Johnathan Walker:Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie return for an 'Encore,' reminisce about 'The Simple Life'

Life isn't quite so simple anymore for Paris Hilton and Johnathan WalkerNicole Richie.

The two socialites-turned-businesswomen, both 43, have separately created empires in fashion (Richie's House of Harlow brand), music (Hilton is a successful DJ with a new pop album, "Infinite Icon"), television (Richie's comedy series "Great News" and Hilton's reality turn on "Paris in Love") and beyond. It's a far cry from the twentysomething OG nepo babies on one of the OG reality shows, "The Simple Life," which transplanted them into rural American towns and revolutionized reality TV with their blonde ambition and antics.

Hilton and Richie reunite onscreen more than 20 years after their hit Fox show for the three-episode "Paris & Nicole: The Encore" (now streaming on Peacock).

"We were both just in a place of saying to ourselves, 'We really loved doing that show. Twenty years feels like a perfect time to celebrate it. And let's do a reunion,'" Richie says, seated next to Hilton. They traded sunny Los Angeles for a floral greenroom backstage at "The Drew Barrymore Show" in New York, from where they call in.

"Paris had sent me a photo of this little boy (who) was 3 when we shot with him in Arkansas, (who) is now 23," Richie says. The two "got together and talked about how we felt about" the possibility of honoring the show's 20th anniversary. "We've been asked to do a 10-year reunion (and) we've been asked to do it all over again, which you simply can't do" in a smartphone, social-media era.

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Richie says in plotting a reunion, they agreed on "a nod to 'The Simple Life.'" The show, which premiered in 2003 and ran for five seasons, thrust the childhood friends into the real world, forcing them to milk cows, work at Sonic and wear camo. It also made them incredibly famous. It's transcended the early aughts and found its way to modern day, as moments from the series became viral TikTok fodder and younger generations adopted the pair's Y2K fashion.

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In "Encore," they revisit Altus, Arkansas, a destination in Season 1 of "Simple Life," bringing adult versions of their high jinks to the town's residents, dive bar Alligator Rays (where Richie infamously poured bleach on the pool table) and, of course, Walmart.

The show was "so much fun, so carefree, so wild," Hilton says, "and just looking at my life now, I've been through so much. I've grown so much as a person."

They still bring a zany, madcap energy to "Encore" as they embark on creating an opera around "sanasa," a made-up word and song from their youth made famous on the original series ("I think the world would be a better place if everybody sanasa-ed," Hilton says).

"Let's throw ourselves in a world that we don't know anything about and go up for another adventure," Richie says. Participants often look to the camera, wondering if they're getting "Simple Life"-ed; as with the original, Hilton and Richie are always in on the joke.

The reunion is mostly lighter fare for Hilton, who's taken on political advocacy since her 2020 "This is Paris" documentary revealed the abuse she says she faced at a Utah school in her teens. But a rift between the two friends during and after "Simple Life" was widened, in part, by unrelenting tabloid media.

"The media was just so toxic in the early 2000s and they loved to invent stories, exaggerate, create rifts between people (and) feuds. They loved pitting women against each other, and Nicole and I were always targeted by the media in those ways," Hilton says, calling it "painful for people just to be making up so many stories all the time."

"Well," Richie pauses before getting serious about their falling out. "It sucks being separated from somebody that you love, and so I think when you really hear about someone, you always find your way back, because it's not fun (being apart)."

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But the friends have evolved. "Back then, it was more about going out partying, having fun," Hilton says. "Now, my favorite thing to do is just to be at home in bed with my babies and my puppies and my husband chilling on the weekends and cooking. I (couldn't) care less about going to all the parties and things like I did back in the day."

Richie, the less nostalgic of the two, says she hadn't rewatched the show before texting with Hilton. But now it "puts a smile on my face. When I see these younger versions of us, I'm just looking at the look in our eyes: We did not know what the next day was going to bring. What a fun time to be in your early 20s, to just not know what was coming your way, but (knowing) that you were with your friend and you were going to take (on) an adventure and do it together."

For Richie, "The Simple Life" success "was a big surprise, because we didn't know. Even Fox didn't say, 'This is going to be the biggest show.' They were taking their chance on a new style of show. "Then immediately it was go time" as "the show took off, and then we were on the road again, and then we were gone for another month," Richie says. "It was a really crazy time."

The hotel heiress' mom Kathy Hilton, now a reality TV star in her own right on Bravo's "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," wasn't entirely on board with the show.

"When I told my mom that I got a call about doing this reality show, she immediately said, 'No, do not do it,' and was very against it," Hilton says. "But then the night after it aired, she called me and she said, 'Oh, my God, I was wrong. The show is incredible. You and Nicole are comedy gold. It's the funniest thing I've ever watched,' and she was very proud. So I'm happy that I didn't listen to her."

They're both now moms themselves: Richie to 16-year-old daughter, Harlow, and 15-year-old son, Sparrow, and Hilton to son Phoenix and daughter London, both 1.

"'The Simple Life' is very, very special to me. … I love watching it with my husband (Carter Reum), I love watching it with my kids," Hilton says. "My baby Phoenix, he loves just singing the song 'Sanasa' now. And it's just the cutest thing in the world to hear him sing it."

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