Posted on 01/15/2005 10:40:42 AM PST by mware
Paris and Nicole’s radio chatter sets off alarms
ATLANTIC CITY - The Simple Life had only just begun Friday when things suddenly got a lot more complex.
The show's two co-stars, socialites Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, arrived at Atlantic City's John R. Jasper Memorial Fire Station at about 8 a.m. They met with the men, said fire chief John J. Bereheiko, and the crew let them use the fire-band radio for the 8:15 a.m. morning roll call.
During the roll call at the start of each shift, city fire officials use their radios to check with the stations and see that everything is working.
"They thought a female voice on the radio would be appropriate," Bereheiko said. So they gave the girls the mike.
Whoops.
Witnesses said what followed was a stream of swearing and playful innuendo that went out over the radio, audible to anyone with a specialized radio capable of receiving the Fire Department's 800 megahertz fire-band calls. All of the fire officials who heard it deferred comment to Bereheiko, who would not repeat what was said.
"I called the station immediately," Bereheiko said. "And I told them if anything else happened, I would immediately put a stop to" the taping of the television show.
"It was just totally inappropriate," Bereheiko added.
Television officials shrugged off the heiresses' escapade. "Have you seen an episode of the show?" asked Chris Alexander, publicist for 20th Century Fox in Los Angeles. Getting the bosses riled is part of the show's point, he said.
Suitably chastened, the girls continued with the rest of the day, which included pictures with the crew at the Jasper station, lunch with fire officials and training during an extended trip at the Anthony "Tony" Canale Training Center in Egg Harbor Township, and dinner back in Atlantic City.
The reality-television show features Hilton and Richie as a pair of massively underqualified interns learning the ropes in a variety of positions. The show starts its third season at 8 p.m. Jan. 26.
On Friday, they learned how to be a firefighter in Atlantic City. Atlantic City has never had female firefighters amongst their members.
The pair have had some problems filming their last three episodes in southern New Jersey. A show set at the Cleary Middle School in Minotola was scrapped when some parents spoke out; the pair apparently never showed up for a cleaning job at Caprioni's Portable Toilets in Dennis Township; and people connected with the show are being investigated for deer poaching in Cape May County.
At the Jasper station, Capt. Pete McCabe showed off the station, spruced up for the show. Upstairs, he waved his hands at the robins-egg blue curtains; the mural that conflated the flag raisings at Iwo Jima, the World Trade Center and on the moon; and the framed citations and the burgundy throw that covered the pea-soup green couch. Dominoes spelled out A-C-F-D on a nearby coffee table.
"They made it sort of a clubhouse atmosphere," McCabe said.
Downstairs, another station firefighter, Capt. Matt Deibert, sculpted sand into the form of the two girls' heads and the show's logo.
In the kitchen, production crews blacked out all the names of food brands with black marker, and hid specially bright production lights throughout the room. On a chalkboard, firefighters documented their ongoing contract negotiations with Atlantic City: "No contract: 2 years, 141/2 days."
Out at Canale, the pair tried their hands at rappelling, busting open cars and driving a pumper truck. Unlike Atlantic City, which allowed the show to film for free in exchange for publicity, county officials extracted $5,000 from the production company before they could film at the training site.
County officials took the unusual step of locking down the training center Friday, keeping most would-be gawkers on the pavement. A steady rain that grew chillier by the hour discouraged many.
But those who snuck through the residential neighborhood to the Tony Canale Park behind the center got an unobstructed view of the show. Tony Flemming, a county worker who uses the park for his lunch break at around 1 p.m., was unsurprised to see few people waiting for a glimpse of the heiresses: "It's not L.A. weather."
By 4 p.m. the rain had cleared enough to allow crews to attempt filming one of the girls, in full turnout gear, trying to rappel down the face of a five-story training building. About two dozen firefighters and film crews stood below.
Egg Harbor Township resident Tom Daughenbaugh knew this was where he would see them. "I just work in the area. I thought I would try to catch a peek."
As he talked, one of the heiresses, in gear, climbed timidly over the steel railing. It soon became apparent that it was a long way down.
"Come on," one firefighter shouted, "we've only lost one person. Only one person, one time."
She screamed twice. "Let me up!"
"Come on," the firefighter shouted. "Let's just put a wig on (a firefighter) and we'll pretend."
The heiress, clearly terrified, climbed back over the railing. The crews, visibly disappointed, began pulling back the ropes. "I guess they aren't going to put that on TV," Daughenbaugh said.
After she climbed down, the pair took turns whacking a broken-down white mid-'80s sedan with a fire tool. Firefighters encouraged Hilton, the taller of the two, as she tried to break a rear window and rescue a fictional victim. By now, Daughenbaugh had gone home.
"There you go," a firefighter told Hilton, as the glass crinkled.
A few moments later Richie took a half-hearted swing at the windshield and the tool clattered to the ground. A few moments later crews handed her an ax, and she took a handful of swings at the automobile carcass, busting headlights and side windows with glee.
The two, wearing oxygen masks, then toured the burn building and later apparently got a chance drive the pumper truck in several circles around a building as an Atlantic City police flatbed truck hauled away the smashed white car.
And at around 5 p.m., with the sun setting, and after all of an hour on the job, they clocked out, climbed into a maroon van and drove away.
They were done.
Because while real firefighting can sometimes be an arduous and dangerous profession, in the make-believe world of reality TV, the workweek only lasts as long as there is daylight to film it.
Where is the episode where Paris goes to the Hilton in Paris and demands to be put "in charge" for the day?
Oh, the corporation is too smart to let a PR nightmare treat the business as a playground.
These two are more proof. As if more proof was needed.
I imagine it would be horrible.. right?
just more little pigs
Paris Hilton in a room full of 11 and 12 year old kids!!!!! It was shameful that the school even considered it.
Shameful? Satanic is not too strong a word.
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