If the sun is shining just a little bit brighter, the birds seem to be singing just for you and the cold cockles of your heart are suddenly brimming with warmth, here's why: Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie have apparently ended their feud and made peace.

The childhood BFFs-turned-bitter rivals, who in a not-at-all-suspicious coincidence will soon begin filming the fifth season of "The Simple Life," sent waiting paparazzi into a click fit when they pulled up together in Hilton's Range Rover for dinner Sunday night at Los Angeles eatery Dan Tana's.

Paris, looking surprisingly toned down in a brown blouse and brown headband, and Nicole, swimming in a likely size 0 sweater and styling garish red lips from Revlon's Joker collection, said little to photographers -- or each other -- when they arrived, although the extension-sporting Richie showed a rare enthusiasm for sustenance as she made a beeline into the restaurant.

No word on what they discussed over their meal, but they probably weren't hurting for conversation, what with Nicole's breakup last week with Brody Jenner and Paris' recent run-in with Shanna Moakler, the estranged wife of her tonsil polisher du jour, Travis Barker.

"They looked like best friends to me," an eyewitness tells People. "It seemed as if they had never gotten into a fight. They were laughing really loud and seemed more than happy to be together. There wasn't a slow moment in their conversation -- they chatted nonstop. They left hand-in-hand, smiling."

Shutterbugs got another shot at the duo's seeming de-escalation of hostilities when they exited a little more than an hour later and awkwardly plopped themselves down on a nearby bench to wait for the valet to bring around their ride, taking the opportunity not to chit-chat but to do a little texting as flashes exploded around them.

After a brief breather, Paris and Nicole -- with doggie bag prominently and perplexedly in hand -- waded through the camera crush and drove away. Later, photogs caught Richie, her two fluffy pooches in tow, heading into Hilton's Hollywood Hills home.

The tabloid twosome's PR-friendly tête-à-tête comes after more than a year-and-a-half of chilly relations, during which they very publicly kept their distance, even filming scenes for the fourth season of "Simple Life" separately.

"It's no big secret that Nicole and I are no longer friends," Hilton said in April 2005. "Nicole knows what she did, and that's all I'm ever going to say about it."

Richie has repeatedly denied rumors that their friendship soured after she hosted a screening of Paris' lackluster 2003 sex tape, insisting in the May issue of Vanity Fair, "That was completely made up. A, I don't watch porn, and, B, I don't want to see someone I've known forever having sex. I mean, that's gross!"

According to Nicole, they "never had a fight. I just decided I didn't want to be her friend anymore. We're just two completely different people; we don't have that much in common ... When Paris made her little announcement that 'Nicole knows what she did,' I didn't really understand what that was about, because we hadn't been friends in such a long time."

Tensions have eased in recent days, with Paris and Nicole separately hinting to paparazzi that they've been reaching out and touching one another. Last week, they reportedly met up privately several times.

Meanwhile, Paris hit Sin City this weekend for sister Nicky's 23rd birthday, and in between cozying up to the broken arm-suffering Barker, she managed to score several pricey presents of her own.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the self-promoting starlet walked away with some major swag courtesy of Palms Hotel owner George Maloof, who accompanied her on a shopping expedition to the Playboy store on Saturday night.

"Get whatever you want and something for Nicky," Maloof purportedly told the Bunny ear-bedecked Paris, who had just put in an appearance at the grand opening of the Playboy Club at the Palms.

Hilton, never one to pass up an opportunity for some swanky gear, did just that by picking out two diamond watches worth about $50,000 apiece, three Bunny necklaces and a Bunny belly ring, says the paper.

And in a final bit of Paris news, her spokesman proves once again that he's worth his weight in gold as he urges people not to assume that his client went one toke over the line after photographers snapped a small bag of a leafy-ish substance sitting in her open purse at a Milan fashion shindig last week.

"Things are not always as they appear," the flack pooh-poohs to the London Daily Mail (to his credit, he stops short of talking up her love of, say, oregano or herbal tea). "It would be unfair to draw any conclusions based solely on these photos."