10 Years Later ‘Laguna Beach’ Creator Spills Secrets About The Show’s Cast Including Wild Child Lo Bosworth

Our favorite California teens from Laguna Beach first graced our TV screens 10 years ago in the hit reality show, Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. Now, the series creator Liz Gateley is spilling secrets from the MTV hit, which gave us Lauren Conrad (aka LC) and Ste-PHEN (aka Stephen Colletti).

According to Liz, the show wasn't scripted even though it might have seemed that way at times. It was edited to make compelling television. "Laguna was not manipulated and we did not ask the cast to do things," Liz told TV Guide. "In the editing, we definitely ratcheted it up. If Kristin said something nice about someone, we would edit it out. We wanted her to be the bad girl. That's what you do in reality producing. But we told an authentic story."

Speaking of Laguna Beach's resident bad girl, Kristen Cavallari was almost a no-go for the series. In fact, she was out of town when MTV was casting the series in 2004. "So there was this girl that everyone was buzzing about that was the hot, bad girl. We were waiting and waiting and waiting, like, who could this girl possibly be, and she showed up and she was everything and more than we hoped," Liz said. 

Lucky for Laguna fans, the network waited and the love triangle between Kristen, LC and Stephen unfolded perfectly, with lots of drama, which viewers loved. Liz also opened up about two of the greatest characters on the show, Stephen and Lo Bosworth.

Stephen is known for being the cute, popular guy who loved two girls in high school. He was LC's best friend (who he loved) and Kristen's on-and-off boyfriend. What viewers didn't see was when Stephen got mad about showing off his softer side. "A couple of our guys were not happy that we showed them upset and forlorn about some of the girls after a breakup. I don't remember the exact scene. [It was] definitely a Stephen scene. Lots of Stephen," Liz recalled.

Lo, on the other hand, was known for her adorable personality and cute style throughout the show. She was LC's best friend and got a VW Jetta for graduation. What viewers didn't know is that the reality star had a wild side. "Lo's mom was super strict and Lo was like a wild child. We never really got to show the real Lo because her mom was definitely on her like a hawk," she revealed.

Even though the Laguna gang does hang out from time to time — Lo was just in Lauren's wedding and Dieter and Stephen were reunited at another high school friend's wedding — many people would still like to see a TV reunion.

The show's creator explained that some of the team tried to get a reunion show up and running but it never panned out. "I don't know why they didn't pull the trigger. They probably couldn't get enough of the cast together to do it, but I think it would be amazing to see them all together."

What was your favorite Laguna Beach moment? Are you team LC or team Kristen?