Photo: Jim Steinfeldt/Getty Images Pretty Wild, which premiered on E! in 2010, was initially pitched as a comedic guilty pleasure, but almost immediately after filming began, it became a different, darker show. The series focused on three sisters — Alexis and Gabbie Neiers, 18 and 15, respectively, and 19-year-old Tess Taylor — plus their mother, Andrea Arlington, as they navigated the Hollywood social scene and chased fame.
Alexis Haines: At home, my mom and my sisters and I were getting up every morning and saying this affirmation together, saying essentially that we were going to have careers in the entertainment industry benefiting the world. Alexis Haines: We did not [audition for My Long Distance Relationship]. And we didn’t audition for Pretty Wild. We were contacted by a producer we had worked with prior. Then we shot a sizzle reel for [Pretty Wild] and eventually got picked up by E!
Dan Levy: When we first started doing it, it was like this totally insane reality show about these sisters who aren’t even really sisters who are homeschooled by their mom. And the goal is to get them to be Playmates/models/actresses/famous people. But also the teachings are all coming from The Secret.
Amber Mazzola, executive producer: They were in a townhouse, and the homeowners association didn’t want us to shoot, so that’s why we rented a house in the Hollywood Hills. We didn’t rent a house because they were broke. But we knew that they were broke for sure. The book and movie The Secret drove the girls’ “education.” The show eventually became synonymous with the phrase “and so it is” — a phrase Alexis, Tess, Gabby, and Andrea would repeat as an affirmation together. It was all related to the religious science the family practiced, which focused on the divinity of man and the law of cause and effect.
Brian Volk-Weiss: Here’s Andrea who reads this book and, thanks to its “genius,” lives by it. Her life is not made better by the book, by the way. I remember this mom, instead of teaching math and English while homeschooling, has this crazy thing to take to your face. Alexis Haines: To this day we say, “And so it is.” That’s just a huge part of our practice. We still go to the same church that we used to, and we believe you can create your destiny through visualization and affirmation. And, honestly, meditation. I know those all rhyme, but it’s true.
Amber Mazzola: We followed Tess and Alexis to jail [when Alexis was arrested and Tess and the production crew was accompanying her], and I had the camera crews sit outside that jail for hours. We just sat there waiting and filming. And then the show clearly turned, and it was now not about the Arlingtons, it was about these pretty, wild girls.
wdsmith22
Oh god I remember that meltdown 😂
louisemcsharry I enjoyed this thoroughly! 👏
Bookmarking to read this in the morning