Kristin Cavallari Says Fans Think This IconicLaguna BeachScene Was Fake — but It Was Totally Real

Mar. 15, 2025

Kristin Cavallari in her car in ‘Laguna Beach’ in 2004.Photo:Paramount +

Paramount +

Kristin Cavallarihas admitted not everything that happened onLaguna Beachand its spinoffThe Hillswas completely real — but this one iconic scene is.

Cavallari, 38, talked about some of her most memorable reality show moments on the March 11 episode of herLet’s Be Honestpodcast. She said that she didn’t pick the moments, but rather, found them on Google.

And one of the headlines was from when Cavallari’scar broke downin an early episode ofLaguna Beach. The car stopped working in the middle of the Pacific Coast Highway, and she declared it “dunzo.”

Kristin Cavallari in season 1 of ‘Laguna Beach’ in 2004.Paramount +

“It is a word I wish I trademarked back in the day if I had my business sense about me,” she said. Cavallari said that people thought the scene was fake because, earlier in the episode, she and some of her castmates went to dealerships “because I wanted a new car.” Production sent them to look at luxury cars, and, she said, “Clearly, I’m not affording these cars my junior year of high school. So that was fake.”

“But on the way home from looking at these cars, my 10-year-old Isuzu Trooper really did break down,” she said. “So that’s why everyone thought it was fake. And I was like, ‘This was actually probably the realest scene that I filmed onLaguna Beach.’ ” In the moments before the car broke down, Cavallari even remarked that it sounded like it was about to stop running — and then it did and even started smoking.

Cavallari said that in the moment, she was “really excited” because she “hated” her car and wanted a new one. “It literally had given up on me,” she said. “I was celebrating because I thought, perfect. Now I have to get a new car.”

But the breakdown scene itself was intense because her car stopped on the Pacific Coast Highway, which has only two lanes; with her car blocking one, traffic became a problem fast. “We caused so much traffic, and now there’s cameras out filming us, and it’s just creating such commotion,” she recalled.

Kristin Cavallari in 2023.Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty

Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty

“It just sort of naturally came out of my mouth,” she said. “The fact that, you know, my car is breaking down, and that’s what I say, ‘My car is dunzo,’ speaks to where I was at mentally as a 16-year-old or 17-year-old. But this scene, rewatching this one back a couple of years ago, was hilarious.”

“That’s bad, that’s like gnarly traffic,” she said in the scene, before arguing with a traffic cop — whom she called an “idiot” — about how she couldn’t move her car.

source: people.com