Her plate is full! Stephen Colletti spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about his former Laguna Beach costar Lauren Conrad opting out of the upcoming reboot of The Hills.
“I mean, she did it for so many years and she’s got what she’s always wanted. She’s got her fashion line, that whole empire that she’s built, and that’s what it’s always been about for her,” the One Tree Hill alum, 32, told Us at Lifetime’s “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” Christmas Movie Stars opening night of Gingerbread House Experience at The Grove on Wednesday, November 14. “And, you know, I think that she doesn’t need to do it. And if she’s not interested in doing it, she shouldn’t do it, but I will say it’s hard to imagine that show without her.”
Colletti also hinted at how close he still is to Conrad. “I wouldn’t say a lot, but we definitely keep in touch,” he said of their current relationship. “Over holidays and birthdays and whatnot, you always chime in and say hello and whatnot. We’ve always been friends.”
As for a Laguna Beach — which he admitted he hasn’t seen “since it came out” — reboot, the Hometown Christmas star is not getting his hopes up. “It could never happen!” he insisted. “We were such young little bucks when we did that show and it’s obviously not something that we’d be able to do again. I like that I got to be a part of Laguna when it first started there and that was way back in the day, and you look back on it with fond memories of just how young we were, you know?”
He added: “And the crew that we worked with and to see where everyone’s gone in their lives now. You know, you think about [Kristin] Cavallari, you think about Conrad. Trey Phillips, who I’m still friends with — he’s working for Halpern. Dieter Schmitz, who’s like a big hotel GM now. And, you know, I’m just proud of the people I grew up with, and you look back on fond memories with that. So we’ll let Laguna sit right where it is and the people that are doing The Hills, I wish them the best.”
There is another reunion in Colletti’s future, though. The former reality star and some of his One Tree Hill castmates will appear in a one-hour special on Lifetime, airing Thursday, November 22. “I would like to report that I was actually pretty good,” he said of playing One Tree Hill trivia. “I came in a close second to Hilarie Burton on one particular game.”
And Colletti is still optimistic he might appear on Very Cavallari at some point. “Kristin and I keep going back and forth about it. We’ve had some jokes,” he explained. “She was actually just shooting in Laguna from what I was hearing. … She was texting saying she was in Laguna and said ‘I was gonna call you to come down,’ but I’m working on Everyone Is Doing Great at the moment with James Lafferty and so literally no time to do anything but shoot that series.”
Though his busy schedule has prevented the on-camera moment from happening, the actor assured Us: “You never could rule it out.”
