the simple life, season 4 Options

[MeLoNiSyUmMy]

A simmering feud and network pink slip? Pish-posh. Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are back in the Simple Life business.


The reality show and its fantasy-world stars, ditched in October by Fox, have been hooked by E! Entertainment Television. The fourth Simple Life season, subtitled Till Death Do Us Part, will debut in spring 2006, the cable network announced Monday. (E! Entertainment Television and E! Online are divisions of E! Networks.)


The 10 new episodes will find Hilton and Richie in a Trading Spouses-style premise, tending to children, putting dinner on the table and otherwise playing house in order to, in the words of E!, "put the girls to the matrimonial test."


Hilton and Richie, both 24, began their Simple Life adventures in 2003, back when the pair billed themselves as the bestest of hot-spot-frequenting buds. Then, last April, Hilton released a statement announcing that she and the namesake of pop star Lionel Richie were "no longer friends." The move led to speculation, which the hotel heiress did not discourage, that The Simple Life from that point hence would costar current Hilton friend Kimberly Stewart.


The Stewart-for-Richie talk died in July when Fox reupped both Hilton and Richie. But tensions between the two remained--in October, Richie told Jane that she didn't think the two would ever reconcile. While the buzz said their non-friendship was behind Fox's offing of their show, the network insisted it just couldn't find any room for The Simple Life on its spring schedule.


It is not known what sunk Hilton and Richie's relationship. Hilton said, "Nicole knows what she did"; Richie said it's "just not my style" to dish dirt (although she did divulge that she and Hilton "really haven't been friends in probably about two years").


As solo acts, Hilton has done film (House of Wax), a fragrance line and two books. Richie, meanwhile, has done film (Kids in America), a fragrance line (upcoming) and one book.


Although the new season of The Simple Life will focus on domestic matters, neither Hilton nor Richie has yet become a wife in the real, non-simple world. Richie's getting close--she's currently planning her nuptials to deejay Adam Goldstein, known by the handle DJ AM. Hilton was getting close, too, but she ended her engagement to Paris Latsis, known by the handle Greek Shipping Heir, in September. It does not sound as if the new Simple Life season will touch on its respective stars' wedding plans (or lack thereof)--Richie months ago flat-out rejected the idea of televising her own ring exchange.


In addition to all-new episodes of Simple Life, E! is getting all the old episodes of Simple Life, too. The 36-episode (and counting) library contains footage of Hilton and Richie engaged in a variety of non-socialite activities--milking cows, trolling for crawfish, working behind a desk, etc.


The Simple Life was a breakout hit for Fox in the winter of 2003-04, averaging more than 11 million viewers, per Nielsen Media Research. The ratings for subsequent seasons cooled, but not considerably, with the most recent cycle, The Simple Life: Interns, averaging 9.6 million.

is anyone going to watch it? personally, i loathe paris and nicole but i think its funny and they're broken up so i probably will watch it.

[_sarcastic_]

they're at it again?