"Simple Life" renewed, despite Hilton-Richie feud

It's been more than a year since they went from best buddies to bitter enemies, but Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie have agreed to renew their TV partnership for another season of "The Simple Life."

Cable channel E! Entertainment Television, the show's new home since it was canceled after three years on the Fox broadcast network, said on Wednesday the feuding "celebutantes" will return for a fifth season of their series in 2007.

The half-hour reality show is now in its fourth season, featuring Hilton and Richie taking turns assuming the role of housewife for various host families.

Because the two stars have remained steadfast in their estrangement since April 2005, their scenes have largely been shot separately, with little overall interaction between the pair.

Nevertheless, "The Simple Life" has proven a big success for E!, drawing over 1.5 million viewers a week to more than triple the network's prime-time average. Moreover, the network said at least 12 million viewers in total have tuned in to reruns of the show's first 36 episodes, which E! also is airing.

The series became a hit after debuting on Fox in December 2003 starring the Hilton hotel heiress and her favorite 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 publicized rift developed between the pampered pair, though no explanation for their spat was ever given.

Relations became so strained, in fact, that the two socialites and their entourages were kept separated -- and in the dark about the other's whereabouts -- for a publicity junket arranged by E! earlier this year.

Chris Alexander, a spokesman for the show's producer 20th Century Fox Television, said "the girls were still not talking" when the current season was shot in March and April, though they agreed to film some segments together.

The first episode opened with a scene in which the two encounter each other in a coffee shop.

Hilton enters with her dog, orders a cup of coffee, buys a cookie and sends it to Richie's table, where a close-up of the cookie reveals the message, written in frosting, "Good luck, bitch." The two then glare at each other.

Alexander said no decisions have been made about what direction the upcoming fifth season will take creatively.

"When we shoot the fifth season, we'll determine what their relationship is at the time," he said.