The real 'O.C.' is pissed at MTV's portrayal

Here is what can happen when a picturesque beach town becomes the subject of a wildly popular MTV reality show. Teenage girls from around the country dragoon their parents to the town, with the hope of catching a glimpse of high school seniors dating, arguing, breaking up and dating again in between their visits to a Mexican resort.

Reports of drinking and drug use among high school students increase. Rumors of sexual predators churn. Instead of being known for lovely mountain views and salt-kissed breezes, the O.C. becomes associated with the facts that Tessa is sad that her boyfriend would not talk to her at a barbecue and that Cami racked up a $4,000 shopping bill. (how pathetic)
Three years after MTV set up shop here to chronicle the lives and travails of wealthy Laguna Beach High School seniors, whose concerns appear to center chiefly on sexual encounters and fashion accessories, some residents are saying enough is enough. “This is not depicting our town the way it should be depicted,” said Lisa Arthur, who has two children in the school and one who graduated. “Our town is about art and culture, and school should be about education.”

A board member seeking re-election, Betsy Jenkins, said that MTV arrived intending to make the show with or without the district’s acquiescence and that she should not be held accountable. “There was some thought we could control content,” Ms. Jenkins said. “They were calling it a documentary at the time. Of course, no one would have O.K.’d the show that came to be.”

MTV executives said that no permission was sought — or needed — to film students away from school and that although the school board had originally agreed to let the cable network shoot in the school for the pilot of “Laguna Beach: The Real OC,” that permission was quickly rescinded amid parents’ concerns that it would be disruptive. As a result, a vast majority of the show is shot in private houses, the executives said. Click here to read the full two-page article.