Nicole Camille Richie (born September 21, 1981) is an American socialite, actress, author, entrepreneur, style icon, model, and singer. The adopted daughter of Lionel Richie, she is known for her role in the reality show The Simple Life and her turbulent personal life. Richie is currently expecting her first child (due sometime in January 2008) with boyfriend Joel Madden.Nicole Richie was born Nicole Camille Escovedo in Berkeley, California.Her biological mother was a backstage assistant for Lionel Richie. Lionel Richie ran into Nicole first as a child playing on stage at a Prince concert, her mother was part of the wardrobe group. Nicole was playing a tamborine. Lionel became a guardian first for Nicole and later adopted her.
At age two, Nicole went to live with Lionel and his wife Brenda Harvey-Richie, who began to raise her as their daughter. When she was three years old, Nicole started attending weekly sessions with a psychotherapist and remained in therapy throughout her childhood. When she was nine, the Richies legally adopted Nicole. Shortly after the adoption was formalized, Lionel's affair with another woman became public knowledge. Nicole told Ryan Seacrest that she learned about Lionel's adultery when she read about it in a tabloid. The Richies went through a highly-publicized, bitterly acrimonious split, and, apparently feeling guilty about the end of their marriage, indulged Nicole's every whim. "Their way of making me happy was to say yes to everything I wanted, but I don't think a little girl should have that much freedom", said Richie in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine. In an interview with Nylon magazine, Richie said that her childhood was very dramatic and "I think my struggle right now is to try and find comfort in things not being so chaotic. I'm so used to high drama and high energy all the time - I always sleep TV on."
Her parents' divorce was hurtful and Nicole said: "When my dad divorced my mom it was kind of like him leaving me also. I just really didn't understand why he wasn't returning my phone calls, or why I couldn't see him whenever I wanted to. That was the most hurtful thing to me."
Richie still speaks with her biological mother but has no contact with her biological father. The identity of her biological father is the subject of much speculation. In a November 15, 2005 CNN interview with Seacrest, Richie stated that her birth father (whom she declined to identify) was not a member of Lionel's band. According to an April 2006 Tatler magazine interview with Richie, it is rumored that her biological father is musician Peter Michael Escovedo (brother of musician Sheila E.), but Richie denied this in a November 2005 Jane magazine interview.
Richie has one godmother, Nancy Davis, daughter of Marvin Davis, mother of Brandon Davis; Nancy was related by marriage to Paris Hilton. Richie's godfathers are Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. Jones said in a People magazine interview that he has "known her since she was a baby. She's a very smart girl. When she was younger she worked eight hours a day for eight years to become an Olympic figure skater. She's a very talented girl."
In addition to figure skating, Richie studied the guitar, cello, violin, and piano. In 1986, she started Kindergarten at The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, California where she met Paris Hilton. Richie graduated from Montclair College Preparatory School in 2000. After high school, she studied Arts and Media for two years at the University of Arizona. She dropped out because: "I went to the University of Arizona. I stopped because I went there for two years and I felt like I experienced college or whatever. I'm over it. I like Hollywood better," she says.
Richie says of her heritage that she is a "mix of everything", and self-identifies as African American.
Richie and heiress Paris Hilton starred in 2003 in Season 1 of the reality series The Simple Life, in which they lived for a month with a family in the rural community of Altus, Arkansas.The show started airing on Fox December 2, 2003, to surprisingly well received ratings. The premiere episode drew 13 million viewers, increasing Fox's Adults 18-49 rating a phenomenal 79%. Richie is also a producer on The Simple Life.
In Season 2, The Simple Life 2: Road Trip, the girls traveled the American South driving a pink pick-up and living in a trailer. They have no money, credit cards or cell phones. They stay with families or in trailer parks. On one occasion a nudist resort. Their jobs include farmworkers, mermaids in an under water show, hotel cleaners, sausages makers, crawfishers, working for a baseball team, working in a Beauty Salon, Deputy Sherrifs, and working on a cattle ranch.In Season 3, The Simple Life 3: Interns, the girls traveled the East Coast on a bus, staying at 15 different families' houses. But unlike Season 2, this time around the girls did not have a swanky home on wheels and instead were travelling around the north-east in a regular
Greyhound bus that was also ferrying normal members of the public that are travelling to the same destination.Season 2 DVD Cover, a parody of the original Easy Rider movie posterIn late 2005, FOX chose not to renew The Simple Life, explaining that they didn't see a place for it in their schedule.A month later, cable network E! picked up Season 4, The Simple Life 4: 'Til Death Do Us Part, in which the girls traveled around California, acting as the mother of the family, raising kids for a day and acting as a wife to the father, though both would do tasks separately and not be seen together on screen.Season 5, The Simple Life 5: 'The Simple Life Goes To Camp, debuted on E! on May 28, 2007, with Paris and Nicole making up on Nicole's birthday. In this season, Paris and Nicole work as counselors at Camp Shawnee. The camp will be host to five different specialty groups: Wellness Camp, Pageant Camp, Couples Camp, Survival Camp and Drama Camp, with two episodes focused on each specialty group. Although Season 4 was a hit for E!, drawing nearly one million viewers per episode, Season 5 saw a sharp decline in ratings. While the premiere episode and ones that followed during this season drew about the same viewership, by the 7th episode the ratings had declined to around 650-700 thousand viewers. It was announced on July 30, 2007 that the show will not be renewed for Season 6. Despite the initial hopes for continuation, E! announced they had cancelled the show on July 30, 2007, due to personal problems overshadowing the show. Another network may pick up the series, MTV being a strong possibility.
In an interview in the August, 2007 issue of Nylon - magazine Richie talked about The Simple Life: "It's not a reality show, though. It's unscripted television; that's what the audience likes. No one wants to see a show of Paris and I talking about the war or who we think the next President should be. That's not what the show is about. The show is for one purpose only: to keep people laughing."
0 Comments