The Hills and Metaphysics

For one reason or another, there was an issue of Us Weekly on my kitchen table.

This is strange because I hate Us Weekly and celebrity magazines in general and my roommate is an uber-masculine ex-cop who I'm sure feels the same.

Regardless, there was the latest issue on the table and the cover story was about the elopement of two "characters" from the "reality show" The Hills. The quotations are not meant to be sarcasm rather they are a foreshadowing of the topic at hand.

The two people who got hitched were Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag. They're lives were featured on the hit show The Hills and it seems they fell in love on the show. In the story from Us Weekly, Pratt talks about the elopement to Mexico, the wedding, etc. The newelyweds even shared their vows with the magazine, which was too much for me to handle. But he also went into his mother-in-law, Darlene Egelhoff. She obviously disapproves of her daughter's decision to get married and her choice in husband. She claims that "it won't last six months". And by Hollywood standards, that's probably a compliment.

But what struck me as interesting, in an otherwise completely dull and meaningless article, is how Pratt described his mother-in-law's motivations for her disapproval.

He says, "I think she thinks she's being funny and, like, playing into her character (on The Hills) - that she hates me."

This seemingly innocuous comment has a lot of weight in the world of metaphysics and media studies. The Hills is supposed to be a reality TV show. From my understanding, there are no "characters" rather just real people in real situations. But it seems like Pratt is shedding some light on this mysterious TV fad. Maybe being on a reality TV show makes one a character on the show. You would be you playing you. You wouldn't just be you.

If I had a reality TV show, my character would be myself and I would be playing that role. I'd be my own cameo in my own show.

Now, I've never watched The Hills, but I can extrapolate the kind of character that Heidi's mom portrayed. She was the typical mother of a teenage daughter who never approved of guys her daughter dated. Now, I believe this to be fairly accurate because I believe what Chuck Klosterman has to say about reality TV and what it does to people: it turns them into stereotypes (Klosterman, p. 30).

So Pratt says that his mother-in-law is "playing the character" in "real life". So what does that mean? Was she a completely different person outside of the show? Or did she somehow transform into her character, which was herself. It's like reverse method acting - instead of preparing for a role by assuming a role in the real world, she is assuming the role she already played after the show is over.

Now I want to know just who the hell this woman is. Has she assumed a different personality or identity because of this show? It makes you ask yourself, how real is reality or reality TV at least. Is it really real or is it somehow even more real than reality in that the facade or artifice of it all (relationships, personalities, the world in general) is so apparent?It's pretty strange to think about. And what's really strange is that a fucking stupid gossip magazine is making me doubt my very existence and the nature of reality.

Klosterman, Chuck (2003) Sex, Drugs, and Coco Puffs. Scribner, New York.