The stars of Laguna Beach were in high school when they filmed the show in the early 2000s, but there wasn’t much of an effort to hide the fact that they were drinking alcohol underage at several points in the series.
MTV filmed Lauren Conrad, Stephen Colletti, Kristin Cavallari, and more at events such as prom, winter formal, and house parties. Even on the trips to Cabo, where some of the stars were of legal drinking age (18) in Mexico, others still hadn’t hit that milestone birthday yet.
“I know that we couldn’t show [them] drinking,” creator Liz Gateley confirms to TV Insider. However, she points out, “It was authentic, they were safe, they were getting places safely,” so as long as the alcohol was concealed “in a Listerine bottle or in red cups,” they were able to get away with it.
“If they went over to Trey [Phillips’], there was drinking going on, just like any other high school party,” Gateley adds. “I grew up in a very similar place and have kids that grew up in New York, and kids are drinking by the time they’re 17 or 18.”
Alex Hooser, who was Cavallari’s best friend in high school and starred on the show in Seasons 1 and 2, admits, “We were going to go to a party and partake anyway. I feel like we didn’t do a lot of effort in hiding it. We had Solo cups…”
Cavallari, Colletti, Conrad, Hooser, Phillips, Jessica Smith, Christina Sinclair, Morgan Smith, Talan Torriero, Dieter Schmitz, and Lo Bosworth all got together in October 2025 to reminisce about their time filming the MTV show. Their get together was filmed for a special, The Reunion: Laguna Beach, which will feature a Q&A session with the cast, as well as scenes of them filming throughout Orange County.
“It’s very nostalgic, it’s very sweet,” Cavallari confirms. “What I love so much about our reunion is there’s the proper reunion on the soundstage, with the host, which you typically see, but we also went to Laguna Beach and got to film scenework. It honestly felt like we were back in high school and it was really fun.”
The Reunion: Laguna Beach, Friday, April 10, Roku Channel
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