When news broke about a group of L.A. teenagers breaking into the homes of celebrities, the media started salivating almost as hard as the six teens—Rachel Lee, Nick Prugo, Alexis Neiers, Diana Tamayo, Courtney Ames, and Roy Lopez Jr.—drooled over Louis Vuitton bags and Louboutin shoes. Like anything else sensationalized in pop culture, the gang's name was soon up for grabs. "The Hollywood Hills Burglars," stated the L.A.P.D.; "The Burglar Bunch," TMZ chimed in; "The Bling Ring," the Los Angeles Times published.
However, it was an article written in Vanity Fair magazine's March 2010 edition by Nancy Jo Sales titled "The Suspects Wore Louboutins" that caught film director Sofia Coppola's attention. While reading the magazine on an airplane, Coppola thought the story of the group who robbed the homes of Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, and Lindsay Lohan (to name a few) sounded like a movie. So she created just that.
Hitting theatres everywhere this Friday, The Bling Ring, starring Emma Watson and a handful of fresh faces (Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Claire Julien, and Taissa Farmiga) recounts the events of the infamous robberies.
For more about the true story, here are 25 things you didn't know about the real-life members of the Bling Ring.
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