HBO Rich kids talk about their lives

It isn't easy to get the rich to talk about themselves.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Champagne overflows glasses. Guests glide around wearing vintage 1920s attire -- handsome men in top hats, beautiful women in flapper dresses. Laughter mixes with the sound of Glenn Miller's "In the Mood."
It's Jamie Johnson's 21st birthday party and a regular ol' beer bash simply won't do.
At midnight, the heir to the Johnson & amp; Johnson pharmaceutical fortune receives the ultimate gift: inheriting more money than most people can spend in a lifetime.
Documentary
Johnson examines the travails and good times that result from wealth and privilege among 10 young adults in the HBO documentary "Born Rich," airing at 10 p.m. Monday.
"When people talk about money, they are nervous that that calls into question their right to have the money and the wealth that they possess," he said.
Some of Johnson's interview subjects are his close pals, including high school classmate S.I. Newhouse IV, heir to the Conde Nast publishing empire; Ivanka Trump, daughter of real estate developer Donald Trump; and Luke Weil, heir to the Autotote gaming empire.
"I felt very comfortable talking to him, which is good and bad because you let down your guard a little bit more than if I was talking to basically anyone else," Trump said.
Wasn't easy
Still, it wasn't easy convincing the rich and, in some cases, famous kids to talk about a subject that's so gauche. Johnson was turned down by heirs to the Rockefeller and Campbell Soup fortunes. And his own father questions why Johnson wants to pry into wealthy people's lives.
"He always told me from a very early age, don't talk about money, deny being wealthy if people ask you," Johnson said.
Johnson gets his fellow rich kids to open up about what he calls the "voodoo of inherited wealth." Having millions and billions affects everything from their dating lives (several agree a prenuptial agreement is essential) to who their friends are to what they plan to do with their lives since none of them ever has to work.
He wonders how they'd react to getting cut off from their inheritances.
"It's something you don't like to think about," Weil said.
Georgina Bloomberg, daughter of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, admits having her last name stinks because people don't always see the person behind the name.
Some of the kids talk freely about their drinking and drug use.
Weil is downright arrogant, bragging how he taunted poorer peers by saying, "My family could buy yours." Later, he slams the Hamptons nightlife as being "as despicable as it gets."
Weil later turned on Johnson, suing him for defaming his character in the documentary. A judge later tossed out the lawsuit and Johnson says, "Everyone tells me getting sued for the first time is a serious rite of passage."