Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: The Weekly

Allie's "Pretty in Pink" party was meant to be the event of the season - Season I on MTV's newest OC reality show "Newport Harbor," that is. From the fuchsia dress code to the feminine décor, the party would have made Barbie proud. But Chase wasn't into Allie. Chase hit on Chrissy. Clay hit on Chrissy. Lauren got hit on the head by a camera. "I was walking around and there were like 15 cameras fighting for the right angle, and I accidentally was hit," says Weinberg freshman Lauren Maddox, a Newport native.

Although Maddox generally tried to avoid parties where cameras were present, MTV's pervasion of her town was not as easy to ignore. "I was really pissed off when they (MTV) decided to use Newport," Maddox said. "I thought Laguna Beach was a trashy show and I really didn't want them to portray Newport the wrong way."

Three years earlier, Weinberg freshman Sasha Speare felt the same frustration when MTV first invaded her hometown, Laguna Beach, in 2004. "They really played up the cast and stupidity of high school," says Speare, who said she is still trying to grasp how her small town has since blown up into an international phenomenon. "Although it was economically great and brought lots of tourists, the show also added a stereotype in the long run," Speare says. "That just isn't how I grew up."

But despite disparities between television and reality, life in So Cal is still very different than it is here. "I am glad to be out of Newport," Maddox says. "It may be laidback there, but as I told my dad - nobody here gets boob jobs." Other California transplants have noticed a pronounced dichotomy between chill but superficial beach culture and Northwestern's academic terrain. "There is a big culture shock when you meet Long Island Jews," says San Diego native and Weinberg sophomore Alexander Peterson. "There are some cute boys and girls but nothing like home," Maddox says of NU's student body. "I am used to a lot of pretty people around me," she jokes.

But MTV might not have accurately portrayed the area. "Laguna Beach only shows hot people and big houses, but really the area used to be a gay art community," says Weinberg sophomore Scott Roof, whose house in Laguna Hills is 10 minutes outside of Laguna Beach. Speare and Maddox are still shocked at the amount of publicity their hometowns have received. Maddox was stunned when she returned home over the break to find that MTV crews weren't the only people infiltrating her home. "I was driving by my high school and there were tourists taking pictures of it," she says. "I mean the school is disgusting looking, all I could think was, why do you even want a picture of that? Why?"

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