Re: Cribs, Robbery Edition
If you are Orlando Bloom, Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, Audrina Partridge or Paris Hilton, you may have noticed that some of your clothes, jewelery and artwork went missing between October 2008 and August 2009. This is because you were burglarized by several well-off L.A. teenagers who have since been given the name the Bling Ring. Well, if you are Paris Hilton you actually didn’t notice, for awhile anyway. Allegedly, the Bling Ring robbed Hilton five times. According to one suspect, they simply retrieved the key to Hilton’s door from underneath a mat. Upon discovering that the key was missing, Paris (allegedly) was kind enough to replace it, as the gang discovered on one of their many return trips.
Coverage of the Bling Ring’s exploits was mainly confined to the tabloid press until Vanity Fair landed an interview with one of the main suspects, Nick Prugo,who has become the prosecution’s star informant. You can read Nancy Jo Sales’ piece, The Suspects Wore Louboutins, here. Another suspect, Alexis Neiers, happened to be filming an upcoming E! reality show when police arrested her. The show is called Pretty Wild and focuses on Alexis and her sisters who are “raising hell in the city of angels.”
The case of the Bling Ring has reignited interest in some old debates. One involves privacy and the internet. The suspects claim that they used a website that posts photos of celebrity homes to locate their targets’ residences and then checked TMZ.com and Twitter for news and updates to see which of their intended victims was out of town. It’s burglary, social networking style and perhaps a cautionary tale for celebrities and the public to think before they tweet.
The second debate is the ‘decline of western civilization via reality TV’ argument which never loses its power to incite dramatic proclamations. Namely, that reality TV has sunk to yet another new low and audiences who tune in may want to shower after watching. E! is premiering Pretty Wild on Sunday night, despite the protests. Their position is that: “You can’t shoot a reality show and be upset when reality happens,” particularly since so much of the show is scripted. According to Sales’ Vanity Fair article, E! fed lines to Neiers’ parents that included: “Everything’s going to be O.K., Gabby,” a comment they directed toward their younger daughter after telling her what happened during her sister Alexis’ court appearance.
The third debate is the idea that the Bling Ring was exploited by celebrity culture as much as they exploited it. That is, their obsession was born from the constant media attention paid to celebrity and the promotion of it as a desirable lifestyle. In a Q&A, Sales argues that showing interest in what celebrities are wearing during award season may be less obsessive than wanting to steal and wear their clothes but it’s all part of the same slippery slope.
While Sales makes a valid point, Pretty Wild and its Bling Ring connection also highlights the role that bad parenting has increasingly played in reality TV programming (and not in a therapy/Super Nanny kind of way). Clearly, when you have to be fed lines in order to comfort your child, it’s time to rethink your skills. According to a detective at the scene, Alexis’ mother, who was at home when she was handcuffed and taken away, didn’t show up at the police station for hours. When she finally arrived, she was in full makeup with the E! camera crew by her side. The scene is pathetic but does it deserve our interest?
Pretty Wild is doing nothing more than providing a public forum for a dull, dysfunctional family who should be seeking group therapy rather than a TV gig. The Neiers are being paid simply because they raised three daughters who view partying as a professional calling. Sadly, in the world of unscripted television their suspect parenting skills are not surprising or even original. Lorenzo Lamas is already doing parental disengagement on Leave it to Lamas but with one important difference: his small screen cult following makes his dysfunction slightly interesting. He’s Renegade as unfit father. In the case of Pretty Wild, Alexis’ alleged involvement in a celebrity robbery ring may have temporarily turned the show into a version of Law and Order but overall her family and their narrative are completely unremarkable. In the world of reality TV, that is perhaps the worst crime of all.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you are too quick to judge. You were not there, nor were you at the Vanity Fair interview. Yes, Alexis may have had something to do with the Bling Ring – but where is the evidence? Have you seen video clips of her stealing things? If it was all clear, then all of these teenagers would be in jail. Not running around in a reality show.
And stfu about the Vanity Fair crap. We all know VF exists to simply stir the pot, not to give real stories.
totally rigth CAMI