'The Hills' were alive with the sounds of Lauren Conrad at MOA

Lauren Conrad believes she's ready for an interview with NBC's Al Roker.

Take that, Speidi!

The star of MTV's "The Hills" was at the Mall of America on Sunday, signing copies of her novel, "L.A. Candy." I didn't care enough to request an interview with Conrad, whose image is being tightly managed; I'd sooner schedule a sit-down with Sharky from Underwater Adventures. Conrad seems very nice, unlike her asinine co-stars Heidi and Spencer Bratt, aka Speidi, but they're all members of that new sub-class of celebrities -- celebutantes, pseudo-celebrities.

So I gave Conrad a shoutout, TMZ style! My first question was inspired by Speidi rubbing their egos (but no IQ points) together to create controversy for Roker after he asked questions that they thought were too hard-hitting, such as: Are you proud of yourselves for how you behaved on NBC's "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here"?

My question to Conrad, and you can hear it at startribune.com/video: Are you ready for your Roker interview? She smiled broadly, nodded in the affirmative, and mouthed what appeared to be the words "Yes, yes," before adding an audible, "I love him."

Did Conrad think Roker was too hard on Speidi? To that question she gave me a smile, while pointing her Sharpie in what I assumed was you're-not-going-to-get-an-answer gesture.

After Conrad huddled with her handlers, I got a gentle talkin' to from Melissa, who identified herself at Conrad's PR woman. Melissa stressed that photogs were not allowed there after the first 10 minutes of Conrad's appearance and that interviews needed to be requested and approved days in advance. In Melissa's dreams.

Maybe Roker can get an answer to that question. Gird your loins, Lauren!

Not long after my talkin' to from Melissa, I was asked to leave -- a request with which I was happy to comply because just being there made me feel dumber than usual.

Bill Murray sighting "My wife, two daughters and I would swear we saw Bill Murray buying shoes at Schuler Shoes in Har Mar in Roseville Sunday," e-mailed a Hector McCandless.

A Schuler staffer confirmed Monday that the comedian, actor and part-owner of the St. Paul Saints was in the store making purchases to get his kids out of flip-flops. He was starting conversations with customers, as he waited for a woman believed to be his mom to find a pair of shoes she liked. Murray divulged that they were off to the Saints game.

Man of few words Kevin Garnett knows the magic words to make paparazzi flee.

See it at www.tinyurl.com/lauwl8.

Nervous before a mike? On twitter.com, Gophers coach Tim Brewster wrote about taking "the Barber family on a tour of TCF this afternoon, they were blown away and wish [sic] they could be Gophers ... Again!!"

Coach Brew, could you please tweet an explanation for Marion Barber III's uneasy TV mien? Is the Cowboys running back really as freaked out about being on TV as he behaved during Friday's interview on Fox 9, when he was there with Jack Brewer promoting Saturday's gala for his leadership foundation for kids? If so, not only does Barber have no TV career after the NFL, but opponents also might consider throwing clips of his TV work up on the JumboTron to create anxiety and ruin game performances.