\n<\/p>\n
When I mentioned to Cavallari that I had attended the New York stop of her live podcast tour last year, her insistence that it was her worst appearance of that run was more clinical than self-deprecating. She also thought, to my considerable surprise, that Laguna Beach<\/em> was boring, crediting its success to its timing, editing, music, and scenery. \u201cOf course, now we\u2019re living in this TikTok, social media world and everything is so fast-paced,\u201d she said. \u201cBut really, when you break it down, a whole lot didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Conrad, though, Cavallari is cognizant of the show\u2019s role in her current career as the proprietor of a business tied to her name and image. Uncommon James, her jewelry and skin-care company, relaunched her signature black choker from her Laguna Beach<\/em> days in commemoration of the reunion. Plus, she didn\u2019t mind having a chance to set the record straight about Cabo. \u201cI thought I handled it exceptionally well for being an intoxicated 17-year-old with her ex-boyfriend yelling in her face,\u201d Cavallari said. \u201cAnd so I stand by everything I did in that scene, including dancing on the bar, by the way, because everyone in Cabo dances on bars.\u201d<\/p>\n Lauren Conrad and high school best friend Lo Bosworth, also on hand for the reunion.<\/p>\n <\/span>Courtesy of the cast.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Colletti was the last of the triangle whom I spoke to, and by contrast, he seemed ruminative about their legacy to a somewhat jarring degree\u2014of the trio, he has kept the lowest profile since the show ended. \u201cIt was not something I was prepared for as far as the reaction to the show,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd when you\u2019ve got a massive reaction to the show, but also a version of your life that is sensationalized, it\u2019s just really tough when you\u2019re that age, and I couldn\u2019t sit comfortably with it.\u201d<\/p>\n A few years ago, before the reunion plans were hatched, Colletti finally mustered the fortitude to revisit the show in preparation for a podcast he recorded with Cavallari. \u201cI don\u2019t want this to sound like all of it was like, \u2018Oh, MTV totally made up the story of our lives,\u2019\u201d he said, but he had kept the show \u201clocked away\u201d in fear of \u201cseeing your life twisted in a certain way or you portrayed a certain way, and also some of your worst, most embarrassing moments.\u201d<\/p>\n After Laguna Beach,<\/em> Colletti acquired a bit of a chip on his shoulder, believing that \u201cwe did not work to accomplish anything in the show, we just existed.\u201d With his future appearances on TRL<\/em> and One Tree Hill,<\/em> he said, \u201cI was just kind of determined to work hard and maybe prove something, that we had something to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n On that point, he and Cavallari were in agreement. They also shared the notion that, despite their decades in the public eye, there was nothing special about the Laguna Beach<\/em> cast\u2014with the same fortuitous circumstances and timing, it could have been anyone, at any high school. It was a little hard to believe, having grown up with the show, that there wasn\u2019t something distinctive in the Laguna water.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n