Spencer pratt claims he convinced brody jenner to dump nicole richie for hills showmance with lauren conrad

Spencer Pratt is dropping another bit of behind-the-scenes intel about his time on _The Hills_ — specifically the time he tried to split up Brody Jenner and then-girlfriend Nicole Richie so

_The Hills_' Lauren "LC" Conrad would have a suitable onscreen love interest. When Pratt first met Conrad — who had moved to Los Angeles to lead _The Hills_, which MTV had

spun off of _Laguna Beach_ — he thought she was a "nice girl," he shared on Wednesday's episode of the _Call Her Daddy_ podcast. "It was all good, to the point where I

talked Brody into breaking up with Nicole Richie to fake double-date with LC," he dished. Before Conrad, 36, famously fell out with Pratt, 38, and his wife Heidi Montag, 35, on the

show, he was optimistic about where his and Conrad's combined savvy and star power could take them. "That's the level of how I felt about her," he said. "[It was]

like, 'Let me help make your life better by bringing the best-looking guy in Hollywood right now, who all the girls want to date — I'll get him to break up with his celebrity,

superstar girlfriend. I will get him to come on your show, pretend to be your interest … everyone wins.'" Pratt said he "was already in the game with the paparazzi" from

having pitched and produced _Princes of Malibu_ (which also starred Jenner, now 38), so he arranged for photographers to capture the double date. To his surprise, Conrad was not happy the

date would be publicized. "So that was when I was like, 'Oh, you're not all there ... don't have a full deck running here as you're trying to be on your second

television show,'" said Pratt. Looking back even now, he finds her response confusing. "I just watched a season 2 episode," he said. "LC knew [about fame], because

if you look at her on the couch, she has every tabloid on her lap. That's what she's reading." He said, "I'm all for people who don't want to be famous, but,

like, you're a second show, like you spun off. ... You are choosing the path of fame." He added, "So don't be mad at me, girl." Though viewers shipped the couple for

several seasons, Pratt said his plans for his friends "didn't work out from night one" and added that "eventually Brody couldn't pretend anymore." (For her

part, Conrad has also said for years she had "zero chemistry" with Jenner.) Pratt still believes the central problem was that Conrad "didn't understand, like, I was ahead

of this game. I already saw this worked on a way bigger scale because I'm not from Laguna Beach, I'm from [Los Angeles]." He added that he's long been on "a black

belt level" when it comes to courting fame and publicity. "All due respect to LC," he said, "she'd never been in a tabloid until I unlocked that for her."

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STORIES._ All six seasons of _The Hills_ are now streaming on Hulu.