Andy DehnartLaguna Beach‘s new cast has brought the show lower ratings and less drama, but a new season of the show will begin production in December. That season will stick with the same cast, but “probably with some additions,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Creator and executive producer Liz Gateley says this transition period is to be expected. “It’s sort of like if you recast ‘[Beverly Hills] 90210,'” she says, noting that the audience must have “a whole new investment” in this group.
Regarding the show’s authenticity, Gateley explains how the scripted-sounded narration is written: it is, in fact, scripted, although Tessa has the option of changing lines she doesn’t like. “We basically write down what the narration needs to be in terms of catching people up on what’s happened. I spoke to Tessa about this, and said, anything you are uncomfortable saying, let us know,” she told the LA Times.
Also in its long and rather strange piece, the Los Angeles Times talks to two of the cast members, Cami and Kyndra, and Cami said she doesn’t like being portrayed as a mean girl. She defends her behavior, saying, “Everyone who knows me knows that I am not a mean girl. I mean, everybody my age, if there’s some girl who walks by in some outfit, you’d go, ‘Whoa, that’s a weird outfit.’ Everybody says those little things. I mean, they’re stupid and they’re rude and, of course, we regret saying all that stuff now.”
However, Cami is looking forward to the new season. “I want to be on the fourth season just to clean things up. Not that I wouldn’t be myself, but I would go out of my way to … I don’t know. It just really, really, really sucks. Tessa seems like this goody two-shoes on TV, and I am just sitting there watching it, going, ‘If you only knew.'”
Kyndra, meanwhile, is okay with being the villain. “If everyone played the little nice girl, then no one’s gonna watch the show. So I’d rather draw people into watching the show,” she said.
Most hysterically, though, Kyndra didn’t break character for the interview with the paper, which says “Kyndra could barely contain her boredom” and “answered questions in a distracted tone, stared out the cafe window and was snippy when asked what she felt were repetitive questions about the show.” Her answers included the following: “I think I already answered that,” “And I don’t really care,” and “I feel like I am repeating myself.”
The paper also says Kyndra “refused to step onto the beach to pose for a photograph, insisting instead that she stay on the staircase above the sand.” She was such a pain in the ass that not one but “Two MTV publicity executives called later to apologize for Kyndra’s behavior; Gateley also apologized.”