500 Days of Kristin, Day 413: RealityLASIK
In 2007, while her high school nemesis Lauren Conrad starred on the wildly popular MTV Laguna Beach spinoff The Hills, Kristin Cavallari debuted a new reality show of her own. It was a nine-episode web series called RealityLASIK, which documented Kristin’s experience getting LASIK eye surgery.
Really!
According to a 2007 press release, the program was supposed to be a “breakthrough online docu-drama...which documents Kristin Cavallari’s pursuit of the latest in vision correction surgery and her decision to ultimately undergoing [sic] Advanced CustomVue™ LASIK with the IntraLase Method™.”
In the premiere episode above, Kristin tells two LASIK marketing professionals why she wants LASIK eye surgery. “Well, you know, I’ve been wearing contacts since I was in the eighth grade,” she says. “They’re just a pain for me to take them out every night, put them in every morning, you know, if I wake up in the middle of the night, I can’t see the clock, I don’t know what time it is. And I always get mascara on them...”
It continues that way for some time.
All nine episodes are still available on the Maloney Vision Institute’s website (Dr. Maloney stars as the LASIK surgeon on the show). One intrepid blogger recapped all the episodes in 2007, but before you read, please be advised that the recaps contain spoilers.
To give you a sense of RealityLASIK’s narrative arc, here is a list of the episode titles:
- Episode 1 - My Vision
- Episode 2 - To See or Not to See
- Episode 3 - Does it Hurt?
- Episode 4 - Mother’s Day
- Episode 5 - Second Opinions
- Episode 6 - Nervous Time
- Episode 7 - Reality LASIK
- Episode 8 - Baby I’m Amazed
- Episode 9 - Life After LASIK
The website Ranker.com lists Kristin as the 15th most popular celebrity to ever undergo LASIK eye surgery.
