According to the New York Post, Olivia Palmero, one of Whitney Port’s hired friends on the first season of The City, is getting axed from season two of the show and is being replaced by two new hired friends who were cast to play “vixens” on the show. Whitney was spotted in the company of her new friends/castmates as the ladies filmed new scenes for The City in NYC this week … say hello to Roxy and Samantha:

Olivia Palermo, MTV thinks you’re boring. Whitney Port will be toting two new accessories for her second time around “The City,” and they come in the form of Roxy and Samantha. Palermo, who was Port’s leading frenemy last season, reportedly cannot be filmed “going wild” now that the socialite has jumped ship from Diane von Furstenberg to Elle magazine. With Palermo out of the picture, MTV decided to hire introduce Port to two new BFFs – both who, also reportedly, fit their needed party girl shoes, true to size.

I’m really hoping that Olivia isn’t cut from the series altogether … that these new ladies have been added to the cast to augment the cast we already know. I suppose it shouldn’t come as too big a surprise that The City is becoming as contrived as The Hills. I actually liked that there was still the mystique of reality on the first season of The City … I fear that mystique will be gone soon enough. Whitney’s new friends look vixen-y enough for me in these pics … Samantha looks like she could be a total beyotch (or, mebbe she was just photographed mid-blink). Whatever the case, we’ll be seeing these folks in action on MTV soon enough. Excited?

[Source]

Earlier today we learned the AMAZING news that Laguna Beach alum Kristin Cavallari will be taking over the star position on the next season of The Hills (since Lauren LC Conrad has announced that she is going into Reality TV retirement) and now we get to see a few photos from the East Coast where the second season of The City has started up production. Here are a few photos of Whitney Port and Olivia Palmero (who had a bit of wonky eye action going on) shooting one of their famous cafe scenes for the show:

A little bird told me that things may change DRASTICALLY on the second season of the show. I’m hearing that Whitney may be getting a new job … at a magazine … which would make The City even more like The Hills (as you may recall, the first few seasons of The Hills centered around work at Teen Vogue magazine). Also, I believe they may be introducing a new love interest. HMMMM. I still like watching The City … but I prolly won’t love it as much as I’ll love the Cavallari-centered new version of The Hills. Wee!! I feel like a 16 year old girl again … er … I mean not again … oh, you know what I mean :)

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Last month we learned that the romance between Whitney Port and Jay Lyon, which was an integral focal point of the first season of MTV’s The City, had come to an end and it was rumored that Whitney had moved on to canoodle with Lipstick Jungle’s Robert Buckley. It turns out that the break-up of Whitney and Jay may have been resolved cuz the pair were spotted enjoying some alone time in NYC earlier this week. Is true love back in effect for the pair?

Yeah, I’m not sure it’s so much a matter of true love back in bloom so much as it’s a harbinger that the second season of The City is about to go into production. Personally, I’m so over Jay … I think it would be ACE if Whitney found herself a new dude to fake love on the show. I understand Robert Buckley is lookin’ for work … can someone at MTV make that happen please?

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Whitney Port and her on-screen (off-screen?) Aussie love interest Jay Lyon made their way down to Miami Beach, FL this weekend for a little holiday … and they managed to bring the MTV cameras along with them, imagine that! Here are a few pics of Whitney and Jay gettin’ up close and personal on the beach this weekend:

The captions on these photos list the girl that Whitney is talking to as Olivia Palmero but after zooming in for a closer look, I do not believe that this girl is Olivia. We may have to wait until this particular episode airs to find out who Whitney and Jay are hanging out with. Oh and at first, I was gonna comment on how awesome Whitney’s DVF bag looked on the beach until I realized that it’s actually an H&M bag — you gotta love that Whitney is both fashionable AND frugal. Nice to see that Whitney and Jay are still together at least for this upcoming holiday together … I wonder what drama will unfold in this upcoming ep of The City.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

MTV has updated the official website for their new series The City and has released a bunch of new promo pics of the new cast as well as bios on each of the cavalcade of characters. Here is a new promo photo of star Whitney Port and her core group of new NYC BFFs … kinda like her Audrina Patridge and Heidi Montag but are named Erin Lucas (right) and Olivia Palermo (left):

Geeze … Erin and Olivia even kinda look like Audrina and Heidi. As you may recall, when The Hills started out, Lauren LC Conrad was supertight with Heidi and Audrina … and then, well, the drama happened. I suspect that these new ladies will prove the same sort of foils for Whitney in her quest to become a city girl. It’s a proven formula that works … so, why not. After the jump, check out a bunch of individual promo pics of the whole cast of The City, including the dudes who will be helping these ladies will all their dramatic needs …

READ THE REST OF THIS POST »

MTV debuted the first footage in a new trailer of sorts for their new Hills spin-off reality TV series The City. Set to debut early next year, The City moves the Hills-like drama from SoCal to the fabulous streets of NYC. Here are a few screencaps from the new footage:

We have been watching some of the filming of The City happen right before our eyes in still photos but it’s another thing to see it all packaged together with that slick Laguna Beach: The Real OC and The Hills manner. These sceencaps DO NOT do the trailer justice. After the jump, watch the first video footage from The City …

READ THE REST OF THIS POST »

MTV has released a press release that officially confirms that the new reality TV series The City, which is a spin-off of their hugely successful series The Hills, has been picked up and will begin airing on the network in the early part of the new year. As y’all know, Whitney Port will be the central figure on The City (much like Lauren LC Conrad is the central figure on The Hills) and has been filming scenes around NYC of a romantic and friendly nature with her new cast of reality cohorts. At last we have final confirmation that those scenes will finally make it to air:

From the MTV press release:

WHITNEY TRIES NEW YORK CITY ON FOR SIZE AS MTV GREENLIGHTS “THE CITY”

“The City” is created by Adam DiVello. Adam DiVello, Sean Travis and Liz Gateley will serve as executive producers. Colin Nash is co-executive producer. Catherine K. Whyte is MTV’s executive-in-charge of production. Spike Van Briesen and Sophia Rossi serve as supervising producers for the series.

I mean, c’mon, we totally knew that MTV was gonna air this series so this news isn’t really news at all. But the officialness of the announcement has to sting just a little for Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. It was commonly believed that they would be getting their own spin-off TV series once The Hills ran its course … and, indeed, they might still. It just seems very telling that MTV is investing so much on this Whitney-centered TV series — and there is no sign that Speidi are going to be given the same treatment. My guess is that Speidi will eventually get their own TV series but I wouldn’t be surprised if their show was on another network. They seem like the type of folks that would do well at E! Maybe The Hills will get one more season, mebbe not but at least Whitney can breathe easy … she now knows that she’ll be on TV next year. It remains to be seen if any of the other folks on The Hills will be as lucky.

[Photo credit: Bauer-Griffin; Source]