Paris Hilton is headed back to television — this time in what is billed as a behind the scenes look at the life and friends of the jet-setting socialite and model.
The Oxygen television network, which is aimed at young women, has given the go-ahead to a reality series that brings “an all-encompassing look at her life, friends, family, and relationships, all that’s not represented every day,” original programming chief Amy Introcaso-Davis said in a statement on Thursday.
The show will also feature Hilton’s friends Brooke Mueller — the estranged wife of Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen — and former Playboy model turned photographer Jennifer Rovero, along with her mother Kathy Hilton.
The show has no name or air date as yet.
Hilton, 29, the great-granddaughter of Hilton hotels founder Conrad Hilton, appeared with friend Nicole Richie in The Simple Life years ago and searched for a best friend in the MTV series My New BFF in 2008.
A businesswoman with lines of fashion, hair, fragrance and shoes that she either helps design or endorses, Hilton is rarely out of the news.
Last week, she pleaded guilty in Las Vegas to cocaine possession, and the next day was refused entry to Japan to take part in a fashion show.
In 2007, she famously spent three weeks in jail in Los Angeles for violating her probation on a reckless driving charge.
Oxygen said the new TV show would follow Hilton “as she enters the next stage of her life.”
Nicole Richie is following a different path: She’s no longer famous for being famous.
The 29-year-old is still a paparazzi target, but she has broadened her resume.
The daughter of singer Lionel Richie has transformed her image from red carpet regular and party girl to a hip, young mom (she has two children with musician Joel Madden of the band Good Charlotte), fashion designer, occasional actress and author.
Her new book, Priceless, is now in stores.
It’s about a wealthy young woman named Charlotte whose stockbroker father is busted for embezzling millions from his clients. Charlotte ends up escaping the barrage of media attention surrounding the scandal in New York City and relocating to New Orleans where she builds a life for herself.
“I don’t think anyone is just a one-dimensional person. There are a few different people inside of every person,” Richie said in an interview to promote the book.
This isn’t Richie’s first foray into writing. Her first novel, The Truth About Diamonds, was about a girl who is the adopted daughter of a famous male singer and part of Hollywood’s in-crowd.
Richie denies reports the book, a New York Times bestseller, was “semi-autobiographical,” saying her writing is influenced by personal experience, but the book wasn’t about her own life.
For Priceless, Richie wanted to take a different direction.
“I wanted to write a story about the journey of a girl’s life and about the steps that she takes to find her place her in the world and find her own voice.” Richie also has capitalized on her status as a fashion “it girl” with an accessories line, House of Harlow 1960, and a clothing line called Winter Kate. She serves as creative director for both.
Richie calls the acceptance by the fashion industry a blessing.
“It’s very exciting. I’m learning a lot, I’m learning as I go.”
She will also return to NBC’s Chuck next month where she has a recurring role as Heather Chandler, a former high school mean girl-turned-spy with a talent for kung fu.
Despite her various hats, Richie wants to add yet another career to her resume: Singing.
“Music is something that I love so much and it’s very close to my heart,” she said. “I would never want to do something that I can’t put all of my time and heart and soul into ... but ... I’m only 29! I have time!”
In other news, Britney Spears has met with a judge overseeing her conservatorship, but no changes are being made.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Reva Goetz also met Thursday with the singer’s father Jamie, who retains control with attorneys over his daughter’s personal and financial affairs.
Wearing a black dress and black boots, Spears was ushered into the judge’s chambers by deputies.
Goetz later said in open court, “We had a very nice conversation.” She then said no changes were being made to the 28-year-old singer’s conservatorship, which was established in February 2008 after Spears was involved in several high-profile incidents of erratic behavior.
— Agencies
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not