Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton’s reality show may tank, but she won’t
"The World According to Paris" might be a failure for Oxygen and the heiress alike, but her "career" is fine
Paris Hilton catching flack on "The View." People are taking a schadenfreudian delight in the apparent failure of Paris Hilton’s new reality show, “The World According to Paris.” Low ratings, bad press … the whole spectacle really does need to be put out of its misery. Personally I think it was a branding problem: while Oxygen may be fine for “Tori & Dean,” that’s a program predicated on the idea that Tori Spelling is a mother and wife first, star second. Paris and her unapologetic vapidity belong more in the E! family, along with the Kardashians, Kendra, and “Sex and the City” reruns.
But since I’m not in control of television programming (fingers crossed for next season!), Paris’ future isn’t in my hands. But it’s also not in the hands of her critics, who are gleefully calling Paris “passé,” and the bombing of her latest show the end of her career.
Which begs the question: what career? I’m not being rhetorical, since Paris Hilton’s brand image extends far beyond this one flop. Do you think people will stop buying Paris Hilton perfume because no one tuned in to see Brooke Mueller have an emotional breakdown last week? Do you think her clothing line will magically go away if her show does? Will paparazzi stop following her around? Will her books stop being ghostwritten? Will she no longer be an heiress? Will this even prevent her from getting another reality show in the future? I mean, if “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF” didn’t stop producers from making another show about Paris’ life, I really don’t see it happening next time around.
Paris doesn’t have a career, she has a brand. And a much bigger one than Snooki or the Teen Moms or most of the Kardashians (though she did ride the same sex tape train to fame as Kim). Her ability to get photographers to follow her around isn’t in question here, nor the number of Twitter followers she has, nor her family’s money. So what if Barbara Walters yelled at her on “The View”? Think about it this way: it would be weirder if Barbara hadn’t.
Paris is an irresponsible, vain rich girl who will never have to lift a finger in her life. That may not make for good television right now, when the country is more into Jersey girls and teenage pregnancy and bridalplasty, but as far as her “career” goes, you have to be of the mind that either she’ll still have it post-show, or she never had one in the first place. Both choices lead to the same conclusion: While losing a show might be a blow to Paris’ brand, it’s far from a fatal one. She’s already lost several other reality shows, hasn’t she?
The worse Paris acts, the more attention the media will pay to her. (See also: Lindsay, Britney, the Olsens.) She’s not going anywhere, unless she has a personality transplant and suddenly decides she hates the spotlight.
Sorry, everyone.
Drew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.
Responding to Paris Hilton’s “25 Things You Don’t Know About Me”
Celebutante tells the world there's more to her than meets the eye ... if she could only figure out what it is
Fun fact: Paris loves rats!! Yesterday, celebrity of interest Paris Hilton told Us Weekly a bunch of random facts that most people “wouldn’t know about me.” As in: Did you know Paris Hilton likes to listen to Katy Perry? Now you do!
It’s a pretty incomprehensible list, as if Paris realized that most of the world knows everything interesting about her already, and had to scrape the bottom of the barrel (i.e., iTunes playlist) to come up with some data.
Continue Reading CloseDrew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.
The five most bizarre moments of Paris Hilton’s interview with Lil Wayne
The heiress and the rapper discuss jail time, dreams and pet sharks
Asking the tough questions. Whoever came up with the idea to have Paris Hilton talk to Lil Wayne for Interview magazine deserves an award. It’s fives pages of the most hilarious Q&A ever printed, in part because Hilton can’t think of very good questions to ask besides “What’s your sign?” Then again, she and Wayne may have more in common than we think: They both are musicians, they’ve both felt the cold hard steel of prison bars, and they both like Amsterdam.
Continue Reading CloseDrew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.
Paris Hilton’s birthday cake stolen, nobody cares
Professional party crasher "Paz" stole the famed heiress' birthday cake last night and posted it on Facebook.
The purloined pastry. Last night, Paris Hilton lost her birthday cake when an uninvited guest took it right out from under security’s nose. Someone alert the paper! Well actually, no one bothered even mentioning the story (it was doubtful the partygoers noticed…Paris had already blown out the candles) until the thief fessed up.
The whole ordeal is posted on “professional party-crasher” Paz’s Facebook, where he recounts waking to find himself next to a giant red cake. You have to give the kid some credit, he has balls. Sure, he may write like Tucker Max, but this is 20 times more interesting of a story than Tucker’s sexploits. But the gist of Paz’s night can be summed up as this: Paz crashes Paris’ birthday party, Paz gets ridiculously drunk, Paz decides to “rescue” the cake he estimates at $2,000.
Continue Reading CloseDrew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.
Paris Hilton to appear in new reality TV show
Project from Oxygen will follow the heiress and her friends, exposing more of the celebrity's private life
FILE - In this June 14, 2010 file photo, Paris Hilton arrives at the Activision E3 2010 Preview event in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)(Credit: AP) Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton’s life “outside the tabloids” will soon hit network television. Oxygen Media has announced “The New Untitled Paris Hilton Project,” a series that will focus on “Paris and four important women in her life, through all of their ups and downs, loves gained and lost, marriages, kids, divorce and more, revealing a lively group of dynamic individuals,” according to the network.
Continue Reading CloseParis Hilton’s puzzling catchphrase battle
The heiress sued Hallmark over a greeting card. But what's really at stake?
What’s the weather like in your neck of the woods today? Should the answer be something in the unseasonably warm range, you might want to choose your next few words carefully, because Paris Hilton is watching. The blond heiress, who made being inexplicably famous a thing well before anybody knew what a Kardashian was, is savoring the sweet taste of legal triumph today. She has settled her lawsuit against Hallmark over a greeting card that depicts her declaring, “It’s hot.” And they say the system doesn’t work.
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Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.
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