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Paris in Arkansas?
'Green Acres' life in new series
Zap2it.com
Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were born into lives of wealth and leisure. Fodder for tabloids from the time they could toddle and reputed partygirls from the time they first toddled past a bouncer and into a club, the hotel heiress and the Commodore's daughter grew up in a world where little was asked of them.
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Last spring, though, with cameras rolling, Paris and Nicole left behind their expensive clothes, haughty attitudes and upscale digs to move in with a farming family in the rural town of Altus, Arkansas. Or at least they abandoned their upscale digs, as Paris became the first farmer in recorded history to milk cows and feed chickens while cradling a teacup chihuahua named Tinkerball.
For nearly five weeks, the two girls experienced the pleasures of this bizarro Fresh Air Fund as "Real World" creators Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray and their trained crew tracked their every move. The results of this experiment can be seen in "The Simple Life," which premieres on FOX Dec. 2.
Several months after their adventure, Paris and Nicole sat down with
reporters at the TV Critics Association press tour and shared the wisdom gleaned
from their experience roughing it.
Dressed in outfits whose sticker
prices would probably cover operating costs at their one-time farm for several
months, the Page Six queens dished on Nicole's favorite department store chain,
college and hopes for a future clouded only by the looming spectre of excessive
wealth:
Paris Hilton on her near-infinite Wal-Mart purchasing power: "We bought, like, everything -- magazines, like, clothes for, like, five dollars. It was cool 'cause we had to get things dirty, you know, some of our clothes we didn't want to, like, get messed up. So we'd go there and, like, buy T-shirts and food and gifts."
Nicole Richie on Paris' Wal-Mart fetish: "She'd ask me every day. She was like, 'Can we please go to Wal-Mart?' I'm like, 'No, it's boring.' She's like, 'I love it there.'"
Paris on joking on-camera about not knowing what Wal-Mart is: "I was just kidding around. I don't know. I was, like, playing dumb. I don't know."
Nicole on the little differences between cultures: "I mean, our lives are completely different. Our lives are, you know, simple in one way and complicated in another. And theirs are simple in the exact opposite ways and complicated in the exact opposite ways."
Paris on proper rural attire: "We don't have, like, farm clothes. We just sort of, we just wore our own clothes, and I don't know. It was cute."
Nicole on higher education: "I went to University of Arizona and I stopped going there because I went there for two years. I felt like I experienced the college life, or whatever, but I know ... I'm over it."
Paris on Mc-Jobs: "I was thinking of getting a job at McDonalds, actually. We did work at a fast food restaurant. It was the funnest job ever."
Nicole on the newfound perspective courtesy of "The Simple Life": "I mean, it's like you don't think about how lucky you are when, you know, when you live this life every day. But, you know, when we spent a month away from it, and we came back, we really just felt lucky."
Paris on buying a $1,500 dog bag for Tinkerbell rather than, like, you know, giving that money to the less fortunate: "Well, I always, like, give money to charities and things like that. And I just like the dog bag. It's cute."
Nicole on the after-effects of "preg-testing" cows (which apparently involves baby oil, latex gloves and placing your hand in a dark, mysterious nether region of the cow): "They loved it. What are you talking about? It's the luckiest cow in Arkansas."
Paris on being misunderstood: "I think a lot of people do definitely under -- whatever -- underestimate me. Yeah. When people know me, though, they know. From just reading the press, I think people miscontrue and think different things about how I am."
Paris on phone conversations with her sister: "In the beginning I was like
calling, like crying, like, 'I want to go home. This sucks.' But then I ended up
liking it, like, 'You should have done it. It was fun."
