attention to the way the show presented her differently than Lauren. "Of course, they had me trying on bathing suits, not Lauren. It was me because they had to put me in that box and keep me there." Stephen clarified that MTV would never put them in a position where they were encouraging them to change clothes on camera, but still acknowledges that the scene was inappropriate.
In today's society, a scene like that would likely never fly. If it did, it'd be met with a lot of backlash. However, Laguna Beach aired in 2004, and back then, few things were off limits. They surely worked hard to create a narrative around Kristin, framing her as a "bad girl" while Lauren was portrayed as the innocent good girl. Kristin is right to be uncomfortable with the scene since she was legally still a minor, and MTV should have known better.
Source: Back to the Beach with Kristin and Stephen/Spotify