Hilary and Haylie Duff and friends frolicked on the beach on the Fourth of July holiday in Malibu yesterday in front of the paparazzi, at one point burying one of the photographers in the sand. The guy covered his head with his hat as the famous sisters packed the sand over his body.

It’s really kind of refreshing not to have to talk about LohitneyParis this week, and what’s left are stories that include these benign pictures of the super-nice Duff sisters.

In a new interview with Stella Magazine, Duff says that she’s never met Nicole Richie, who is now dating her ex boyfriend, Joel Madden, and is thought to be pregnant. She’s rather vague about it, saying “How would it be for anyone? That’s all I can say. No one would be happy about it.”

She says she’s fed up with constantly working. A lot of news outlets are spinning this quote to say she wants to quit showbiz, but that’s not really what she seems to mean:

“I do get stressed out and I do get sad sometimes about the constant work… When I travel a lot usually I’m just so tired that I want to go to my hotel room and sleep. After doing that for a couple of months you’re, like, ‘Why do I do this? Where’s the reward?’”

She also says she sort-of made up with Lindsay Lohan:

“We’re not like BFFs, you know?” she says.

“But we were out at [the Hollywood club] Teddy’s one night and she just came up and was like, ‘I think we should just talk because I’m a nice girl and I know you’re a nice girl.’ It’s nice to be friendly acquaintances.”

Duff says she’s not about to be known as a drunken panty flasher, and that she’s careful about her public image:

“Stumbling out of clubs completely wasted, I won’t do. Because I care a lot about my career and if I make such a mockery out of myself people aren’t going to care about my projects. They’ll get enough of me when they get on the internet, you know?”

She also said that she wants to have a movie career, but directors typecast her and don’t give her a chance. It seems like she’s conveniently forgotten all about Material Girls. She does have three film projects in the works according to IMDB. In the upcoming movie War, Inc., she’s cast as a bitchy popstar.

Thanks to Splash News for these pics.