Entertainment> Celebrities

Hilton, Richie to become camp counselors

(AP)
2007-03-22 08:17

Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, left, attend a party held by Sony Computer Entertainment America to celebrate the new Playstation 3 game console in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Nov. 8, 2006. The fifth season of, 'The Simple Life,' their reality-style series has the celebutantes serving as counselors at Camp Shawnee in the Malibu Mountains, E! Entertainment Television announced Wednesday, March 21, 2007.(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

NEW YORK - On-again friends Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are taking "The Simple Life" - which shows the tabloid-ready celebutantes thrown into everyday situations with real people - to camp. After last season's format allowed the then-feuding friends to have little to do with each other, this year's edition brings them together again.

"The Simple Life Goes to Camp," set to debut in May, has Hilton and Richie working as counselors at Camp Shawnee in the mountains near Los Angeles, E! Entertainment Television Inc. announced Wednesday. The camp will be host to five different specialty groups: Wellness Camp, Pageant Camp, Couples Camp, Survival Camp and Drama Camp.

Hilton, 26, and Richie, 25, will be expected to eat, sleep and keep the same schedule as the campers. They will be working under the direction of various experts, the network said.

"The fact that Paris and Nicole are friends again and will have to survive without their luxuries at a family run camp in the middle of nowhere takes us back full circle to the original concept that makes this show so much fun," Lisa Berger, who oversees original programming and series development, said in a statement.

"Paris and Nicole will be advising and training girls and their moms for beauty pageants, or providing therapy for couples seeking to strengthen their relationships," she said.

Meanwhile, Richie has been diagnosed with hypoglycemia, or low-blood sugar, her publicist confirmed Wednesday in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Richie was visibly heavier in 2003 when she began filming "The Simple Life."

Last fall, she acknowledged in an interview in Vanity Fair magazine that she was "too thin right now" and was getting treatment to add pounds.