Nicole Camille Richie was born September 21, 1981. She is an American actress, singer, and socialite best known for being the daughter of singer Lionel Richie and for her role in The Simple Life.
Nicole was born in Berkeley, California. Her biological father is widely rumored to be musician Pete Escovedo, brother of 1980s pop percussionist Sheila E. and son of famed Latin percussionist Pete Escovedo, but this was directly denied by Nicole in the November 2005 issue of Jane magazine. According to an April 2006 Tatler magazine interview with Nicole, her biological father was a drummer who worked with Lionel Richie; her biological mother was a backstage assistant for Lionel. When Nicole was three, Lionel and his wife Brenda Harvey-Richie informally adopted her and raised her as their daughter. When she was nine, they went through the legal formalities of the adoption; she still speaks with her biological mother.
Nicole has studied the cello, violin, piano, and some figure skating, and she has plans to pursue a music career. She also attended the University of Arizona for two years after graduating from high school. She stated, "I went to the University of Arizona. I stopped because I went there for two years and I felt like I experienced college or whatever. I'm over it. I like Hollywood better." She made her musical debut in February 2005 with a live appearance on ABC's The View playing the piano. Her godfather is Michael Jackson.
Nicole and Paris Hilton starred in the 2003 reality series The Simple Life, in which they lived for a month with a family in the rural community of Altus, Arkansas. Later seasons of the show had Richie and Hilton in a road-trip across the United States, and an East Coast trek on a Greyhound bus while performing various internships.
On 20 April 2005, amid media reports that their friendship was in trouble, Paris Hilton released a statement saying "It's no big secret that Nicole and I are no longer friends," and "Nicole knows what she did, and that's all I'm ever going to say about it."A circulating rumor was the story that Nicole had shown Paris's sex tape at a party (Richie has denied this). There were also rumors of Hilton's being jealous of Nicole's rising stardom. Richie, however, said "There's nothing that really happened, we've just grown apart." In the November 2005 Jane magazine interview, she also said "We really haven't been friends in probably about two years." They had been friends since childhood. Richie is still friends with Paris's sister Nicky, who was to serve as a bridesmaid at Nicole's wedding, until it was called off in December, 2005.
Initially, because of the end of Richie's friendship with Hilton, Kimberly Stewart was tapped to be her replacement in The Simple Life 4. In late 2005, FOX dropped The Simple Life saying they didn't see a place for it in their schedule. A month later, cable network E! picked up the fourth season - "The Simple Life 4 - Till Death Do Us Apart with both Hilton and Richie as participants,in a wife swap style programme, though both would do tasks separately and not be seen together on screen.
She has also made appearances in films and Fox's Madtv. Her first major acting role was a supporting role as cheerleader Kelly Stepford in 2005 comedy Kids In America.
Richie recently wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Truth About Diamonds. The novel is loosely based on her life, but is mostly fictional. It chronicles Chloe Parker, the adopted daughter of a singer who makes her way through all of the hottest nightclubs and parties in Hollywood and battles a drug addiction. It was rumored that a character in the book, Simone Westlake, was based on Hilton; Simone does a few things similarly to her, such as "accidentally on purpose" losing her cellular telephone and circulating the phone numbers of celebrities to the general public.
On December 1st, 2005, Richie signed a deal with 20th Century Fox Television that could land her in a TV sitcom. Richie's deal could either put her into an existing show or have a new show built around her. She is rumoured to be joining the cast of The OC in its fourth season.
Richie is a former model for Bongo Jeans, and is the current face of Jimmy Choo. She was also signed to promote Green M&M's in Australia. However the candy company behind M&M's was worried that Richie's slender appearance was not right for the promotion of candy, and instead it signed actress Pamela Anderson. Richie, however rose above the disappointment, and soon after landed herself a position promoting Diet Dr Pepper, and she has been seen promoting the soft drink in several locations.
Another current project of Richie's is a music album, with no release date specified as of yet. The seven songs reported to be done so far are a mixture of rock, soul and dance. One track, called "Dandelion", which is a demo recording and a cover of a song by boy band LFO, was leaked early; it is a melodic pop-track. In 2005, Richie appeared in and co-hosted at the 19th Annual Soul Train Music Awards.
n February of 2003, Richie was arrested in Malibu, California, and charged with possession of heroin. She has since been a patient in a drug-rehabilitation hospital.
In December 2003, she publicly spoke out in defense of her godfather Michael Jackson following his accusations of child molestation.
Following the 2003 Billboard Music Awards, the FCC received 80,000 complaints after Richie said "fucking" and "shit" during the show's broadcast (the network didn't edit the words). This was the FCC complaint record, until it was broken following Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's appearance at Super Bowl XXXVIII. The FCC ruled that the words were indecent, but did not fine FOX.
In early 2005, Richie received tabloid speculation of having an eating disorder. Richie, however, said that "I've always been really skinny. I just went through a heavier stage after rehab and during Simple Life 1. Now I have a trainer and the weight has gradually come off."
Nicole Richie acknowledged in May 2006 that she was actually too thin and stated that she was on the path to gaining weight, adding that she was worried young girls would want to look like her.
Nicole's stylist, Rachel Zoe, is also the stylist of two of her friends, Mischa Barton and Lindsay Lohan, hence they have been seen to be wearing what looks like the exact same dress, which can be seen in March's edition of Australian fashion magazine 'Shop Till You Drop' (p 21).
She was engaged to club DJ Adam Goldstein also known as D.J. AM. Instead of using a diamond ring, Goldstein proposed with a sapphire ring, her birthstone. They were said to be considering a Jessica Simpson-type reality show of their own. Nicole has since said that she would never agree to doing a reality show about her personal life and relationships. They announced their engagement in February 2005 after dating since 2003 and were set to marry in early 2006. On December 7th, 2005, she and Adam broke off their 9 month engagement, but they were publicly seen together again in early 2006. And are most likely back together, pictures have been taken of them cuddling at the beach and of Nicole attending Adam's 33rd surprise birthday bash. There have even been rumors of their engagement being back on.
Nicole previously dated Canadian music producer and entrepreneur Brad Salyn for several months in 2002. The two continue to be friends, with Salyn producing several tracks on Nicole's upcoming debut album.
In 2006, rapper Busta Rhymes proclaimed on a radio show that he engaged in sexual acts with Richie, but she has not commented. Soon afterwards, writer/director Kevin Smith claimed in a college speech that Richie and actor Jason Mewes engaged in a drunken sex act in a bathroom stall, though Richie has responded by saying that it is not true.
|
MORE SITES | ALL STARS CENTRAL
|
