Lauren Conrad, Stephen Colletti, and Kristin Cavallari were still in high school when “Laguna Beach” debuted in 2004. The MTV adolescent reality series, which followed the lives of the trio’s friends Lo Bosworth, Talan Torriero, Morgan Olsen, Trey Phillips, Christina Schuller, and others, was based in the tranquil SoCal beach town of the same name. Before the cast outgrew the high school premise, the show ran for three seasons. Conrad had a spinoff in 2006 called “The Hills,” which followed her as a young college student heading to Los Angeles for fashion design school.
Cavallari claimed in a 2014 interview that she went to an open casting call for “Laguna Beach” while she was a junior in high school. She acknowledged that the inexperienced cast initially “had no concept” what they were doing and simply did as MTV producers instructed them. She remarked to Us Weekly, “We were kids.” “We had no idea. Then “Laguna Beach” became an overnight sensation, literally, and it was a tremendously crazy time in my life.”
However, the “Laguna Beach” cast members had limited negotiating power when they first joined the show because they were young and had little prior experience in television. What was their actual pay then?
Kristin, Stephen, and Lauren didn’t earn much for Season 1
Kristin Cavallari, Stephen Colletti, and Lauren Conrad were paid nothing to portray their adolescent angst for MTV, despite being the “primary” stars of “Laguna Beach.” Cavallari and Colletti reconnected in July 2022 for Dear Media’s podcast “Back to the Beach With Kristin and Stephen,” where they discussed their startlingly low Season 1 pay grade. Colletti corrected Cavallari after she stated that she had received “$2,500” for the entire 11-episode run. “It wasn’t even that much, in my opinion. It was, at least, $2,000 “said he. “For Season 2, Lauren and I changed the terms. Our final season was going to be that one. We shouted, “We’re getting out of here!””
Cavallari acknowledged that she would have agreed to perform on the show for nothing since she was so happy to have won the part over her peers. It seemed more like a competition to her at that time because she was still in high school. “Everyone desired it. So, I was like, “Oh, my God, amazing!” when they informed us they were going to compensate us.” Colletti said that he was informed that the amount he had been paid for the first season was “crazy” when he signed with an agency for Season 2. Colletti recalls the agent telling him, “It’s had millions of views, and they paid you cents.
In the end, the actors did receive a wage raise for the subsequent season. According to ScreenRant, Cavallari admitted that she purchased a car with her Season 2 income even though she wouldn’t disclose the precise amount of her pay increase.
Several Laguna Beach cast members are mega-millionaires today
Several cast members are exceedingly affluent over two decades after the release of “Laguna Beach.” According to Celebrity Net Worth, Kristin Cavallari has a $30 million estimated net worth. Her income comes from a number of reality TV shows, as well as her writing and work as the creator of the children’s apparel line Little James and the jewellery company Uncommon James. Cavallari told Forbes in December 2022 that she personally supported Uncommon James. Now, five and a half years later, she declared, “I have never taken a dollar [from an investment]. Being your own boss and not having to answer to anyone is a dream come true, as stated.
Colletti likewise progressed past the era of his $2,000 paycheck. According to Celebrity Net Worth, the former “Laguna Beach” love interest has a $1 million net worth. He worked as an actor on “One Tree Hill,” “Everybody is Doing Great,” and other shows after giving from reality television.
But according to Cosmopolitan, Lauren Conrad is still the show’s richest former contestant. Her sweet contract for “The Hills,” in which she received up to $125,000 per episode, as well as her LC Lauren Conrad clothing line for Kohl’s, her cosmetics line, and her career as a best-selling author, contributed to her $40 million net worth. Even though Conrad always knew she wanted to work in the fashion industry, her father encouraged her to audition for “Laguna Beach” because it would be “a fantastic opportunity just to meet some people knowing that entertainment and fashion are very much linked,” she told E! News.
