Erf.

So, um, I left out from yesterday's post the part where Brody Jenner's friend joked that Kristin Cavallari was dating Nick Lachey now and how it'll be all over Us Weekly in no time ... because I thought he was ... joking? But Access Hollywood is reporting, perhaps, otherwise. The two were spotted "sharing a cozy dinner ... at Palomino Euro Bistro in L.A." Hopefully he's trying to help sculpt her into the star that she could be. Except ... I don't think he has enough money. And it could all be part of a publicity stunt. Sigh, Hollywood is chock full of conspiracies, it makes me tired. [Photo courtesy of The Real O.C. boards]

After all the resistance from Laguna Beach residents, some are finally coming out and saying that they like the show because it's realistic. In a USA Today article:

"I like the show," says Cortez, former head of Laguna Relief, an organization that works with local homeless and low-income families. "I've had arguments with people who say it makes us look like a bunch of spoiled white people. Well, have you looked at the demographics of Laguna?" (For the record, the city is 92% white, and the median household income is just over $85,000 a year, nearly twice the national figure.) "We may not think we're privileged, but we are."

At Muse, a local boutique that plays a supporting role on the show, sales clerk Elizabeth Weststeyn, 22, says MTV's depiction of conspicuous consumption is "right on. ... Some of the girls will have a limit on their credit cards, but spending $200 or $300 for a pair of jeans and a top is run of the mill."

Pam Schmitz, tour guide and mother of cast member Dieter, says that although producers did highlight the teens' fundraising after a landslide struck more than a dozen homes last summer, the fact that the crew can't film on school property means students are "more one-dimensional" on screen than in real life. Still, "there is a lot of indulgence. The parents have worked hard, and the kids feel entitled."

"We live in a place where a lot of people are house-rich and cash-poor, (and) there's a side to these kids and this community that's not being exposed. But the kids watching the show today are going to be the tourists of tomorrow."

"I didn't realize I was living in paradise until this show," says [Dieter] Schmitz, who fields 500 fan e-mails a day. "But I don't think I'd want to raise my kids here. It's La La Land."