Critical response
Roger Friedman, writing for Fox News, said that this was a "numbingly mesmerizing documentary" in which "You have rarely seen such a collection of vacuous and tiresome people". He complains that "the 'It Girls' of 2002... are an inarticulate and alarming lot of long legged blondes without a thought in their heads". [3]
Mary Robbins, in the New York Times , wrote that the film suffered from poor timing, because the bad economic conditions at the time had "made expensive parties, and girls who were famous for nothing, less and less appealing." [4]
A reviewer for the Baltimore Sun wrote: "As if high school social castes weren't traumatic enough. This "documentary" allegedly attempts to explore the new It Girl, but really reminds us that the hierarchy we like to think we left behind in high school is alive and kicking in the adult world." and "Even with its occasional snarky snippets, the show can be hard to endure for those of us among the proletariat. But after a while, the documentary begins to resemble a drama, and the Hilton girls and their beautiful friends become mere characters in a nouveau Restoration comedy -- School for Scandal meets Page Six." [5]
Susan Abigail Sarandon is an American actor. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a Daytime Emmy Award, six Primetime Emmy Awards, and nine Golden Globe Awards. In 2002, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Jada Koren Pinkett Smith is an American actress, singer and talk show host. She is co-host of the Facebook Watch talk show Red Table Talk, for which she has won a Daytime Emmy Award. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021.
The Simple Life is an American reality television series starring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. It depicts the two wealthy socialites, as they struggle to do menial, low-paying jobs such as cleaning rooms, farm work, serving meals in fast-food restaurants, and working as camp counselors. The series premiered on December 2, 2003, on Fox, and concluded on August 5, 2007, on E!. A falling-out between Hilton and Richie in 2005 led the series to be cancelled by Fox following its third season. It was eventually picked up by E!, which aired its fourth and fifth seasons. The Simple Life helped catapult Hilton and Richie into international stardom, and maintained a consistently high viewership throughout its run on both networks. It also spawned a number of international remakes.
Matthew Raymond Dillon is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award nomination and Grammy nomination.
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Diane von Fürstenberg is a Belgian fashion designer best known for her wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence in 1969 when she married into the German princely House of Fürstenberg, as the wife of Prince Egon von Fürstenberg. Following their separation in 1972 and divorce in 1983, she has continued to use his family name.
Jane Skinner is an American former daytime news anchor who worked for Fox News, co-hosting Happening Now with Jon Scott from 11 am to 1 pm ET. On June 24, 2010, she announced on-air her retirement from her daytime news anchor position at the end of her usual Happening Now segment, citing a desire to spend more time with her family. She is married to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Nicole Ari Parker Kodjoe is an American actress and model. She made her screen debut with a leading role in the critically acclaimed independent film The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995) and went on to appear in Boogie Nights (1997), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
An "it girl" is an attractive young woman who is perceived to have both sex appeal and a personality that is especially engaging.
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Jean de Segonzac is an American director, screenwriter and cinematographer who has worked in documentaries and television programs. Most of his work has been in gritty, cinéma vérité-style law enforcement TV dramas.
Paris Whitney Hilton is an American media personality, businesswoman, socialite, model, singer, actress, and DJ. Born in New York City and raised there and in Los Angeles, she is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels. She first attracted tabloid attention in the late 1990s for her presence in NYC's social scene, ventured into fashion modeling in 2000, and was proclaimed "New York's leading It Girl" in 2001. The reality television series The Simple Life (2003–2007), in which she co-starred with her friend Nicole Richie, and a leaked 2003 sex tape with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, later released as 1 Night in Paris (2004), catapulted her to global fame.
Elizabeth Caroline Maria Agatha Felicitas Therese, Gräfin von Fürstenberg-Herdringen, known as Betsy von Furstenberg, was a German-born American actress who starred in several Broadway plays, films and television series between 1950 and the early 1980s.
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Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women is a public charter middle and high school for girls in Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Maryland. It is the first public all girls' secondary school in the city that had both middle and senior high school levels.
Amanda Lipitz is an American director and producer of films and Broadway shows, including the documentary STEP. She's also a former voice actress, best known for voicing Zoey in the English localization of the Japanese anime series Mew Mew Power.
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