Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie didn’t set out to revolutionize the reality television landscape The simple life. It just happened.
“[The show] was the first of its kind,” Hilton told Vulture editor Megh Wright at the 10th annual Vulture Festival on November 17. “Nicole and I had no idea what we were getting into. We were just ourselves, and we just had fun. It wasn’t like we were planning anything or thinking about anything. It all happened very authentically and organically.”
Fox Simple life premiered on December 2, 2003. For five seasons, the reality series followed Hilton and Richie, best friends and socialites from Los Angeles, as they traveled the country and immersed themselves in the culture and community of smaller towns. In season 1, the girls stayed with a family in Arkansas, who showed them the ropes, such as working on a farm or in a fast food restaurant.
Hilton and Richie were glamorous fish out of water. The result was a surprising amount of serious comedy and an unprecedented format of reality television.
Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie continue The simple life. (20thCentFox/Courtesy of Everett Collection)
Richie sees the show as a love letter to their twenties. Hilton agreed.
“Every day we were in a different city. We were hip to the show at the time, so we actually went in, did our work, said goodnight on camera and then went out after we wrapped up,” she explained. “I look at the whole time we shot that show as being in our 20s, and just having the freedom to really do what we want and take that time, and just be with each other. … I really cherish my twenties and the show is a big part of that.”
Hilton and Richie were both 22 at the time The simple life premiered, but they had been friends for years. The couple has known each other since they were 2 years old.
Hilton and Richie at Vulture Festival on November 17. (Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vulture)
“We were neighbors and we could see each other’s windows from each other’s houses,” Richie said. “What we did once when our parents stopped us from hanging out was we bought megaphones. Our two houses were separated by the Bel-Air Country Club… we took the megaphones at 11 a.m. and we sang… through the hills of Bel Air until they let us hang out again.”
Now Hilton and Richie reunite on the small screen Paris & Nicole: The encore, a three-part special premiering on Peacock on December 12, in which they attempt to produce an opera centered around their self-coined term ‘Sanasa’. For those unfamiliar, “Sanasa” is the name of a song Hilton and Richie wrote when they were 7 years old. It became a long-running joke among fans of The simple life, as the pair often sang it as a “vibe check” during filming.
“[Hilton] came to my house. We had tacos and we just hung out, and we talked about if we were going to do something again, if we had a reunion, what would that look like and what would it be? And we wanted to do it our own way. And we got to do that, and it’s just been the best experience ever,” Richie said.
More than forty years after they met, their friendship is still strong.
“I’m allergic to boring people,” Hilton said. “Nicole is the cutest, most hilarious, most real, coolest and biggest heart. And I have loved her since the moment I met her when I was a little girl of two years old. And I will love you until the end of time.”
“It’s really important to give people space to make their own journey,” Richie said of their decades-long friendship. “And it’s really impossible for you or anyone else to have parallel lives all the time… I truly believe that the deepest form of love is allowing someone to be who they are.”
Paris & Nicole: The encore premieres December 12 on Peacock.
