I thought, somebody should make a movie of this...Then I kept going back to it, I think because it was all of these things that I’m worried about in our culture...somehow it distills all the cultural anxiety of right now. I feel like this story kind of sums it all up. To me, it’s the whole idea of the narcissism and the reality TV and the social media obsession of kids of this generation, and the entitlement...All these themes are in there and what I was connecting to without being aware of it at first.
—Sofia Coppola, director, The Bling Ring
from the preface to...
THE BLING RING
How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World
by Nancy Jo Sales
Shopping, hanging out with friends, and celebrity-watching... That’s what teenagers did for fun in Calabasas, one of the Valley’s ritziest suburbs. That’s what a group of local teenagers did between October 2008 and August 2009—with an audacious twist. These teenagers went shopping in the homes of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, and other hot young celebrities. They stole designer dresses, blouses, jeans, jackets, heels, handbags, and lingerie; heirloom jewelry, Rolex watches, makeup—an estimated $3 million worth of valuables and cash. Then, styled to shine in their newly acquired clothes, they flaunted their loot around the Hollywood club scene and the Internet. TMZ dubbed them the “Burglar Bunch.” But the Los Angeles Times came up with a much sexier name for this band of teenaged thieves, and that’s the name that stuck: the “Bling Ring.”
Were the Bling Ring’s members (as some have claimed) driven to burglary by drugs, booze, and a desperate craving for validation and friendship? Were they bold, calculating criminals, with an eye for Dolce & Gabbana and Prada? Or were they just cocky starstruck kids who got lucky, again and again? In THE BLING RING: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World (It Books; On sale: May 21, 2013; Trade Paperback Original; $15.99), award-winning journalist Nancy Jo Sales delves into these questions and raises larger ones—particularly about the enticing image of fame and its destructive impact on American culture today.
Drawing on extensive research into the case—including court testimony from the celebrity victims and in-depth interviews with the teenage defendants, their lawyers, and their parents—as well as unsettling studies on the social and media forces surrounding it, THE BLING RING takes readers along on a sizzling “shopping spree” with the most outrageous burglars Hollywood has ever known, while compelling them to stop and think. Deftly combining provocative high-profile reporting with penetrating cultural insights, Sales shines a full, arresting spotlight on:
The intriguing relationship between the Bling Ring’s two purported leaders: Nick Prugo and Rachel Lee. According to Nick, who ultimately confessed to the crimes and ratted out his cohorts, the fashion-crazed Rachel was the “mastermind,” who embraced stealing from celebs she admired as her “mission” and made herself right at home (trying on their clothes, applying their makeup) in their luxurious homes.
The fascinating character of Prugo’s other platonic girlfriend and partner in crime, Alexis Neiers: lingerie model, part-time Pilates and pole dancing instructor, devout New Age Buddhist, and budding reality TV star (Remember Pretty Wild? It ran on E! for one season). And then there’s Alexis’ intriguing relationships with both her reality TV “sister,” Playboy Cybergirl Tess Taylor, and her stage mother, Andrea Arlington Dunn. (Note: In her screen version of The Bling Ring, Sofia Coppola cast Emma Watson in the role of Nicki, a character based on Alexis, and hired Alexis Neiers as a consultant on the film.)
The fuzzy wall between celebrity and reality. For starters, most of the Bling Ring’s targets had starred in hit movies or popular TV shows about people who were rich and famous or wanted to be rich and famous. (Aside from Paris Hilton, whose “heiress” background was the premise for her reality show The Simple Life, victims included Rachel Bilson, star of The O.C., about rich kids in Newport Beach; Audrina Patridge of The Hills, a reality show about rich girls trying to find themselves in L.A.; and Brian Austin Green, former star of Beverly Hills, 90210, whose then-girlfriend, Megan Fox, had co-starred, as a mean rich girl, with Lindsay Lohan in a movie about a girl consumed with wanting to become a famous actress, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.) Then, there’s the story of how Nancy Jo Sales stepped into a cameo role on the reality show Pretty Wild...and the story of how the real-life leading LAPD officer on the Bling Ring case got into trouble for appearing in Sofia Coppola’s film.
The real, deep emotional toll of the burglaries on the Bling Ring’s victims—celebrities who lived in gated communities, often neglected to turn on their alarm systems, and sometimes left their doors unlocked, paparazzi-hounded stars who prized their homes as the only place they felt private and safe and secure—and the striking lack of public outrage against the criminals who not only robbed them, but made them feel violated.
A fast-paced, true-crime thriller, THE BLING RING raises serious questions about our culture’s priority on achieving fame and living the celebrity lifestyle—regardless of the means or the cost.
About the Author
NANCY JO SALES is an award-winning journalist who has written for Vanity Fair, New York, Harper’s Bazaar, and many other publications. She has profiled Angelina Jolie, Courtney Love, Rob Pattison, Taylor Swift and Lindsay Lohan, among dozens of other famous actors, musicians, and artists. Her acclaimed 2010 Vanity Fair article, “The Suspect Wore Louboutins,” is the basis for the Sofia Coppola film The Bling Ring, starring Emma Watson, which is slated for release in June 2013. Sales lives in New York City with her daughter.
THE BLING RING
How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens
Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World
By Nancy Jo Sales
It Books, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
On Sale: May 21, 2013
$15.99; Trade Paperback Original
288 pages, with b&w photos throughout
ISBN: 9780062245533
Also available as an E-Book (9780062098917)
To learn more, visit www.harpercollins.com
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