Lauren Conrad may be done filming The Hills, but she’s not ready to leave TV entirely. She just filmed a guest spot for Family Guy — playing herself, per usual, except this time it turns out she’s a genius! Hey, at least she’s not pulling an Audrina and trying to get into acting or pulling a Heidi and releasing crappy singles — LC knows what she’s good at, and she’s stickin’ to that. There’s some credit due there.

Lauren says of her Guy gig, “The idea in the episode is that they make fun of me for being dumb and then discover that I’m actually a genius, and that [Lauren Conrad is] kind of a character I play [on TV], because America likes dumb people.”

And how did L.C. handle the challenges of playing a cartoon genius?

She says, “I hired an acting coach just for the day because a lot of the lines later on in the episode are very complicated. I’m talking a lot about history and theorems and conductors, and there’s a lot of facts and a lot of big words, and I had to say it as if it was coming to me very easily, so I had to learn the lines ahead of time rather than just reading them. I actually had to research some of them because the acting coach told me that if I really understood what I was talking about, it would come through a little more true.”

What do you think, America? Do you like dumb people?

Lauren’s episode will air May 3.

So LC was paid a shitload of cash to “write” a “novel,” and here’s your first look at the cover art for L.A. Candy.

Wanna hear about the “plot”?

Conrad’s publishing debut is a fictional story about a 19-year-old girl named Jane Roberts who has not-so-subtle similarities to the author.

“Roberts can’t wait to start living it up,” the official book synopsis says. “She may be in L.A. for an internship, but Jane plans to play as hard as she works and has enlisted her BFF Scarlett to join in the fun.”

In the novel, the two main characters are approached by a producer who wants them to be on a reality version of Sexy [sic?] and the City.

The book is about “what it’s like to come of age in Hollywood while starring in a reality TV show, written by a girl who has experienced it all firsthand,” the synopsis says.

Yeah I’m sure Lauren wrote every damn word of this herself.

Coming soon: My “novel” about a fictional character named Shnevil Tweet who writes a celebrity gossip “plog” and is very jealous of the star of a reality TV show called The Lumps because there are lots of very talented writers out there dying to get a publishing deal and this girl lands one just by getting drunk and accusing all her best friends of betraying her for six years straight.

Yesterday, I was watching the new Hills trailer with Film.com’s incomparable TV editor and my fellow reality TV junkie, Pamela Sitt. “I think this is the last season,” said Pamela, as we both stared, gaping, at the footage of Lauren and Heidi crying and hugging and Spencer getting into a bar fight. “It feels like they’re winding down.”

“I imagine they are,” I told her. “I can’t believe Lauren Conrad’s willing to do this shit much longer.”

And now we have confirmation — this will be the last season of The Hills. Lauren is calling it quits, she tells Seventeen magazine in a recent interview. “My biggest thing with the show was that I wanted to walk away from it while it’s still a great thing,” she explains. “I always want to remember it that way. I gave MTV a deadline and said, ‘This is as long as I can do it and stay sane.’”

Good for LC! She always did have a good head on her shoulders, that girl. But Lauren’s been on our television sets since she was 17 — is she really ready to walk away from all that? Or will she find a way to show up every week on Spencer and Heidi’s inevitable spinoff, The Assholes?

Twenty-two year old Lauren Conrad at The Hills Season 4 Finale event.  Is it my imagination or does she look like a forty-three year old PTA mom?

Harsh lighting is Satan’s work.

“At least she’s learning. It’s a great move. And if she ever wants to come back to us, saying, ‘Look, I made a mistake, let’s do a relaunch with a personal appearance,’ we would absolutely pick it up again.”

Kitson owner Fraser Ross, regarding Lauren Conrad’s upcoming college tour to promote her clothing line. Kitson dropped the brand from their trend-setting store after LC refused to do an in-store appearance or educate the staff about the brand.

David Letterman’s just kind of making a cottage industry of making The Hills kids look like morons. I guess it’s not that hard a job.

Up now: Lauren Conrad.

I’d just made my peace with the rolled boyfriend jeans.

Why must you constantly test me?