That 'Simple Life'

Carina Chocano, the L.A. Times top TV critic, finds Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie surprisingly watchable.

Despite its wickedly contrived and booby-trapped fish-out-of-water premise, "The Simple Life" is also the only show to pit American privilege against American poverty and let them duke it out for our sympathies. (Shows like "Joe Millionaire" don't count, as they rely on the social tone-deafness of equally marginal "bachelorettes" in order to work.)"

The show debuts tonight on Fox.