The Bling Ring by Nancy Jo Sales

assistant on Friends . The breakup was hard on her, Alexis said. Neiers married the woman, but then later, “his wife left him,” said Andrea. (Mikel Neiers declined to comment.)
    Tracie Adler also got divorced from her husband Frank. Their daughter Tess was becoming “wild,” hanging out at nightclubs in Hollywood, and not getting along with her father. “Frank and Tessy’s relationship was tough,” Alexis said. Tess moved out of her father’s house when she was around 18, preferring to stay at Alexis’ house, where her unofficial mother now also acted as an unofficial manager, encouraging Tess and Alexis in pursuing careers in modeling and acting.
    In July 2009 Tess became a Playboy “Cybergirl.” Andrea was there for Tess when she began working for the porn empire where Andrea herself once had modeled. “I was in the magazine doing ads all the time,” Andrea told me. “I was a centerfold in the international edition. I was a Playmate.” Stephen Wayda, the veteran Playboy photographer who shot Tess’ Cybergirl shoot, also photographed Andrea in the 1980s, Andrea said. “I remember those days,” she told me nostalgically.
    Cybergirls, who appear on Playboy.com rather than in the print version of Playboy magazine, are considered second-string; but Tess was an instantly popular one. She was “Cybergirl of the Week” for the week of July 14, 2009—coincidentally the week after Alexis allegedly participated in the Orlando Bloom burglary. Tess was “Cybergirl of the Month” for November, the month after the Bling Ring suspects were arrested and her face and midriff appeared all over the media. And she would be “Cybergirl of the Year” for 2010.
    â€œEnough about Tess,” said Susan Haber curtly.
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    â€œIn my life,” Alexis said, dabbing at her eyes, “I’ve had a lot of struggle, with my dad falling off the face of this earth—he wasn’t a father. He wouldn’t give any child support for years and he was a drug addict and alcoholic and thank God now he’s sober and lot more in my life than he was before.” (Mikel Neiers declined to comment.)
    â€œAnd that’s why I want to be doing charity work,” Alexis said, “and that’s why I want to encourage women to take a stand for themselves. To realize that they don’t have to deal with this in their lives and through certain steps you can eliminate negativity in your life—”
    â€œOr the possibility of it,” murmured Andrea.
    â€œOr the possibility of x, y, and z,” Alexis said.
    â€œI dealt with a lot,” Alexis went on, “with a lot of women leaving and coming into my life. My dad had a lot of girlfriends, and there was a lot of abuse with my dad. Some physical.”
    â€œUm, Alexis—” Andrea cut in.
    â€œI’m being honest!” said Alexis.
    â€œOkay,” said Andrea, “but you also have to be considerate of where your dad is now.”
    â€œHe’s raised his hand on me a couple of times.” Alexis sniffed. “He’s smacked me in the face. Stuff like that. Just a lot of verbal abuse, emotional abuse—just pain, in seeing him in bad positions.” (Again Mikel Neiers declined to comment.)
    While as a reporter I was interested in knowing these things, I was also curious as to why Alexis was revealing such intimate details about her life just minutes after we’d met. I wondered if it could have anything to do with the confessional culture in which she’d been raised, with celebrity confessors like Oprah—whom her mother told me she idolized—and Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer, and Maury prompting their guests to spill their guts posthaste, as this made for better TV. Exposing one’s pain had become a celebrity rite of passage, and Alexis seemed to think of herself as a celebrity, although her reality show had not yet aired, or even been