Hate the playa

I finally got around to Monday’s installment of “Laguna Beach” last night, and it was terrific (as usual). The ep opens with Jessica and Alex H., bikini-ed and at the beach, discussing—well, what they always talk about:

Alex H.: What’s that saying? It’s like, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Is that how it goes?
Jessica: “Don’t hate the game, hate the player.”
A: “Don’t hate the game, hate the player”?
J: Yeah.
A: I hate the fucking game. Look: “I like you.” “I don’t like you.” Why does he have to mess with you?
J: I …
A: I hate that! …
J: If there was an answer to that…
A: … oh my God! …
J: … my, like, problems would be solved.
A: And it sucks because, like, you know the girl can play the game, too? Like, I don’t know how to play the game.
J: [laughing] I don’t know how to play the game either!
A: I don’t know how to do that!
J: I don’t know how to play the game!
A: I feel like every time I, like, talk to a guy, I screw it up somehow because “I’m not playing the game right.”
J: Because you don’t know how to play—that’s—I feel the exact same way.
A: I hate that. Whatever—I need to learn how to play the game.
J: Yahh. Don’t hate the game—hate the player.
A: Let’s play the game with the boys.

Alex H. and Jessica (not at the beach—it’s hard finding LB vidcaps!)

As I was transcribing this dialogue (with an assist from closed captioning), I discovered—as the scene ran into the opening credits—that the sublime theme song from LB is none other than Hillary Duff’s “Come Clean.” Yikes!