"Obviously we're entertainers. We are trying to entertain in every aspect of our lives." - Heidi Montag
The celebrity news world is simultaneously bursting and flat.
The unbalance of Britney Spears, the growing pains of Miley Cyrus and the druggy tailspin of Amy Winehouse - to name a few favorite plots - add up over the hours to grand narratives and debates about femininity, drug use, mental health, sexuality, motherhood, legal proceedings, parenting and violence.
But the celebrity gossip world is flat in that every story seems just as important as every other - and this is a monster that needs feeding.
That's what celeb news fame is now: Weekly, and sometimes hourly, we must have stories; the lives of the chosen people must appear to move forward.
Into the breach between supply and demand have stepped Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, the villainous couple from MTV's docu-soap The Hills.
While Heidi Montag may not be the most famous, she's definitely fame-ish. Creatures of the game in every way, she and Spencer, the arch-enemies of Lauren Conrad, have mastered the new realities of celebrity culture.
The two know what commodity they're selling and what its value is: "There's only so much gossip," as Heidi said over lunch recently.
"We're always the juicier story," Spencer Pratt interjected.
Switching to the third person, he added, "Heidi and Spencer are gossip machines. Every day, it's like, 'What did Heidi and Spencer do?'"
Heidi and Spencer. "Speidi" for short.
He's 24, went to Crossroads School and then USC, having grown up in Santa Monica and the Palisades. She's 21 and was raised in Crested Butte, Colo., which she referred to as "the smallest place in the world."
Heidi Montag came to L.A. in August 2005 after a miserable fashion school year in San Francisco where she met Lauren Conrad, late of MTV's Laguna Beach, whose move to L.A. was to become the raison d'être for The Hills.
TMZ calls them "celebutards."
Perez Hilton calls them "famewhores" and "promosexuals."
Spencer Pratt's response: "Anybody who wants to promote our brand, negative or positive, give me a call."
Continue reading in the Los Angeles Times ...
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27 Comments
May 12th, 2008 5:07 PM
Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt need to just go away. No one cares about you!!!!
June 4th, 2008 10:48 PM
i honestly hate spencer cuz he has nuthin betta ta do wit hiz lyfe dan use a young n naive gurl ta get famous n heidi so fukkin dumb dat she cant c his stupid attempts at fame through her like everyone else. & heidi really needz ta stick 2 da fashion biz cuz she obviously has no career n singing....and wut gurl lets a guy tlk her n 2 turning her bakk on her friends?? seriously spencer get over ur self n let heidi soak up the fame she has ACTUALLY WORKED FOR n get off ur ugly ass n actually work for wut u wunt like normal ppl, if u wunt fame, work for it, dont use some beautiful gurl to get knoticed....heidi i think ur a beautiful gurl but ur nuthing but a puppet n spencer's eyes...please take the tyme to realize that u can do better(men wise)
June 4th, 2008 11:00 PM
spencer's an ass and i agree with alia diamond that spencer is using heidi for fame and that she cant see it.I think she knows it but probably thinks that marrying will make him love her....news flash heidi..it wont, it's just another attempt to get noticed and eventually take all the money you have worked so hard for.......i feel so sorry for you, heidi when you grow a brain...listen to it when it says to leave spencer!! you'll be doing yourself and the whole world a favor....cause you are really beautiful and it sucks to see that you cant see a problem when it's right in front of you
June 6th, 2008 5:15 PM
i would like for the sex tape to be dropped if you ever were a friend you wouldnt talk about this let it go.if it wasnt for Lauren know one would even know you spencer get a real job and stop causing trouble.let evey one else be friends
June 9th, 2008 9:48 AM
oh my god they must be the most annoying people on the planet at the mo.they are so in to themselves and the fact people like that can get rich for being nasty and fake just makes us sick. spencer needs to get a proper job and heidi needs to realise she seems to portray in the programme that she is 2 faced and thats probably why she seems to have no true friends.she isn't a true celebrity she is just famous for the fights she seems to cause between people.heidi i truely feel sorry for u.
June 9th, 2008 12:53 PM
ALIA DIAMOND...WHAT LANGUAGE ARE U SPEAKING? I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW IT'S POSSIBLE FOR JANELLE TO AGREE WITH ANYTHING YOU SAY BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT EVEN SPEAKING ENGLISH!!
June 13th, 2008 10:43 PM
i like ta spell thingz as dey sound not as dey're spelled so if u dont understand dont fukkin worry bout it!!
June 13th, 2008 10:49 PM
haha damn alia but i do understand what you're writing
June 15th, 2008 8:01 PM
ok ppl. i have gotten to the point where i think heidi needs mental help. why does she take a guy bck that hurts her and doesnt really care for her and spencer knows that without heidi he is no one...he is using her. actually heidi would prolly still be living in colorado with her parents if it wasnt for lauren. gosh u should never choose a guy over a friend cuz it most definitly will come back to haunt u. especially if that guy is pathetic loser that needs a life.
June 15th, 2008 9:23 PM
Alia Diamond,
You like to spell things the way they sound?? Say the word "better". Explain to me how "better" sounds like "betta". Explain how the word "than" sounds like "dan". You are very uneducated....and by the way...very classy say F****.