Lauren Conrad showed up to a book signing for her second novel, Sweet Little Lies, wearing a pair of dressy shorts. Lauren’s totally on-trend according to what has been going down the runways of designers like Phillip Lim, and nicer-looking shorts are even in Alexa Chung’s line for Madewell, coming out this fall. But not everyone can agree on whether shorts can be dressed up enough to put them on par with, say, a skirt.

This week I went to a Mark makeup event in Soho and saw two important things (among others): this new PSA on preventing violence against women and Mark’s spokesperson, Lauren Conrad, in the flesh. (Regarding the latter, she is one of those celebs who’s even cuter in real life!) The presentation also introduced a new m.powerment by Mark launch, a pretty Have A Heart bracelet—available here for $12. One-hundred percent of the net proceeds are funneled into their fund to help spread awareness and eradicate dating abuse and partner violence. So check it out. [Meet Mark]

When Lauren Conrad became a writer we could feel the collective cringe from the literary community. But now she’s mixed her writing talents with fashion sense, as the reality TV star plans to tell the world her style secrets. This makes more sense to us. After all, the girl can dress. By fall of 2010, you too can look just like her after reading Lauren Conrad Style. “I think fashion should be fun and reflective of who you are,” said Lauren. “When you wear clothes you feel good in, it shows in everything you do. I know this guide will offer simple, practical tips to help anyone look fabulous.” Uh-huh. In between the pages, she’ll share the tricks to dressing just like her as well as never-seen-before shots. What do you think? Will you take fashion advice from Lauren and purchase her book? [People]

Lauren Conrad‘s latest attempt at designing clothes, called LC Lauren Conrad, is now available exclusively at Kohl’s. We weren’t fans of Lauren’s first try since we abhor jersey fabric, especially when it’s priced a gillion times higher than Forever 21, but some of these new clothes aren’t bad. After the jump, the five pieces from LC Lauren Conrad that we might wear (though we’d have to lie about who designed them).

It was eyeliner hysteria last night on the MTV VMAs red carpet—I want to say 98 percent of the starlets that showed up (Cassie, Nicky Hilton, Pink, J.Lo, etc.), had some version of a heavily lined and super defined eye. Tres chic, sure—but only one pretty lady got the look really right: Lauren Conrad. Check her out above—could her eyes be anymore gorgeous, huge and perfect? There’s one big reason why her version of lined eyes really stood out from the pack, and it’s something you don’t need to hire a makeup artist to pull off yourself. Get the trick we all could use—and check out the one VMA attendee that should have heeded our advice…after the jump!

Doug Reinhardt, the baseball player who dated Lauren Conrad, recently reunited with Paris Hilton, and has the douchiest website ever, can’t seem to get himself back onto “The Hills.” According to the New York Post, the other show regulars get paid ridiculous amounts of money for their appearances. But Doug guest stars for free and just can’t seem to snag a contract. [NY Post]

Yes, yes, we’ve figured out by now that “The Hills” are alive with the sound of bulls**t. But how exactly does one get “cast” on this show? How do these contracts and payouts work? And who’s raking in the most? Read on.

In the September issue of Shape magazine, Lauren Conrad of “The Hills” talks about her new boyfriend, Kyle Howard, for the first time. Only, it left us scratching our heads because we have no idea who the eff he is. All Lauren really said in the interview is the two have a lot of romantic dinners together and now she has a “boyfriend layer” of stomach fat. So we did a little snooping and found out some other info about this mysterious dude.

Lauren Conrad is on Shape magazine’s September cover. This is the second time in as many years that Lauren has graced the front of that magazine, but since she sells magazines, they’ve found some new things to talk to her about, including the nickname she gave the layer of fat on her stomach.

• Lauren Conrad and Kim Kardashian are two of the celebrity fashionistas that will appear as guest judges alongside Nigel Barker and Tyra Banks on the 13th season of “America’s Next Top Model”. [US Magazine] – Wow, after 13 seasons why not bring in the stylish celebs?
• “Top Chef” judge Tom Colicchio’s wife Lori Silverbush gave birth to a healthy baby boy - Luka Bodhi Colicchio – on August 1. The father of two says he will probably take some time off the cooking show to be with his newborn son. [People] – Hmm, maybe they’ll be a baby food challenge on the next season of “Top Chef”!
• Reality TV veteran Megan Hauserman will begin her search for a rich husband on her new show “Megan Wants A Millionaire” this Sunday on VH1. To prepare for a successful first date Megan says never sleep with a guy on the first date, but always dress like you want to. [Lemon Drop] – Yes to the first part, but some how I don’t want to take dating advice from someone hoping to become a trophy wife.

