It's All Pretty in the City

I drenched myself in two back-to-back episodes of, new Whitney Port star vehicle, The City, while staying at my parents place in Niagara over the holidays. Ian, who was in from the UK, watched with what I can only describe as "minimal" interest.

As I have mentioned before, joey B and I - when discussing the new show - have sat on very different sides of the same fence. I was very worried that they were going to turn Whitney into another victim of hormonal urges (ala LC during her run in Laguna Beach and during season 1 of The Hills) who chases "bad for her" guys with the same gusto she uses when shopping for shoes. Lauren, for the record, has learned her lesson the hard way and no longer dates "on camera" except for those guys who are (I'm sure) selected by the shows' producers. Joey B thought Whitney would emerge unscathed.

I'm afraid that my predictions have proved rather accurate. The flavor that Whitney brought to The Hills was not only as a sounding board for "Lauren's Life" exposition (which she did by asking early on in EVERY episode, "so, what did you do this weekend?") but also as the resident career girl. We have watched her manage to stay afloat despite Hillary Duff's late appearance at Teen Vogue's "Young Hollywood" party and the general craziness that is Kelly Cutrone. She fell on National TV while modelling a Hillary Swank Oscar dress, and we loved her all the more for the tears afterwards.

Sadly, the move to NYC has left her with little (apparently) to do professionaly but a lot of time to spend with an Australian Douche Bag named Jay, who has started off strong by sleeping with other girls and lying about it to her face. Jay, as well as Whit's new roommate (and old friend) Erin are meant to represent "downtown" while snide nobody Olivia Palermo is meant to represent uptown. Palermo, as the New York Times so aptly pointed out, is not the Upper East side of, "Brearley and Yale but [rather] of ostentatious dressing and dumb luck." So far, Palermo has managed to embody the mixture of insecurity and entitlement that will always leave her, and her ilk, apart from the Astor set. Regardless, she is a promising villain and I look forward to hating her even more that I did when following her exploits via Page Six.

I'm hoping that this show will allow Whitney to continue with her ambitions and not end up a crying, pathetic mess getting jerked around by a selfish narcissist while the public eats it all up, it should be noted, with anything but a silver spoon.