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Kimora Lee Simmons: Reality Faker

Kimora Lee Simmons made a big deal about the purchase of a $15 million house on her reality show, Life in the Fab Lane, but the house shown was far grander than her actual $5.9 million purchase, shown here.

Reality TV just gets more phony by the minute. In a recent installment of "Life in the Fab Lane," former model-turned- trophy wife-turned-fashion mogul Kimora Lee Simmons appears to pony up $15 million for a gigantic mansion with a glittering view high in the Hollywood Hills. Don't buy it.

The blinged-out bi-racial babe did not buy the house on the show. And a little research of public property records reveals that the newly single mother of two actually paid far less for the house she actually bought than her vanity show would would have you believe.

In reality, Simmons paid $5.9 million for a 5,923 square foot Tudor style house in the Beverly Hills Post Office with seven bedrooms, eight and a half bathrooms, and no view to speak of. In a delightful twist of irony, her new next door neighbor is none other than former reality star Jessica Simpson. Note to Kimora: Check your rear view. You're struggling star power is causing congestion in the Fab lane.

Source: Radar, includes photo gallery

LITFL: National Ledger Review

I never thought my guilty pleasure would be reality TV.  I’m not going to watch “The Bachelor” or “Survivor” but it turns out I’m a “reality” victim when it comes to food, fashion and renovation. So, naturally I’m going to be drawn in by Kimora Lee Simmon’s Life In The Fab Lane.

Don’t we all want it all? Maybe not like Kimora, her taste is a little two gawdy for me, but that sinful side of us would like to live a life of fame and fortune in the spotlight, be young and beautiful, invited to all the best parties and events around the world with two wonderful children to love.

On Fab Lane, Kimora lets us into her ostentatious home and life and brazenly admits to liking everything big like all six feet of her: big hair, big clothes, big house… even, she admits, her “big mouth”, which is open wide to say what she wants and get it.  Whether it’s waffles instead of a diet yogurt and fruit for breakfast to a full fur coat and dog for the Kimora Barbie, (who cares about Matel’s price structure) and the cover of Source Magazine, (only musicians are allowed on the cover), she gets it.

LITFL: LA Times Q&A

KIMORA LEE SIMMONS -- model, fashion designer and Lagerfeld muse -- has a house in L.A. and a house outside New York. She has two daughters with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. "Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane" airs on the Style network on Sundays. She wrote "Fabulosity: What It Is & How to Get It."

Ratings in the Fab Lane

Style Network notched its most-watched series debut ever among total viewers and key female demos with the premiere of "Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane" at 8 p.m. Sunday. The unscripted series, starring Kimora Lee Simmons, averaged 335,000 total viewers, more than doubling Style's primetime average for the third quarter to date, and pulled in a 0.6 rating in the female demos of 18-34 and 18-49.

Hollywood Reporter Aug. 8, 2007

New York Post on LITFL

QUEEN BEE KIMORA LEE SIMMONS JOINS SUMMER DIVAS WITH REALITY SERIES

If you've just barely recovered from the enduring drama queen Paula Abdul on "Hey, Paula" and icy narcissist of Victoria Beckham on "Coming To America," you may want to call your primary care physician or spiritual advisor to get through the rest of the summer: Kimora Lee Simmons has her own reality show.

On "Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane," which premieres Sunday night at 8 p.m. on the Style Network, the former model comes and Baby Phat business mogulette puts a cherry on the top of wretched excess.

See the jewels. See the cars. See the mansion in Saddle River, New Jersey. And watch Simmons browbeating her numbed staff with her "It's All About Me" personality.

During the first episode, she tells her VP of branding, "I'm having a really bad day. I'm trying to diet. I can't find the proper pill. The granola's not cutting it. I'm hungry. I don't know what to eat. I'm irritated. I'd be much happier fat. I feel very Anna Nicole Smith right now, rest in peace her beautiful soul. She likes pink like I like pink. But I'm just not having a good day. I'm hot, probably because I don't eat. I had my period last week. I'm just a little flustered, okay?"

This confessional comes from a 32-year-old mother of two who runs a multi-million-dollar clothing and accessories empire. Given Simmons' proven ability to get flustered at the drop of a hat pin

(she launches into a tirade when the housekeeping staff moved her teddy bear from the master bedroom fireplace mantel to an armchair), you have to wonder how she negotiates her way out of bed.

Simmons has been famous since the age of 14, when she was handpicked by Karl Lagerfeld to model for Chanel. Her exotic, biracial looks (her mother is Japanese/Korean and her father is black), as well as her six-foot frame made her a stand-out in any crowd. Her 1998 marriage to hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, who fathered her two children (the two are now separated), only added to the intrigue.

But if this is fabulous, you may feel a lot better about ordinary.

New York Magazine on LITFL

‘Life in the Fab Lane’: We Want to Be Kimora Lee Simmons

We were completely prepared to hate Life in the Fab Lane, Baby Phat designer Kimora Lee Simmons's reality show, premiering this Sunday on the Style Network. Our hearts are already full with Brett Michaels and Scott Baio! Surely, no other B-list celebrity could warm us so.

How wrong we were. We don’t merely love Kimora. We want to be her. From the opening sequence, in which she makes an employee cry, to her endearing views of motherhood ("I want to be a soccer mom," she says, agreeing to a carpool, only to back out later, pointing out "We have a driver") to her very own Barbie doll (but with a rounder face and trashier clothing), we worship the bitch. We wish we could live life with no filter on our mouth the way Kimora does; alas, unlike Kimora, we don't have several mansions, a doting (if frustrated) staff, and millions of dollars from marrying a rap mogul — and, okay, founding a clothing label. (Russell Simmons came off about as senile and doddering as our dear old dad.)

Granted, parts of the show we tuned out (the whole Russian-photo-shoot thing was a snore), but when Kimora threw down, we were rapt. Already we're using Kimora-isms with our friends. "You guys are not going to handle me, you’re going to be handled," she tells her incompetent assistants. "Don't make me bust out a nail file on you," she yells at another. "Notice I'm not paying attention to you," she snaps to her Baby Phat ad director. God, we think we're in love.

Hey Kimmy, call us, mmkay? We can play with our new KLS Barbie! —Amina Akhtar