The Simple Life Returns

The plot thickens between feuding ex-best friends Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie.

E! Entertainment Television will pick-up the show made famous by Hilton & Ritchie - The Simple Life. The show will be produced in a new format that allows them to have nothing to do with each other.

Fox had declined to air a fourth season of the one-time reality hit, but E! said today it would show 10 new episodes starting next spring. The series' initial charm was the humor of spoiled, bratty rich girls interacting with real people and each other. But the two had a falling out, with Hilton saying last spring they were no longer friends, although not explaining what led to it.

The fourth season will have Hilton and Richie taking turns playing a "wife" and running households, with the family involved each week deciding which of the two did a better job.
If Hilton and Richie are still not talking, the format allows for filming to take place with each woman not coming into contact with the other, said Chris Alexander, spokesman for Twentieth Century Fox Television.

E! has also acquired the rights to rerun the first three seasons of The Simple Life.