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Arts and Entertainment

Richie writes, charts. So wrong.

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We used to think we loved everything about pop culture; we could even get some twisted enjoyment out of The Simple Life. But the appearance of Nicole Richie's book at #9 on this week's LA Times bestseller list is just wrong.

If you said that hardcover purchases by people who read People is good thing, we'd agree with you. But The Truth About Diamonds is categorized as fiction, sharing the list with popular novels like Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The DaVinci Code, both of which are packed full-o-fantasy, and award-winning literature with a capital L like John Banville's The Sea. What is Richie's book doing here when there's a perfectly good spot for memoir and nonfiction? As the publisher (overheatedly) describes it:

Through the eyes of the captivating Chloe and the talented voice of Nicole Richie, we are given a no-holds-barred look at Hollywood's new elite, behind the velvet ropes, inside star-studded premieres and parties. Whether they're doing the "circuit" (begin with shopping at Barneys New York, Marni, and Fred Segal, then end with the grilled vegetable salad at the Ivy), or ending up on the front page of your favorite weekly magazine, Chloe Parker and her fellow A-listers never fail to dazzle, their larger-than-life dramas more riveting than any reality show.
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Actually, we'd probably find this more riveting as a reality show. If it absolutely had to be a book, couldn't it have been more honest? Tell-all society-scenester memoir! What Paris is really like! Rehab sucks, but fame doesn't!

Next time, leave the fiction to the professionals, you know, the ones who write about vampires and stuff.

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