So far, 2020 has made a mockery of our best laid plans, but one activity that will thankfully never be cancelled is binge-watching TV from the privacy of our own homes. Personally, I’ve been reaching back into the archives to knock the classics I’ve never seen off my shameful secret list (*ahem* The Sopranos), or watching nostalgic favourites that will slap till the end of time.

One such masterpiece is The Simple Life, the reality show—which propelled Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie into superstardom—that saw the BFFs holed up in small-town America, working a series of average-Joe jobs for five seasons. During its run from 2003–2007, The Simple Life depicted Hilton and Richie doing a variety of extremely un-socialite-like tasks, from milking cows to working drive-thrus—all the while making us cry-laugh with iconic catchphrases like: “That’s hot” and “Loves it.”

Over a decade after it went off the air, Hilton is still masterminding expressions, her latest being “Sliving”—a mix of “slaying” and “living your best life”—which, incidentally, is a worthy lens to see life under lockdown through. “Sliving is not just going out,” Hilton tells me over the phone from her boyfriend’s house in Malibu. “You can be sliving your best life by just being creative at home.”

Here, the heiress talks all things quarantine, Juicy Couture and more.

How have you been keeping yourself busy over the last few weeks?
I’ve been at home, enjoying time with my boyfriend [Hilton is dating businessman Carter Reum] and my pets, doing a lot of cooking and baking and making art and listening to music. I’ve just been using all this time because I’m so used to travelling and being on planes. I’m never in L.A., I’m never at home so I’ve just been trying to look at the positive of this and being able to be at home and not travel, it’s been nice.

Is the first time you’ve slowed down for a while?
Yes, I have not stopped since I was a teenager.

Have you ever re-watched The Simple Life?
Actually, my boyfriend and I watch it all the time. I love that show, it’s so hilarious. I’ve watched every season like a couple times each. It’s just there’s no reality show like it, it’s so hilarious [and] it’s so fun to watch.

Does the show’s legacy and the fact that it’s still so popular surprise you at all? It’s such a big reference point for so many people.
It makes me feel so happy because I feel like that show [was] the first of its kind and so original. I love that people dress up as Nicole and I for Halloween; and now that [the show’s] streaming, people can easily enjoy it. It just makes me so proud.

It’s such a perfect encapsulation of the time. How did you guys work out the gags? Whose idea was it for you guys to milk cows and work at Sonic [a burger restaurant]?
It was a very small town, so the producers asked the family we were staying with what jobs were available. We’d do whatever job or task we could do; so if the job would entail, you know, working with the cows, that was just part of the job. We’d always make it funny somehow and do something to get in trouble.

So, all that shit-disturbing was straight from the source?
Yes. We were doing our jobs like they told us to but, you know, kind of not doing the job as well. We knew what we were doing, we wanted to make people laugh, we wanted to entertain people.

Full interview: flare.com