Behind the scenes of The Hills: New Beginnings

The New York Times

MTV rented an oceanfront villa in Santa Barbara for The Hills reboot, which will feature new cast members Mischa Barton and Brandon Lee, the son of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. "The day’s shoot was in Los Olivos, mere miles from Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch," writes Irina Aleksander, in a New York Times Magazine profile of the MTV reboot. "Technically, everyone had aged a decade, but I couldn’t tell. They all still looked tan and sparkly-eyed. If anything, they seemed like more potent versions of themselves, like stock that had been left to simmer, or in this case adults who were still playing characters they created at 22. Spencer was brawnier. Stephanie’s skin was so lustrous that she seemed to be molded out of Barbie-grade thermoplastic. Justin Bobby had gone full Johnny Depp — chin-length hair, a goatee-mustache combo, a blooming rose tattooed on his left hand."