When Paris Hilton first informed her mother, Kathy Hilton, about The Simple Life, she faced some resistance. Paris revealed that the star of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills attempted to deter her from joining the reality show.
Hilton and her Simple Life co-star Nicole Richie appeared on this morning’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show to promote their long-awaited spinoff, Paris & Nicole: The Encore, which dropped on Peacock today.
The original series, which aired from 2003 to 2007, followed the two women as they traded in their glamorous lives in Beverly Hills for low-playing jobs in small towns across the country.
According to Paris, her mom did not want her to do The Simple Life when producers first approached her with the opportunity.
“When I got the call to do the show, my mom immediately said, ‘Do not do this. You are crazy,’” Paris recalled on The Drew Barrymore Show.
The socialite suspected that Kathy was “scared” by the idea of reality television.
“It was the unknown. This was the first reality show. She had no idea what we were gonna get ourselves into,” Paris continued. “I can imagine she was probably nervous, like, ‘Paris is going to be somewhere with a camera following her 24/7.’ It was just such a new genre of television that she didn’t know what to expect.”
But Kathy ultimately came around once she saw the show.
“The next morning after she watched it, she was like, ’Oh my god, I was wrong. That show is incredible. You and Nicole are comedy gold. I’ve never laughed so hard,’” Paris remembered. “She said, ‘I was wrong for once.’ I was like, ‘OK, Mom. I’ll give you that.’”
Barrymore then praised Paris and Richie for paving the way for reality TV, telling them, “You guys pioneered the presuppose and leaping off the mountain into the unknown, wild abyss of reality television. You were a huge part of why it worked. So, congratulations on that.”
The Drew Barrymore Show airs on weekdays on CBS. You can check the website for local airtimes.
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=823934954307605&version=v2.8”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
