It’s taken five seasons to get there but Nicole Richie has reportedly out-diva-ed Paris Hilton on the set of The Simple Life this year.

A source told TMZ yesterday that Nicole was repeatedly late for filming the fifth series of the show and when she arrived, she would tell producers she didn’t intend to stick around for long, saying: “You’ve got me for an hour or two”.

The source added that the last day of filming was the worst - even though they were shooting the critical “show open” segment, she turned up “several hours late” with boyfriend Joel Madden and again threatened to leave just a few hours later again.

The socialite pair were filmed acting as camp counsellors for this season of the reality show - it premieres later this month.