We already knew “The Hills” was fake from that time Lauren Conrad told the ladies on “The View” that Spencer wasn’t on the other end of her apology phone call. Oh, and from that other time when L.C. wrote a book based on her experience on “The Hills,” and the characters weren’t sure if what they were going through was real or set up. But now, the show’s producers are totally slacking and not even trying to hide the fakery. Yesterday, a paparazzi photographer caught Kristin Cavallari flat-out reading through a “Hills” script with a producer before filming a clearly set-up romance between her and Justin Bobby. C’mon MTV, just so I don’t have to feel excessively guilty when I watch the next season, can’t you play pretend and at least attempt to cover up the phony reality? [NY Post]

What is with Young Hollywood’s scissor aversion? If you’re not shaving half your head, you’re growing hair long enough to hit your waist! (From the looks of it, Lauren Conrad and Lindsay Lohan are front-runners, FYI.) It’s beyond mermaid-ish at this point—as far as I’m concerned, it’s getting downright icky, and that hair can’t be healthy (especially with all the coloring, blow drying and flatironing stars subject their heads to). According to her Twitter, Lindsay claims short hair isn’t for her: “I don’t think the director wants it short ... I look ugly with short hair! Eeeeks.” I beg to differ. At the very least, chop off five or six inches. She won’t even notice the change! Lauren Conrad, also unconvinced on the short hair front told US Weekly: “I don’t feel girly without long hair! There is something so sexy about having long blonde hair ... It’s so feminine.” Now, I’m all for long hair, but when it gets so far gone that it gets caught in your armpits on a regular basis, it has to go. (Anyone else ever experience this? No?) What say you? Long and sexy? Or just long and ... long?

Well, if you were wondering—which, um, we’re sure you were—now we know what Lauren Conrad was up to last night. According to her Twitter, she was hosting a dinner for a bunch of friends. Check out the photo of her table, above, all “did-up” for her guests! (Dinner parties: very grown-up.) Now, really check it out. Go in for the close-up, because LC employed some pretty genius tricks when putting together her “tablescape” (as Sandra Lee likes to call it). After the jump, four ways to set a swanky-looking table with minimal money/effort…

Lauren Conrad’s debut novel, L.A. Candy still has a cozy spot on the New York Times best-seller list. But if that isn’t sweet enough for you, it looks like the first installment of Lauren’s “fictional” story might go from printed page to silver screen. Oh, yes, LC has been quite the little writer monkey lately, editing her second novel and penning the screenplay adaptation of the first one. It’ll be movie about a girl who moves to LA, gets a reality show, and works in the entertainment industry. In other words, it’s basically a two-hour marathon of “The Hills,” only a fictionalized version of the semi-fictional show. Naturally, it will star Lauren as Jane Roberts—the lead character based on … herself. How meta. [Daily News]

The editors of Harper’s Bazaar had an interesting idea for their August issue—get Lauren Conrad to sport a brunette wig for 24 hours. Not sure what the point of this was exactly—did they intend it as a prank or some lame-o social experiment? In the end, the California girl totally wasn’t feeling her brown hair, even though I think it looked kind of fantastic. “Day to day, I can only do blonde. Everything else makes me look sort of plain-Jane,” she told People.

Wait, being brunette makes you a plain Jane? God, I am so over this whole blondes-have-more-fun thing. Here are ten reasons why I’m a happy card-carrying member of the brunette club…

Last Thursday, Lauren Conrad appeared on “The View” and single-handedly ruined what might be the best reality TV show ever. Just kidding! But she did admit that Spencer Pratt’s apology phone call to her was entirely faked—she wasn’t on the other end of that phone call at all and her reactions were spliced together from a different conversation. It’s probably not news to anyone that “The Hills” is scripted, but basing an entire plot line on something that never happened? That’s a bit more intense. This got us wondering—how do people make riveting “reality” TV moments when reality is being so boringly uncooperative? All the secrets, after the jump.

Lauren Conrad was on “The View” this morning to promote her “novel,” L.A. Candy (we’re going to a “reading” tonight!). The interview was pretty awkward and the ladies spent about, oh, six seconds discussing the book, after they peppered L.C. with questions about Heidi and Spencer. The greatest revelation? You know that little “apology” Spencer delivered to Lauren, over the phone, in order to get her to come to the wedding? Never happened. See the clip above…