I've not written any TV Reviews for a while, so thought I ought to redeem that with a few comments on the funniest thing I've seen on TV for a while: The Simple Life.
The premis is extremely simple: take two stupid rich kids from the city, and place them with some stupid poor kids and adults from the country.
The stupid rich kids in question are Paris Hilton & Nicole Richie – daughter of the former Commodore, Lionel Richie.
Episode One saw these bright young things spending thousands in the Dior shop on Rodeo Drive, buying suitable shoes for their farm. Their definition of suitable of course meant heels, but then these girls have led very sheltered lives – as they freely admit, they’ve never done a days work in their lives.
The shock therefore when they arrive (by private jet) in a little Arkansas town, is palpable. As indeed is their reticence for the work they have to do – slopping out pigs etc – for them The Good Life this ain’t.
Shot in a similar style to the US version of Blind Date – this is a suitably irreverent show – with everyone in one the joke bar the participants. It’s the usual fish out of water stuff, but makes for entertaining viewing partly because of the style, the astonishing ugliness of Nicole Richie (she speaks equally highly of me I’m sure,) and the rare opportunities to see some rural Americans on a TV show that isn’t Jerry Springer et al.
Then of course there is Paris, dear old Paris. As the collection of home videos which have surfaced on the web shows, this is a girl who likes to put it about it – but there’s no denying she’s a pretty girl – albeit one with no common sense, and a demeanour which reminds me of the IT girl Lady Victoria Hervey (fave quote from Hervey: "It's so bad being homeless in winter. They should buy a plane ticket and go somewhere hot like the Caribbean where they can eat free fish all day.")
Anyway enough of Lady V – back to Miss Hilton. According to Façade.com Paris and I are alarmingly compatible: "Physical 98% Emotional 37% Intellectual 99% Overall 78%" - (remarkably that's better than me and Carmen Electra, Sarah Michelle Gellar or Halle Berry,) although sadly I don’t have my own home in Beverly Hills, nor indeed my own farm in Arkansas. Still, you can’t have everything…
The Simple Life is on E4 tonight from 9-10pm, and with these two episodes repeated on Sunday at the same time.
