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Nancy Jo, it's Maggie Martin calling
With the release of The Bling Ring directed by Sofia Coppola, E! Entertainment has capitalized on re-airing their three-year-old reality show Pretty Wild which stars one of the girls allegedly part of the actual Bling Ring. The girl in question, Alexis Neiers, was played by Emma Watson and pretty brilliantly by my count. She had her valley girl accent spot-on and perfected Alexis’ craziness.
For those of you who haven’t heard about The Bling Ring or the stories of the Hollywood Burglar Bunch, a group of teenagers who lived in the Hollywood Hills used the internet to figure out when celebrities would be away from their homes and then robbed them, going unnoticed for a few weeks. They hit celebs like Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, Audrina Patridge, Rachel Bilson, and Lindsay Lohan. The ring leader of the group was a girl named Rachel Lee who goes under the name of “Rebecca” in the movie (played by Katie Chang) who takes the outcast Nick Prugo, who goes under the name of “Marc” (played by Israel Broussard), under her wing. Nick Prugo then became friends with Alexis Neires “Nikki” (Emma Watson) in the movie, and her sister Tess Taylor “Sam” (Taissa Farmiga) and he invites them into his group of burglars dubbed “The Burglar Bunch” or, more famously, “The Bling Ring”.
E! started filming their reality show about the quirky family of perspective lingerie models/ exotic dancers Alexis and Tess also starring their little sister Gabby and their crazy mother Andrea (played by Leslie Mann) before Alexis was arrested for the burglaries. Most of the “Nikki”/ Alexis bits that were included in the movie directly came from the Pretty Wild show.
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They make everything so over the top in Pretty Wild that you would think it’s a parody. Don’t even get me started on the time Tess lost one of her dogs. But, I think the crowned jewel of the whole show is Gabby Neiers. They didn’t include much of her in the movie, but she is hands-down the most hilarious part of the show.
No scene in reality television will ever beat the pinnacle of Pretty Wild footage. The Bling Ring movie was based off of the novel written by Nancy Jo Sales, who actually interviewed Alexis for Vanity Fair while the show was being filmed. The moment when Alexis receives the copy of Vanity Fair is both hilarious and very sad at the same time. Any time that I have to call someone and I am angry, I now say “Nancy Jo, this is Maggie Martin calling.”
The movie included a little less Neiers family than I anticipated, but I enjoyed seeing the Rachel Lee and Nick Prugo side of the story as well. Israel Broussard became the relatable outcast that would do anything to fit in, include rob freaking Orlando Bloom and Katie Chung became the obsessed, calculating thief Rachel Lee.
The most interesting part of the whole story is that all of the burglars were from well-to-do families who robbed because they were bored. For Nick Prugo and the Neiers girls it was “innocent fun” gone much too far with the drugs, the alcohol, and the celebrity obsession. If I didn’t know ahead of time that it was a real story, I would have called it a ridiculous movie plot that could never work. I mean, come on, what celebrity just leaves their back door open?! And what teenagers have the balls to just walk on in to Paris Hilton’s mansion eight times? Coppola captured the story from the Burglar Bunch’s point of view and turned (some) of them from evil teens to bored Hollywood Hills kids that took things too far.
Watch the full Vanity Unfair clip HERE.
Full episodes of Pretty Wild on Netflix!
July 16, 2013
