"When they started doing 'The Hills: New Beginnings,' they hit me up."
An on-camera romance between Stephen Colletti and Audrina Patridge was left unwritten.
According to the "Laguna Beach" alum, he was approached to appear on "The Hills: New Beginnings," with producers hoping for some sparks between him and one of the show's regular cast members.
Colletti made the claim on his Back to the Beach podcast with Kristin Cavallari, as the pair wondered if Talan Torriero was interested in Taylor Cole or if it was something "MTV could have been pushing" on him for a storyline on their show's second season.
"You know what's funny? I had a conversation about four years ago," he said, explaining that when both iterations of "The Hills" were on the air, producers would reach out to him asking if he wanted to appear. When they approached him most recently, he was trying to find a home for his TV series "Everyone Is Doing Great" and saw a possible opportunity.
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View Story"We were trying to sell it, so I was like, I'm gonna take the meeting. If there's a world where if I show up in a couple episodes of 'The Hills' and Viacom or one of their platforms buy the show, I'll f---ing do it," he said. "It didn't work out that way."
"In the conversations with the producers ... I'm like, 'Guys, do you really think that I could be on this show? The only connection that I had to the show was you or [Lauren Conrad],'" he said to Cavallari, who noted Stephen "would take over that show" had he appeared.
"I was like, 'These are not people I hung out with,'" he added of the reboot, which featured reality stars including Audrina, Spencer and Heidi Pratt, Mischa Barton, Brody Jenner, Brandon Thomas Lee and Jason Wahler.
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View Story"[The producer] was like, 'Couldn't you see yourself having a little something with like, Audrina? It seems like you guys would have good chemistry. And you know her, right? So it's not totally unrealistic to think you might go on a date,'" Colletti continued. "I was like, 'I know exactly what you're going with here, look, you tell me whether or not you want to buy my TV show, I'll let you know after that whether or not I'm going to do The Hills."
In the end, that quid pro quo deal never worked out and Colletti didn't appear. Kristin, however, did pop up on the revival's second season, before it was subsequently canceled. Speaking with Stephen, she defended the producer's alleged attempt to hook him up with Patridge.
"They're making a TV show, they have to have storylines," she said. "If everyone's just getting along, hanging out, there's not a TV show there, so they have to come up with this stuff."