The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist - First Season

My mother comes in my bedroom with the phone in her hand, crying.

So she gives me the phone.

They rolled into the house around 3:00 to 4:00 in the morning,

popped a Xanax,

thinking, you know, we're gonna have to be up for makeup at 7:00.

And that didn't end up happening.

"I'm the detective in charge. We need you to come outside with your hands up."

There was a SWAT team at my house.

And that's when the real shit hit the fan.

Tell me about these teenage suspects

and why there's such shock in Hollywood?

Nick Prugo and Alexis Neiers, they were the two big names.

They were members

of a burglary ring that targeted Paris Hilton…

Horrified, disgusted by what they did to me.

…Orlando Bloom…

Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you.

…and other A-list stars.

It was like they went shopping in my closet.

Residential burglary, possession of multiple firearms,

and a large amount of narcotics.

Who planned the whole thing?

After they got arrested, it was a great story.

It was getting started.

The alleged thieves are now getting their own taste of fame.

We wanted to be our own celebrity.

At the time, reality television mixed with social media democratized fame.

Neiers is now filming a reality TV show

about her wild Hollywood lifestyle.

You lied!

-Stop! Stop it! -You ******* lied!

The reaction was real, but the setup was fake.

If you'd written it as a script, no one would believe it.

And yet a movie was made.

Consumption and celebrity are celebrated in a film called The Bling Ring.

Emma Watson is one of its stars.

Action!

Even the lead investigator in the case is appearing in the movie.

I'm really looking forward to my day in court.

The court cases were huge.

The defendants want to be famous.

The attorneys want to be famous.

The police wanted to be famous.

It's like a fucked-up LA Greek tragedy.

Hollywood is the only place this could happen.

I'm feeling like I have, like, a lot of regrets right now.

- About doing this? -Mm-hmm.

Let's turn to The Bling Ring,

that gang of youths charged with breaking into the homes

of Hollywood's rich and famous.

How did they pull off such an audacious string of capers?

Every once in a while, there's a crime that goes beyond

even the importance of the facts.

How they did this is very impressive.

But the big question is,

why they would do something like this?

Nick, take one, mark.

Hi, I'm Nick.

And I'm Alexis.

I know you want to get to the crimes, but before we get there,

we've gotta do the backstory.

This is where I grew up. It's called the San Fernando Valley,

and it's quite literally in the shadow of Hollywood.

Here's a flashy realtor to explain.

LA, it's the greatest place in the world.

They don't call it "La La Land" for nothing.

["Million Bucks" by Maino feat. Swizz Beatz playing]

You got the beach.

You got the sun, the fun,

beautiful people, the cars, the supermodels.

You might just get that shot to be in a movie one day and become a celebrity.

If you can get there.

People spend their entire life, chasing their dream in LA.

It's ruthless.

LA is a place of the have and have-nots.

People who maybe didn't make it in LA live in the Valley.

Once you've crossed that mountain,

that is people that can't afford to be on this side.

It's almost a sense of normalcy.

I grew up in Granada Hills in the Valley

with my mother and my father.

And my sister's three years younger than me.

It's a nice little suburban area.

We had a ranch-style home,

one story…

Just a very, like, average, you know, little life.

I guess it's just more suburban than the other side.

Being interested in that world of the fame and the celebrity,

I really wanted to make an attempt at acting.

I did several things.

I was on Zoey 101 doing extra work,

which was like Britney Spears' sister's show at the time.

You're going behind the scenes with the cast of Zoey 101.

I was on Nickelodeon. And that was cool.

I mean, driving to set there and I felt famous, I guess,

or what I thought being famous would feel like.

It wasn't the acting I was enjoying, per se,

it was the experience of the cameras and the attention.

It wasn't the actual craft of acting,

which is, you know, strange if I wanted to be an actor, right?

Um…

Did you want to be famous?

No, that wasn't, like-- That wasn't the goal. It was--

It was deeper than that.

Um…

Okay, that's Nick's background out of the way.

Now, over to me.

I grew up with all of this.

Like, the cameras and the lights,

and on the sets of major sitcoms.

["I'll Be There For You" by The Rembrandts playing]

My dad was a director of photography on the show Friends.

And I remember thinking it was so cool

every time they'd put up the sign for a laugh.

What we have here, is a difference of opinion.

I remember running around stage to stage

and being in the makeup rooms

of major Hollywood celebrities.

I was a model for many years.

I started modeling lingerie as early as 16.

I did, um, a lot of work for Playboy.

I started playing some sexy role on this sitcom.

And that's where I met Michael, who is Alexis's father.

He liked being married to the most beautiful woman in the room.

And then after that,

it was probably the way that they liked to drink and party.

My mom had been using cocaine at that point for many years.

But when she was having kids, my mom was kind of ready to grow up,

and my dad was not.

The girls came home one Sunday afternoon,

and they had their fingernails painted.

And I said, "Where did you get your nails painted?"

And Alexis said to me, "Amy painted them."

"We had dinner at her house, and it was just like we were a family."

And I was like, "Who's Amy?"

So, my marriage was over.

I remember my mom hysterically crying in the bathroom.

And I just think that's because her whole life fell apart.

After the divorce, we probably moved nine times.

I was, like, a needy, broken, damaged kid at that point,

and I was really angry.

Everything was good up until puberty.

Everything's going haywire. You start breaking out.

And I was confused

because, like, when I was younger, I would think I had crushes on girls.

I started feeling this way towards guys, which I thought would disappoint my dad.

I started becoming way more self-conscious.

I was, you know, going on these auditions,

and it was becoming more and more of something I would dread.

I'd be in a room full of people that I thought were gonna be better than me,

look better, had more talent than me.

Was having such anxiety that I stopped acting.

And then, to make matters worse…

…when I was 15, we moved to Calabasas.

It's, like, nothing like the rest of the Valley.

Welcome to Calabasas,

known for its rural settings and mountainous views,

and stunning Mediterranean and French-style houses.

Calabasas is known for its celebrity enclave.

You're gonna see stars like Justin Bieber,

The Weeknd, Selena Gomez, Drake.

If you live in Calabasas, you're a winner.

But we were on the bottom end of, like, wealth in Calabasas.

Going to school, you would literally see Mercedes,

Range Rovers, Porsches, BMWs.

My mom was dropping me off in a Honda.

You know? You feel like you're sticking out, and not in a good way.

I just remember this kid with, like a hat. Um…

Just really shy.

He's not comfortable being himself.

At that time in my life, my self-esteem just tanked.

Then it kind of changed when I met Rachel.

Rachel was just everything I wasn't:

super confident, super popular, super pretty.

She seemed to know the good-looking people, the right people.

She kind of took a shine to me.

She brought me out of my shell.