Fashion Style

Being a reality star paid so well. From the Kardashian sisters' $11 million haul to The Situation's $3 million payday, The Daily Beast tallies the top earners in reality television. Lauren Conrad earned the #2 spot and Audrina Patridge hit at #4.

"LC" first engrossed a legion of teenagers in 2004 as one of the high-school crew cast in Laguna Beach. She left the beach for L.A. and the cameras followed. Though The Hills capped its last season without her, a show devoted solely to her and her fashion career pursuits is in the works. Her trilogy of young adult books, the most recent of which, Sugar and Spice, was released in October, have sold more than 1 million copies in hardback alone, according to Nielsen BookScan, and her style guide Lauren Conrad Style has sold more than 40,000 copies since its October release. But her biggest business coup is her line for Kohl's, which sold faster than the retailer expected, prompting the national chain to rush the line into all stores a season before planned.


The 25-year-old got her big break by playing the brunette sidekick to Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag on MTV's The Hills in 2006. While LC left and Montag morphed into a Barbie doppelganger, Patridge built her own following. She inked a deal with reality-television super-producer Mark Burnett that will air next year on VH1and is the host of the Internet network Yobi.tv. Her face has endorsed Carl's Jr, an honor she shares with Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton, and is shilling for Bongo jeans.