Five stars for this article just for it's title! Hah! The whole Hills phenomenon is beyond me. Watching rich folks on so-called "reality" TV has never done much for me (yes, that even goes for The Real Housewives franchise). Like that godawful new Bravo series about rich prep school kids in New York. The rich kids at my high school were unbearable -- I don't need to be reminded, thanks. But I digress. Salon investigates her "mystifying" appeal in a veiled review for her new book:

But there's also something rather mystifying about the Lauren Conrad phenomenon. For one, there isn't anything particularly memorable about her -- in fact, she's probably one of the dullest major characters in reality television history. In the "Hills" universe, Heidi is the mean one; Whitney is the smart one; Audrina is the ditzy one with the dead, dead eyes; and Lauren is, well, Lauren -- not especially charming, not the prettiest, not particularly interesting or talented, but somehow vaguely likeable, or at least likeable to a certain segment of the population.

And likeable enough, apparently, to compel some fans to make a very long trip for a book signing. Kim Long, a 25-year-old, traveled from Boston on two hours' sleep because "Lauren Conrad is not like your typical reality star." She likes that Lauren isn't a snob, she said, that unlike other characters on the show, she actually cherishes her friends. "She's real," she said. "She's someone you'd want to hang out and watch a movie with," said Colby Giordano, a 16-year-old New Yorker waiting in line with her two friends. "There's nothing wrong with being boring."

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