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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
The economy's tanking, so Hollywood responds with three shows that test our feelings about the privileged world of Prada, ponies and prenups.
Oct 25, 2003 | When I was 8 years old and my sister was 10, we wrote a musical called "Rich Girl, Poor Girl." In it, we told the timeless tale of a poor girl who spent her days scrubbing the streets and dreaming of being wealthy. One day she finds a 10-pound note, which she uses to enter a nearby private school (a very inexpensive private school), where all of the little rich girls make fun of her. In one duet, Sylvia, one of the richest girls at the school, complains to the headmaster about the poor girl's attendance.
Sylvia: She's so fat, she's so loud! Her head is always in a cloud!
She doesn't wash, or study hard! Her reading books are marred!
Headmaster: She'll go on a diet, she'll be so quiet, you'd better not make it into a riot!
She'll take a bath and do her math. She'll read "The Grapes of Wrath"!
Setting aside the fact that reading "The Grapes of Wrath" doesn't really tackle the problem of marred textbooks, our urge to demonize the wealthy was baldly demonstrated in our first masterpiece. Of course, we weren't alone in our hatred for the rich. Americans have a bad habit of encouraging individual success at all costs, then treating its indulgences as excessive and vulgar. Three upcoming programs -- MTV's "Rich Girls," HBO's "Born Rich," and Fox's "The Simple Life" -- reflect the fascination and ambivalence we have for the wealthy. How well or badly they come across, of course, is determined largely by the prejudices of the producers, and whether they intend for the close-up on America's most wealthy to incite thoughtful discussion or shameless rubbernecking.
It's not too hard to guess which category MTV's "Rich Girls" falls into. This reality show (premiering 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 28) follows Ally Hilfiger (yes, that Hilfiger) and Jaime Gleicher, two very wealthy girls whose lives seem to consist of shopping, getting spa treatments, and screeching into their cellphones. Apparently Ally and Jaime took the idea for the show to MTV. Can you imagine the unbridled joy at network headquarters that day? It's not hard to see why they'd be salivating over this gem. Although Ally and Jaime are listed as producers on the show (what can that possibly mean?), the emphasis here definitely seems to be on plucking out their most absurd or humiliating moments for our glee and disgust.
Fortunately, these two are more than willing to humiliate themselves for our entertainment and appear giddy with delight over being on camera. They quickly demonstrate that they're anxious to prance showily into dangerous territory almost the second the cameras start to roll. In one of the first scenes, where the girls chat about the prom that night while getting manicures at the Frederic Fekkai Salon, they carry on the kind of sassy, bold talk that teenagers trot out when they hope someone might be eavesdropping.
Jaime: OK, but half of me doesn't want to have sex with him, though, because it's very cliché to lose your virginity on prom night.
Ally: This is true.
Jaime: It's very cliché.
Ally: It's not gonna feel good.
Likewise, the two like to talk a good show about how enlightened and egalitarian they are despite their class status, but it's not clear that they've considered such things before the cameras were switched on. Riding home in the limo after a several-thousand-dollar shopping spree, the two girls discuss the importance of treating garbagemen like actual human beings. Then Jaime gets all thoughtful. "You know what I find is weird, kind of, Al?" she asks. "People pay money for clothes, but shouldn't it be, like, a free necessity, like water, because you need it?" Nice point, except that water isn't free, either. Later, Jaime introduces her close friend by explaining, "Liz treats every single person like an equal, whether it be the garbageman, the taxi driver, the saleswoman at Prada..." We get the picture.
Next we meet Michael, on whom Jaime has an unrequited crush that she imagines is mutual, despite the presence of Michael's tall, pretty girlfriend, Julia. Jaime ignores her own date to glare at Michael and Julia for most of the night. "I've accepted the fact that Michael is with Julia, but I do think that Julia feels really threatened by me," Jaime tells the camera. If Julia expresses her threatened feelings by sticking her tongue down Michael's throat, then Jaime might just be on to something.
