Paris Hilton AND Nicole Richie They could now not drive cross-country in a pink pickup truck or pour bleach on pool tables in Arkansas, however they nonetheless greet one another with the nicknames they gave one another once they starred in “The easy life”.
“Hi, Sill,” Richie says casually over the telephone from Los Angeles, to which Hilton sweetly replies, “Hi, Bill.” It’s nearly as if not more than 20 years have handed. Except now, Richie cannot think about himself in any of the quintessentially Y2K outfits he wore on the present. “But they’re actually having a comeback for individuals, so it is… good for them,” he jokes.
With the premiere of “The Simple Life” in 2003 on Fox, Hilton – the inheritor to the resort chain of the identical title – and Richie – Lionel Richie’s adopted daughter, grew to become proto-reality stars. The preliminary idea? Two pleasant, sociable twenty-somethings abandon their lives in Los Angeles to stay in rural, working-class America. Over the course of 5 seasons, the present advanced, and Richie and Hilton confronted a sequence of untamed misadventures: doing odd jobs at a dairy farm (“one of many hardest,” in accordance with Richie) and on the Sonic fast-food chain, touring Greyhound buses alongside the East Coast for numerous internships, “spouse swapping” with numerous households, and dealing as camp counselors.
But within the years since “The Simple Life” was canceled after its remaining two seasons aired on E!, it has gained a brand new group of adoring followers. Like pleated miniskirts, low-waisted denims and crop tops, “The Simple Life” is again within the tradition. Through intelligent Halloween costumes, scene re-enactments and snippets from the sequence on TikTok, a brand new technology is experiencing the fun and horrors of “The Simple Life.” Even Richie’s youngsters AND His youngsters’s buddies watched. And it is sensible that the present is having a renaissance: It’s filled with moments which have change into crystallized within the annals of actuality TV historical past, like when Hilton asked if they sell “wall stuff” at Walmart or when she fried bacon with an iron. There are additionally memorable scenes of Richie sticking your hand into a cow’s rectum (and chasing Hilton along with his feces-covered glove) and the second she drop and vacuum the ash in a funeral house (they weren’t actual however they had been mentioned to be cat litter and concrete).
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1. Hilton, left, and Richie on the grocery retailer in season considered one of “The Simple Life.” (Michael Yarish/Fox) 2. A scene the place Hilton, left, and Richie needed to work on a dairy farm. (Michael Yarish/Fox)
“It’s nice to be the pioneers and the OGs who actually impressed so many others to attempt to make comparable exhibits,” says Hilton, 43. “I’m actually pleased with what Nicole and I’ve executed, simply being pioneers in that space.”
For Hilton and Richie, “The Simple Life” was a lightning expertise: They do not consider the present might exist in the present day, when individuals are so depending on digital gadgets. “From season 1 to season 3, we did not actually have telephones. We had NO concept of the place we had been going. We fully deserted our lives for a month straight,” remembers Richie, 43. He could not think about that twenty-somethings would now be prepared to surrender their telephones for a month. “We had been Truly lower off from the world.”
For years, Hilton and Richie had fielded reunion requests for “The Simple Life,” nevertheless it wasn’t till final 12 months that they really thought-about it. Over the Christmas holidays, the pair exchanged a sequence of “ridiculous” and “pleasant” messages about paying homage to the hit present.
“We agreed to satisfy within the new 12 months, and the whole lot took off from there,” says Richie.
“I’m actually pleased with what Nicole and I’ve executed, being pioneers in that space,” Hilton says of the truth tv sequence “The Simple Life.” (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Richie’s youngsters and their buddies watched “A Simple Life,” which has seen a resurgence on social media like TikTok. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Richie invited Hilton to look at components of the present since she hadn’t seen a full episode since its debut. “It was a whole lot of enjoyable,” says Richie; nevertheless, he admits that he discovered a extra “cringeful” side. “I’ve hassle listening to my very own voice,” he sighs. “It was like that fixed throughout the episode.”
