Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service
Jun. 14, 2004 12:45 PM
And you thought Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, the playful heiresses, had
already seen it all.
Not quite. "I'd never seen old people naked," Hilton says. "That was gross."
Now she has, thanks to "The Simple Life 2: Road Trip," which begins its
second season with back-to-back episodes at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. EDT
Wednesday (June 16) on Fox.
The 10-episode series starts in Miami and has the duo driving through
small-town America - sans cash or credit cards. Their visits range from a
ranch to a nudist colony.
"We watched this body acceptance course," Richie says, "where all the old,
naked people talked about how they loved their bodies."
Richie, 22, and Hilton, 23, have nothing against bodies, what with
revealing clothes and that infamous
Paris Hilton sex tape reaching the
Internet.
"It was like a retirement place," says Hilton, heiress to the Hilton hotel
empire. "Everyone was like 80."
Consider that part of their continued re-education.
The first "Simple Life" had Hilton and Richie living with a farm family.
It was a ratings hit, partly because the women are so good-natured about
their own ignorance.
"We were making fun of ourselves because we don't know how to do anything,"
says Richie, daughter of musician Lionel Richie.
For its sequel, "Simple Life" is expanding its scope.
"We're not staying on one farm," Richie says. "We're going from state to
state. It's really funny."
They were given a classic convertible, a small house trailer and an
itinerary of offbeat spots.
"We did make one concession to them," producer Jonathan Murray says. "We
gave them Sundays off."
On those days, there were no cameras and the girls settled into hotel
rooms, phoned friends and family and did some shopping. "There were little,
tiny malls everywhere," Richie says.
They couldn't disguise and blend into the mall crowds, she says. "We only
brought our cute clothes."
But they did have bodyguards on Sundays. "Everyone was really nice,"
Richie says. "No one got out of control."
During the other days, they were doing their assigned work.
"We got to be cops and do the siren," Richie says. "We got to arrest
people every 10 minutes."
There was more to that job, Murray says. "They also helped feed the
prisoners. It was probably the best day the prisoners ever had."
Much of this goes beyond reality TV. The women have admitted that they
sometimes exaggerated their ignorance for humor.
"I just think it's great that we're entertainers," Hilton says. "We just
want ... to make people laugh."
At times, the camera crews can alter reality.
One scene shows lots of people backed up at a tollbooth while Richie
panhandles for money. In truth, Murray says, most of those cars had
staffers from the show; other drivers went to another lane.
The TV process may have affected even the most serious moment - when
Hilton fell from a horse and was kicked.
"I've been riding my whole life," Hilton says. "I think the horses just
got scared because they weren't used to cameras."
A helicopter took her to an emergency room where fears of internal
bleeding were soothed. Soon, she was on the road again ready to discover
new worlds and old bodies.
