When watching The Hills, you think you have a pretty good idea of who each character is and what makes them tick.

You think.

While we only see the heavily edited down version of literally hundreds of hours of footage, the characters are sometimes shown as spoiled brats.

Doug Reinhardt, the newest addition to the cast, has been in several episodes this season as Lauren Conrad’s love interest and frat boy friend of Brody Jenner.

In one episode, Reinhardt is partying with the gang in Cabo and flies in a herd of beautiful woman for Brody’s birthday. He’s in a pool with a bunch of girls rubbing up against him. After watching that, you think you get this guy. Reality TV can be very entertaining but also very deceiving.

Reinhardt is portrayed as a sweet and charming guy who loves to party and have fun. There’s nothing wrong with that. But did you know he’s a professional athlete, Political Science major, owns his own successful cell phone company and is a sincere, honest and humble guy?

Reinhardt, who sat down with andPOP recently while hosting a party at Tila Tequila bar in Ottawa, is extremely thankful for the opportunities he has been given and doesn’t take anything for granted.

Reinhardt grew up in Laguna Beach, and briefly dated Conrad in high school before being drafted, at 18, by the Anaheim Angels. The two lost contact with Reinhardt focusing on ball, and LC busy with MTV and fashion.

Several years later, a week before spring training, Reinhardt hurt his knee. “I took classes at Pepperdine University every off-season in Malibu. I decided it would be a perfect time to dedicate myself to school and finish my degree,” he tells andPOP.

The two ran into each other and hit it off again.

“The Hills literally fell in my lap. I was having a drink with my buddies and all of a sudden I saw Lauren, and we start hanging out again. After about a month, The Hills approached me and asked if I don’t mind being filmed. At first I was a little hesitant ’cause of baseball. But I was like, it’s a fun thing to do – I’m hurt, I’m going to school, let’s do it.”

Reinhardt never even saw an episode of the show before he became one of the show’s stars.

“I had to catch up on previous seasons!”

“They work around all our schedules and set up times to get together and that’s it for me. They follow Lauren around a little more. But The Hills is drama – they love the drama – they feed off of the drama. 95% of the stuff is not aired that they film. They take little bits and pieces. We film all day and all night and they use a five or ten-second clip.”

He’s made great friends thanks to the series. “I met Brody through Lauren. Frank [Delgado], Brody and I hit if off. When Lauren and I broke up, we kept hanging out. They’re good and fun guys. We kinda feed off of each other.”

Has Lauren or others from the show changed? “Here’s the thing. Judging from what I’ve seen it’s hard to be the level that Lauren, Heidi [Montag] and Audrina [Patridge] are at. People start pulling at you from all sides. Of course you’re going to change. You’re only human; you’re a celebrity. Paparazzi are following you around all day and yes you are going to change but not in a bad way.

“I’ve changed. I’m smarter about things. You don’t want to put yourself in a bad situation. I’m still friends with all my friends. I never say no to a picture, always answer questions, but sometimes people like to take advantage of that, but for the most part it’s cool. Everyone changes a little bit. You just adapt to your surroundings.”

Just in case he needs to be balanced, he’s got a supportive family. “They think it’s pretty funny – but they were giving some grief about the Cabo episode! But it’s an honour; it’s a blessing, and I can’t believe it happened to me. Little old me. Baseball has been my whole life. It’s what I worked my whole life for. I get to play professional baseball and that’s a blessing too.”

Reinhardt is also co-founder and CEO of FUGEN Mobile (fugenmobile.com). “We do mobile advertising and marketing, ringtones, graphic, jokes, and more, on cell phones in America. I started with a friend when I was 19 out of my garage.” Now their clients include Sony, the L.A. Raiders and Cirque du Soleil.

His entrepreneurship tip is to never take no for an answer. “If you have an idea, pursue it and follow it, research it, from the ground up. When I started there was nothing. Jamster had just come out when we started. You could get a ring tone from the TV, and that’s how we got the idea for this type of business. It’s more like jokes, horoscopes, facts and stuff like that. I sat down with my buddy, researched companies, got it going and got set up with all the carriers. I’m the CEO, my best friend is the president, and we have about 20 other employees out of Newport Beach. It’s tough but I count my blessings every day. Keep plugging away – it takes one good thing to happen and it’s a snowball effect.”

In five years from now, he hopes to be playing baseball, have a family and live in California. “At the end of the day, I’m a California guy, born and raised, go to the beach, that’s me.” While he enjoys the beach, his mind is clearly not in the clouds.

Doug’s upcoming appearances:
Saturday Nov 1 – Toronto – Suite 106
Wednesday Nov 5 – Waterloo – The Vault Lounge
Friday Nov 7 – Niagara Falls – Dragonfly
Saturday Nov 8 – Detroit –Plan B, Confidential and Pussy Cat Lounge
Sunday Nov 9 – Vancouver – Social
Monday Nov 10 – Edmonton – Diesel
Tuesday Nov 11 – Calgary – Tantra
Thursday Nov 13 – Winnipeg – Blush






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