Fourth season of 'The Simple Life' to go ahead

LOS ANGELES - Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie may not be on speaking terms, but the two "celebutantes" will reunite on television next year as their recently cancelled Fox reality show, "The Simple Life," jumps to cable TV.

E! Entertainment Television has ordered ten new episodes of the half-hour show to debut in the spring of 2006, featuring the two socialites taking turns playing the traditional role of wife and homemaker while paired with various host families, the cable channel said on Monday.

A spokeswoman for E!, co-owned by cable giant Comcast Corp. and the Walt Disney Co., said production of the show's fourth season, entitled "The Simple Life: Till Death Do Us Part," was set to begin in January, whether or not the two stars have reconciled.

The move comes weeks after the Fox Broadcast Co. pulled the plug on "Simple Life," saying the network's prime-time schedule had become too crowded with more successful shows to make room for a return of the Hilton-Richie series.

At the time, the network's sister studio, 20th Century Fox Television, said producers would shop the "Simple Life" to other outlets, with NBC and WB both showing strong interest.

In the end, E! snagged exclusive rights to future editions of the show, as well as reruns of its first 36 episodes, the News Corp. Ltd.-owned studio said.

The series debuted on Fox in December 2003 featuring the Hilton hotel heiress and her favourite party pal, the daughter of singer Lionel Richie, mixing with common folk as they worked real jobs in America's heartland. But the show's future fell into doubt after three seasons when a highly publicised rift developed between the pampered pair.

Fox studio spokesman Chris Alexander said the two 24-year-old stars "haven't spoken in months" and insisted that no effort would be made to paper over their spat on TV.

"This is, after all, a reality show," Alexander said. "The show will absolutely acknowledge the state of their relationship, whatever that may be, at the time that we film it." He said if the two remained estranged, "we will shoot them on separate days and we will edit the show together in such a way that the girls are represented equally."

While details of the new show are still being worked out, Alexander said the housewife-in-training motif would play off the recent matrimonial ambitions of both stars.

Richie is currently engaged, and though Hilton recently called off plans to marry Greek shipping scion Paris Lastis, she has spoken publicly about wanting to get married and raise a family, Alexander said.

- REUTERS