Paris 'pushed into fame'
2006-11-06 12:16
New York - Some love her. Others hate her.
Paris Hilton's latest biographer, who spent more than a year
studying the world's most famous "celebutante," says he just feels sorry for her.
Hilton, whose great-grandfather, Conrad, started the global
Hilton Hotel empire, was catapulted to international fame in
2003 when a home video of her having sex with a former
boyfriend was plastered all over the internet.
Coupled with a popular reality television show called The
Simple Life, Hilton used the publicity to build a
multimillion-dollar celebrity juggernaut.
The wannabe star's outrageous behaviour and skimpy clothing scored her headlines and magazine covers around the world.
Biographer Jerry Oppenheimer, author of House of Hilton -
From Conrad to Paris: A Drama of Wealth, Power, and Privilege, said Hilton, 25, has made herself into the IT girl of this decade, attracting scores of copycat fans.
But he said her partying and rich-girl antics - including
a recent arrest for drunken driving - have irritated many. Dislike of her is so strong that she recently topped a
survey as the star most people would like to see slain
in a horror film.
She also reportedly has won a place in the 2007 Guinness
World Records as "the most overrated celebrity", and helped
personify a new word, "celebutante", a blend of "celebrity" and
"debutante" meaning an attention seeker better known for
misbehaving than for talent.
Loved or hated, Paris Hilton is here to stay for a while,
Oppenheimer said.
"Her brilliance is getting the attention - the
exhibitionism, canoodling with guys in clubs and getting on the
covers of celebrity magazines around the world," he said.
'Stage mother from hell'
Oppenheimer said he ended up feeling sorry for Hilton as he
came to believe that her mother and maternal grandmother pushed
her into using the family name and an exhibitionist streak to
become a celebrity.
"Her mother, Kathy, put her in make-up and allowed her
(into) nightclubs from a very young age," Oppenheimer, a
biographer of Martha Stewart and Rock Hudson, said.
"I feel sorry for her because in a way she had no chance to
do anything else but live the dreams that her grandmother and
her mother had for themselves."
Legal warnings from Hilton's mother failed to stop the book
and prompted family and friends to come out of the woodwork
with their stories, Oppenheimer said.
He said he was surprised to find that Hilton's maternal
grandmother was the "stage mother from hell", pushing her daughter into a modelling and acting career that never really
took off.
Since Hilton hit the spotlight, her mother has appeared as
the host on the reality television show I Want To Be A Hilton in an attempt to cash in on the fame of the oldest of her four children. But the show was criticised and had a limited run.
"It is a bizarre family," said Oppenheimer. "Behind the
scenes her parents were not opposed to (the sex video) because
that totally launched her."
Oppenheimer said it was hard to tell if Hilton was real or
the invention of a clever marketing team that was aware her
"heiress tag" is untrue. She stands to inherit little from the
Hilton empire and needs to work for a living.
"Paris will say whatever comes into her head. She tends to
to make up stories and scenarios. I do wonder if she doesn't
live in a fantasy world herself," Oppenheimer said.