Rewind to the 2000s
The Bling Ring won’t be out until 2013, yet those with a keen interest in pop culture — myself included — are already anticipating its release. First, Sofia Coppola is at the helm, building upon the goodwill brought about by past projects such as The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, and Lost In Translation and following up 2010’s lukewarm Somewhere. Next, it includes a post-Potter Emma Watson who, adopting a West Coast accent, joins a cast made up largely of fresh faces, including American Horror Story’s Taissa Farmiga. Last is the plot: The film focuses on a group of affluent, celebrity-obsessed Valley kids who broke into the homes of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel Bilson, Megan Fox, and Orlando Bloom, and carted away approximately $3 million in goods.
Based on real events that dominated America’s gossip pages from 2008 until 2009, The Bling Ring looks set to capture the mood of Bush-era Hollywood, when teen and twentysomething starlets (as well as the attendant wannabes, never-beens and never-will-bes) conducted their affairs without any sense of impunity. The vehicle is perfect for Coppola, who has long been preoccupied with the vacuous nature of fame.
A lingering hangover
Though this burglary saga — which continues to unfold as the last sentences are handed down — took place not too long ago, it’s part of another decade and so feels almost quaint and retro. That said, is it too early to look back on the highs and lows of the 2000s? Would it be premature to conclude that stars who went the way of trucker caps, all-over-print hoodies and shutter shades are now plotting their return?
Call it early onset nostalgia or a lingering hangover, but I couldn’t help but perceive these echoes of the recent past. Case study one: A feature on Adam Brody, famous for playing the snarky Seth Cohen on the TV soap The O.C. from 2003 to 2007, in the May issue of GQ. “His slow build of a movie career fires up with six films in 2012, including the tragicomedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, in which Steve Carell confronts the mundanity of the Apocalypse.” A quick check of his IMDb page, however, reveals four (and not half a dozen) big-screen projects scheduled for this year — Lovelace, Some Girl(s), Revenge for Jolly! and the aforementioned Seeking a Friend, out this month. He is set to act alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme — that wasn’t a typo — in the 2013 farce Welcome to the Jungle. The O.C. turns 10 next year and this is an awesome, and somewhat unexpected, build up to the anniversary.
Stealing your attention: In Sofia Coppola’s upcoming The Bling Ring, Emma Watson is Nicki, the ringleader of a group of celebrity-obsessed thieves. The British actress is part of an ensemble that includes Israel Broussard, Taissa Farmiga, Claire Julien, and Katie Chang.
Case study two: A comebacking Lindsay Lohan. After waltzing in and out of jail five times in as many years, the 25-year-old appears determined to get her train wreck of a life back on track. Following a shoot for the January/February 2012 issue of Playboy, a hosting stint on SNL in March and a guest appearance on Glee’s penultimate episode in May, the actress has started getting into character as Elizabeth Taylor for the Lifetime biopic Liz & Dick. But let’s be real: a lead role in a TV movie, no matter how supposedly glamorous, is chump change compared to what her Mean Girls peers Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried have been up to since the Spring Fling dance. It’s been eight years since Cady Heron stepped into Girl World and to quote Kevin Gnapoor, “Damn, Africa, what happened?”
‘That’s hot’?
Case study three: Paris Hilton is still alive. In the heyday of reality television, The Simple Life was novel and, some would say, groundbreaking. Long before Twitter created an insatiable cultural desire for real-time public recognition, the series featuring the celebutante and her then-BFF Nicole Richie poked fun at the tabloid culture of hype and star worship while letting the hilarity of culture shock ensue. That it rode on the notoriety of Hilton’s sex tape, the best Hollywood publicity-grabbing stunt circa 2003, only strengthens the argument.
Fast forward to the 2010s and the airhead heiress’ ways now seem less vexing compared to Kim Kardashian’s lust for the limelight. Once the epitome of overexposure, the 31-year-old has since toned down the dumb-blonde antics, choosing instead to focus on developing her signature product line, which spans T-shirts, fragrances, and handbags. Disastrous forays into singing (2006’s “Paris”) and acting (2008’s The Hottie and the Nottie) have not deterred her. In fact, she has been back in the studio recording an electropop album. As MTV News reports, “the record is being executive produced by (her boyfriend) Afrojack and features her childhood friends from LMFAO as guests.” Hide the children.
While doubters abound — a 2011 New York Times article called Hilton “a Sony Walkman in an iPod era, a Friendster in the age of Facebook” — there’s something to be said for her tenacity. It wouldn’t come as a shock if Paris Hilton exploits her Bling Ring connection to stay somewhat relevant; the spree, after all, started towards the end of 2008 at her $4 m Hollywood Hills mansion.
As Nancy Jo Sales, a consultant on Coppola’s movie, told Vanity Fair, “It’s one of those cases that defines a moment in terms of youth culture and media culture.” Ah, the good ol’ 2000s.
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