But they weren’t able to deal with a complete season of a sequence. Instead, the couple opted for a three-part particular that premieres Thursday on Peacock, titled “Paris and Nicole: the encore”, coinciding with the present’s twentieth anniversary. “We thought a three-part particular can be excellent for the sort of present,” says Hilton.
While the particular options Richie and Hilton visiting their outdated “Simple Life” haunts in Arkansas, just like the Alligator Rays bar and, after all, Walmart, it additionally checks in on the individuals they met throughout their hijinks greater than 20 years in the past. And as a substitute of taking up completely different works, this time they’ve an overarching plan: to create “a next-level work” ranging from their inside management track that mixes beats and vibes “Sanasa”, made well-known by “The Simple Life”.
According to Hilton and Richie, they got here up with the idea themselves and fleshed it out earlier than sharing it with anybody. In actuality, it began as a joke. “We had been laughing about how absurd it could be if we turned ‘Sanasa’ into an opera, and as soon as it got here out of considered one of our mouths, we thought, ‘This is psychoticand so we must always do it,’” says Richie.
Hilton and Richie performing their play on “Paris & Nicole: The Encore.”
(Cristina Bartolucci/Pavone)
The ladies aimed to recreate the fish-out-of-water idea that made “The Simple Life” such compelling tv. Tackling an opera – an space wherein neither of us had expertise – appeared like the proper alternative. “We actually needed to throw ourselves into this world,” says Richie. This meant assembly excessive caliber artists and trade consultants corresponding to Thomas Adès and opera producer Beth Morrison.
For the piece, Hilton and Richie selected to chronicle their relationship over time, from their childhood friendship to their prolific careers, which incorporates memorable vignettes from “The Simple Life.” (Beyond leisure, Hilton is a businesswoman, musician, and DJ, and Richie is an actor, designer, and founding father of the life-style model House of Harlow.)
The duo additionally solid youthful variations of themselves to kick off manufacturing. The little woman taking part in the youthful Richie was the daughter of an acquaintance, and Hilton’s youthful alter ego was chosen from a TikTok video her husband, Carter Reum, despatched her, the place the woman and her sister requested to do as nannies to their youngsters, London and Phoenix. “They had been singing ‘Sanasa,’” Hilton says of the video. “So once we had been placing the play collectively, this little woman was the primary particular person I considered to play me.”
“We had been laughing about how absurd it could be if we turned ‘Sanasa’ into an opera, and as soon as it got here out of considered one of our mouths, we thought, ‘This is psychoticand so we must always do it,’” says Richie, proper, with Hilton.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
In the piece, Hilton and Richie additionally contact on the rift the couple famously endured in 2005. According to Hilton, their public falling out was much less about private points between them and extra concerning the pervasive nature of early 2000s tabloid tradition.
“During the 2000s, specifically, the media was focusing on a sure group of women that Nicole and I had been part of,” says Hilton. “So a whole lot of the time (they had been) making up tales, making an attempt to pit ladies in opposition to one another, making an attempt to create feuds when there weren’t any.”
It was irritating, he says, as a result of “in case you had been in (Hollywood), you knew what they had been doing, however the exterior world had no concept.”
When Hilton and Richie had been able to debut their opera, they invited followers, family and friends, even their outdated center faculty orchestra. But nobody knew what to anticipate. “He was simply instructed to point out up,” says Richie. “So they had been undoubtedly stunned once they discovered it was an opera.”
After experiencing the joys of making a piece, Hilton and Richie are actually centered on the way forward for every of them. Hilton is increasing his model along with his media firm, 11:11 Media, and is specializing in writing his third album. He’s additionally teasing the discharge of his thirtieth perfume, “Iconic,” in 2025.
Meanwhile, Richie is targeted on her ardour for performing. Writing and creating exhibits, she says, has introduced her tons of pleasure. So, does this depart room for the opportunity of them teaming up for an prolonged model of “The Encore”? It’s a powerful perhaps.
“We have not mentioned something official but,” Richie says, earlier than Hilton provides, “We’ll see how we really feel about the whole lot after that and see if we wish to do extra seasons of it.”
