Saturday, December 06, 2003
Hilton gets dirty in new video show
The Paris Hilton obsession has reached new heights in the US with the start of a television series about the hard-partying hotel heiress's attempt to live The Simple Life on an Arkansas farm.
Just weeks after the release of a home-made sex tape turned her into an internet favourite, the US's most spoiled little rich girl starred in a reality TV show chronicling the month she spent with the humble Leding family in the tiny rural town of Actus.
The Simple Life reverses the successful formula of 60s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, in which a family of yokels tried to cope with life in Los Angeles.
Hilton, 22, and her equally brattish friend Nicole Richie, daughter of the singer Lionel Richie, leave Tinseltown to confront such alien forms as farm animals, pick-up trucks and supermarkets.
Millions of viewers giggled as Hilton -- whose family has a $US360 million ($490 million) fortune, pondered the mysteries of everyday life.
At one point, she revealed she did not know what Wal-Mart was, even though it is the largest supermarket chain in the US. "Do they, like, sell wall stuff?" she asked. When sent to buy generic, rather than name-brand bottled water, she asked: "What does generic mean?"
When she finally got to the checkout and found herself short of cash, she suggested she could perhaps take the extra merchandise for free. "This is not a soup kitchen," the cashier informed her. "What does that mean -- soup kitchen?" her friend inquired.
The undoubted highlight of the show, however, came when the down-to-earth Leding grandmother invited Hilton to help her pluck a freshly killed chicken for dinner.
Hilton swore she would "vomit" if she were forced to do so, but that did not stop her eating the bird that evening. "Tastes like chicken," she observed ambiguously. Future episodes promise to show Hilton milking a cow.
Although apparently talent-free, the socialite and occasional model is blossoming into a full-scale cultural phenomenon simply by playing herself as the archetypal celebrity who is famous for being famous.
"Paris Hilton is an example of the 21st century notion of a certain culture of celebrities," said Robert Thompson, director of the Centre for Popular Television at the University of Syracuse, New York.
"There is this whole new category of celebrities emerging. What we expect is not a great performance in a film or a show. What we expect is outrageous behaviour.
"One could argue that with Michael Jackson for the last 10 years, we are no longer looking forward to his next CD. We are looking forward to his next scandal."
The oldest child of hotel heir Richard Hilton and his wife Kathy, Paris Hilton made her public debut in a joint profile with her younger sister Nicky in Vanity Fair magazine in 2000.
She has seldom been out of the spotlight since, whether club-hopping in New York, dancing on tabletops at the Sundance Film Festival or making out with Australian Idol contestant Robert Mills during Melbourne Cup week last month.
Click Here To Download Paris Hilton Videos
Just weeks after the release of a home-made sex tape turned her into an internet favourite, the US's most spoiled little rich girl starred in a reality TV show chronicling the month she spent with the humble Leding family in the tiny rural town of Actus.
The Simple Life reverses the successful formula of 60s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, in which a family of yokels tried to cope with life in Los Angeles.
Hilton, 22, and her equally brattish friend Nicole Richie, daughter of the singer Lionel Richie, leave Tinseltown to confront such alien forms as farm animals, pick-up trucks and supermarkets.
Millions of viewers giggled as Hilton -- whose family has a $US360 million ($490 million) fortune, pondered the mysteries of everyday life.
At one point, she revealed she did not know what Wal-Mart was, even though it is the largest supermarket chain in the US. "Do they, like, sell wall stuff?" she asked. When sent to buy generic, rather than name-brand bottled water, she asked: "What does generic mean?"
When she finally got to the checkout and found herself short of cash, she suggested she could perhaps take the extra merchandise for free. "This is not a soup kitchen," the cashier informed her. "What does that mean -- soup kitchen?" her friend inquired.
The undoubted highlight of the show, however, came when the down-to-earth Leding grandmother invited Hilton to help her pluck a freshly killed chicken for dinner.
Hilton swore she would "vomit" if she were forced to do so, but that did not stop her eating the bird that evening. "Tastes like chicken," she observed ambiguously. Future episodes promise to show Hilton milking a cow.
Although apparently talent-free, the socialite and occasional model is blossoming into a full-scale cultural phenomenon simply by playing herself as the archetypal celebrity who is famous for being famous.
"Paris Hilton is an example of the 21st century notion of a certain culture of celebrities," said Robert Thompson, director of the Centre for Popular Television at the University of Syracuse, New York.
"There is this whole new category of celebrities emerging. What we expect is not a great performance in a film or a show. What we expect is outrageous behaviour.
"One could argue that with Michael Jackson for the last 10 years, we are no longer looking forward to his next CD. We are looking forward to his next scandal."
The oldest child of hotel heir Richard Hilton and his wife Kathy, Paris Hilton made her public debut in a joint profile with her younger sister Nicky in Vanity Fair magazine in 2000.
She has seldom been out of the spotlight since, whether club-hopping in New York, dancing on tabletops at the Sundance Film Festival or making out with Australian Idol contestant Robert Mills during Melbourne Cup week last month.
Celebrity Sex Tapes
Click Here To Download Paris Hilton Videos
