As much as I'm enjoying The Simple Life (immensely, because it makes my sides split with uproarious laughter), I'm coming to the realization that certain aspects of it are staged, or at least the whole town was in on 'the joke'.

Take the episode where Paris and Nicole are working a cattle farm for instance, and are given a line of credit, but no questions are asked when they purchase non cattle-raising items (like a birdhouse and a giant hall mirror).