Simple Life Producer: Not So Fast!

Twentieth Century Fox producer refuses to say the franchise is a goner. The producers of the show are looking for another network. Bunim/Murray Productions aren’t quitting, I suppose. My comment: the problem is within the show, not the network!

The sixth season may not feature Paris and Nicole anymore. My comment: simply ridiculous.

E! networks final statement: “The Simple Life has been a wonderful addition to the E! Schedule for two years and we will always be grateful to Paris and Nicole for their hard work and graciousness.”

Paris Hilton will continue to work on her second album after she finishes filming her new movie Repo! The Genetic Opera.

As the drama surrounding Paris Hilton’s and Nicole Richie’s lives reaches a fever pitch offscreen, their shared onscreen dilemmas have become all but obsolete.

E! has opted not to renew The Simple Life, announcing Monday that the finale of the show’s latest season, The Simple Life Goes to Camp, will also mark the end of the shenanigan-laced series with the two celebutantes. (E! Online is a division of E! Networks.)

“The Simple Life has been a wonderful addition to the E! Schedule for two years and we will always be grateful to Paris and Nicole for their hard work and graciousness,” E! said in a statement.

The news comes as the longtime pals have faced their own legal woes.

Hilton is now entering her sixth week as a free woman, after serving 23 days behind bars for violating probation on an alcohol-related reckless driving charge. The heiress has rebranded herself as a changed woman, volunteering at children’s hospitals and making as many appearances at charitable functions as at the Hollywood clubs—which, it must be said, she has not completely forsaken.

Richie, meanwhile, is smack in the middle of her own legal nightmare, having pleaded guilty last Friday to driving under the influence of drugs following a wrong-way trip on a Los Angeles freeway last December. She was sentenced to 96 hours in jail, three years’ probation, alcohol-education classes and fines.

Richie has until Sept. 28 to serve her time. By then, it should be known definitively whether the 25-year-old is expecting her first child with Good Charlotte boyfriend and courtroom stalwart Joel Madden. Richie has not publicly confirmed rampant reports of her pregnancy, which show no signs of abating as she continues to make public appearances in excessively baggy clothes or covered by a body pillow.

In comparison, the biggest scrape the girls found themselves in during The Simple Life Goes to Camp was attempting to hide the contents of a fat camp’s refrigerator.

While E! has pulled the plug on The Simple Life, series producer Twentieth Century Fox refuses to say the franchise is a goner. The company is apparently holding out hope another network may pick it up for another go-round, in the same way E! did in 2005 after Fox dropped the show. However, any new incarnation would not feature Hilton and Richie.

Conceived as a fish-out-of-water “reality sitcom,” The Simple Life debuted in 2003 and was an instant hit, establishing its stars as bona fide Hollywood players. The first season featured Hilton and Richie as inept farmhands in Arkansas.

The second season, subtitled Road Trip, featured the two pals on an RV, tooling around the country to jobs on a ranch, nudist colony and, ironically enough, as deputy sheriffs working in a jail. That was followed by Interns, in which they traveled by Greyhound bus to various internships, including at a mortuary, fire station and zoo.

Faced with declining ratings and growing behind-the-scenes tension between Hilton and Richie, Fox canceled the show in 2005; a month later, E! announced plans to air a fourth, 10-episode season, ‘Til Death Do Us Part.

The season was an exercise in editing as much as programming. By the season’s start, Richie and Hilton were in a full-blown public feud, refusing to appear in scenes with each other. Despite specuation that Hilton party sidekick Kimberly Stewart might replace Richie in the show, execs opted to head into production with Hilton and Richie performing their scenes solo.

In October 2006, they called a truce in time to begin production on the current season of The Simple Life.

But the season wasn’t without its hiccups. Aside from their various legal melodramas, Richie was briefly hospitalized in March for dehydration, after falling ill on the set.

On the series-ending installment of the reality show, airing Sunday, the duo will be at drama camp, enlisting the help of celebrity counselor Sally Kirkland. After casting and rehearsing an original production, the trio costars in a performance, with Kirkland taking on the role of Richie papa Lionel.

Perhaps the experience inspired Hilton, who just confirmed she has begun rehearsals for Repo! The Genetic Opera, a musical thriller that begins filming next month in Toronto. After that, she’s due to begin work on her sophomore album.

Eonline.com

From: Karo from Germany
Time: July 31, 2007, 4:10 am

omg! i just love “the simple life” so much, i´m so sad if theres really not going to be another season. i could watch it all day long! i became a fan of paris by watching the show and it helped me through hard times! The 5th season still was running good, so why cancel it? i think its so silly, i bed another 6th season would be doing better if people forget about the jail thingy. i personaly became an even closer fan of paris by that situation and i never judged her for this. we all make faults. why to cut off the simple life? i´m in rage. The simple life is the best us show ever! And thanks to the news mods! i check the news every day & youre doing so great, i just love parishiltonsite.net!!!!

From: thewaymouth
Time: July 31, 2007, 7:33 am

I’m with you. The show needs a total overhaul or just junk it. I say the latter is best. It’s a waste of Paris’s time.

I watched the first two episodes this season then gave up on it. Hell, I actually feel it started going downhill the second season. That’s when I first gave up on it. They are supposed to be off on a road trip, on their own, away from their fabulous life. But then it seemed every night Nicole’s boyfriend would show up.

One of the best parts of the first season was that every night Paris & Nicole would go out and get into trouble. The appearances by Nicole’s boyfriend tamed & toned it down. It killed the vibe. Perhaps just one example of Nicole being a diva and putting herself ahead of the show.

They should have been like The Beatles. Pretend and act like they have no girlfriends & wives. That they were totally wild & free & ready for anything.

For Nicole to have a baby & continue w/The Simple Life would be ridiculous. If they replaced Nicole & Paris, as long as Paris gave it her blessing, it would not bother me a bit. Might be the only way to save it. I am already gone & so are Nicole & Paris.

From: Django
Time: July 31, 2007, 8:57 am

thewaymouth – are you sure you aren’t confused? I don’t remember a boyfriend of Nicole’s showing up until midway through the third season, and as far as I remember it was a one off appearance.