“People were like ‘You have fake boobs!’ And I’m like, ‘No I don’t, but thanks. I take that as a compliment!’”

Audrina Patridge
By E.C. Gladstone

Life as a reality television star means having to constantly reveal yourself. But as The Hills’ Audrina Patridge realized recently, sometimes things can get a little too revealing. Earlier this year, Patridge had to face the embarrassment of not one, but two nude photo shoots being leaked over the internet—and people believing that Audrina was personally responsible.

“I am not an attention whore,” the 23-year-old starlet insists today. “I’m not going to release naked photos of myself just to get attention. I’d rather get different attention and be respected.”

That may come in time. But first, Patridge has to clear the air about those pics.

“I was just out of high school,” Patridge explains of the first session, which include shots of a young Patridge in a Catholic school girl skirt, and little else. “They were never supposed to be seen.” The second, more tasteful, but still revealing, series was done only last December. “One of my good friends who is a makeup artist, it was her friend who was the photographer, “ Audrina explains. “’It’ll be like a Maxim thing,’” she says he told her. “It was for a European agency. But he ended up selling all of the photos I had never seen, the photos that you think get deleted, because they show a bit of nipple or something.

“It’s so crazy how once you’re a celebrity in the spotlight, what people will do for money,” says Patridge, both unashamed and uncompromised.“Where they act like your best friend to your face and they’re ‘always there for you’–they will turn on you in a second.”

Still, what’s perhaps most interesting about Audrina is how little the controversy has affected her overall outlook. Meeting her at a Hollywood event this past March, I was impressed by her charm, candor and class. She gave no indication that she was facing an almost constant barrage of criticism for the photos, which had just come out.

“People were like ‘You have fake boobs!’” Patridge says now, with a smile in her voice. “And I’m like, ‘No I don’t, but thanks. I take that as a compliment!’”

Not everything Audrina has to hear about, though, is so complimentary. If it seems like The Hills girls lead a charmed life on their MTV “reality” show, Patridge is here to tell that there is a dangerous undertow to the wave of fame.

“It’s so surreal, all the paparazzi and all the questions, and everybody knowing your business ,”she says, sharing laughs about meeting Brazilian fans in the Miami airport, and getting stopped by grandmothers with advice in the mall. “There’s rumors all the time. Somebody asked me if I was pregnant! Uh, do I look pregnant?

“We’re constantly being judged on everything we do, say, wear–everything,” she continues. “I’ve never watched a show and then gone on the internet and been like ‘She has big teeth,’ or this or that. Who are these people?”

Continued in Pt.2

Read More

FF

copyright 2008 ECG

Audrina Patridge
By E.C. Gladstone

And the hardest part of it? “It’s hard to date a decent, nice guy,” Audrina admits, for the record, denying another rumor that she was seeing Entourage’s Kevin Connolly. “I started dating my high school friend Bernard–and it’s not just him, any guy that I start dating, they don’t realize what it’s like coming into my crazy little world, dealing with the cameras and the paparazzi and the rumors, going out and taking pictures all the time, and constantly being on the go, non-stop. So when I date a guy, sometimes that scares them off, or sometimes they start liking it so much they like that more than they like me, and it’s like, ‘Wait a minute!’”

That might explain some of the drama viewers have seen between her and Justin this past season. “I don’t know what his problem is,” Patridge thinks aloud. “Whenever there’s no cameras around, it’s different. They would show the nice things that he does, but it’s not what people want to see, they want to see the cocky asshole being bad, ‘cause it makes better TV.”

Apparently the “reality” of reality television is somewhat limited. While the tension between her and roommates Lauren and Lo is quite real, says Patridge, “They cut out a lot of the things that I say, things where I stood up for myself, and they just always show those stupid blank stares. And I’m like, ‘okay, that makes me look so stupid, that’s not what really happened.’ I mean, on the show, that’s me, but I don’t feel like what I do and who I am is perceived very well. I still have my privacy– which is kind of nice–but no one really knows the other things I do, the other people in my life.”

Just for example, Audrina’s regular acting and dance classes are never shown, nor is her preference for rock shows over nightclubs.

Audrina’s background may sound somewhat privileged, but also reveals an estimable work ethic. Born and raised in Yorba Linda, California, Patridge comes from a family which still sounds like an impressively tight unit: her parents are still happily married and she remains close to both her older sister and younger brother. The extended Patridge family owns the largest industrial gear and socket manufacturing business in the state (their clients include the Navy, Disneyland and Coca Cola). But Audrina was never just a poor little rich girl: she worked in the company’s clerical offices from age 15, before getting two successive waitressing jobs while trying her hand at modeling. It wasn’t until she got hired at Quixote Photo Studios that she was able to move to Los Angeles to pursue her acting ambitions.

Her pre-LA life also points out other surprising things about Patridge, such as the fact that she used to own a Yamaha YZ125 dirt bike, regularly joining friends on off-roading trips. “We [used to] get a bunch of chicken and fruit, go to the desert and have bonfires, go riding and hang out. I’m not as much of a girly girl as people might think!” Unfortunately, the move to LA forced her to sell the bike.

Continued in Pt. 3

Read More

FF

copyright 2008 ECG