What is with this Strange Paris Hilton Phenomenon and her Latest Rise to Power?

Paris Hilton has been a perennial IT girl of America for longer than I care to remember. When I first heard about her was right around the time I saw an E! True Hollywood Story on ‘The Hilton Sisters’ (circa 2002). I will admit, I was impossibly intrigued. We (read: A vast majority of America) like fashionable, rich girls (see: the entire CW network lineup). I mean, please tell me it’s not the WRITING you’re tuning into Gossip Girl for. Now, when I saw the show, it was before Paris or Nicky Hilton were super popular. I remember googling their names, and finding just a few fashion sites that showed their pictures at parties, the name of the designer they were wearing, and little else.

Paris for President

I knew right away I was more like the demure Nicky, but I couldn’t deny that Paris had a ’star’ factor. This has proven true. She’s had a myriad of appearances on reality shows (my guilty pleasure love: The Simple Life, and that self-indulgent and detestable show that Mrs. Hilton hosted until she got canceled), playing as herself in movies and on TV shows (Zoolander, Raising Helen, The O.C., Veronica Mars, American Dreams) and playing as original characters in movies and on TV (Pledge This!*, The Hottie and the Nottie*, House of Wax, The George Lopez Show, Nine Lives*, Las Vegas and most recently, Repo! The Genetic Opera). You might say that she started to suffer from overexposure. And yes, in more ways than one.

She’s had her damaging moments: an unauthorized sex tape, her CD, her perfume(s), her ‘Heiress’ book, spending time in jail, and you know that some of those movies were just plain AWFUL*. (I endured them so you don’t have to.) But it would appear that the character she’s best at playing is the one she’s made for the media. And exactly how true it is to her real life persona is anyone’s guess.

I have been happily disliking her for years. But a recent succession of events has happened: her video on funnyordie.com, her Nylon cover and interview, her presidential piece in Harpers Bazaar, and the library sending me my requested copy of The Simple Life 3: Interns.

I thought her video was funny, but even after reading both of the aforementioned magazines I wasn’t any more keen on her. It was while watching my guilty pleasure reality show that I saw the things she said in those interviews matching up to how she acted. She puts on a show, she pretends to be dumb in excess, she does what she knows people want her to do, and she does it while altering her voice and wearing heels. I feel an itchy kind of weird respect for her ability to do that. (But isn’t it sad and tiresome to not be who you ARE?)

Armed with my information, Paris starts to slowly morph into less of a caricature of someone I’d like to slap, and more as a girl who’s getting ahead and happily taking risks for fame. In today’s world of reality TV, blogging, viral videos, and exes selling your sex tapes, this very possibly might have been a similar route Marilyn Monroe could have taken.

Paris in the Pink House

The Nylon article more than hints that the real Paris is much more a deeper-voiced, intelligent girl than how we know her as the stereotypical ‘dumb blonde’ that says “That’s Hot, bitches” every five minutes. Just as Jessica Simpson claimed that she wasn’t really that ‘ditzy, dumb blonde’ on her reality show The Newlyweds, the more I see that Hilton does the same thing. (Newsflash: Reality TV doesn’t work when people are being real? Who would have thought.)

Suddenly, when Hayden Panettiere calls Paris Hilton a ‘marketing genius’ you realize, maybe she IS. Because we’re certainly talking about her (for good or bad), she’s on the covers of major magazines, she’s got a new MTV reality TV show coming up (Paris Hilton’s My New BFF), she’s really got everything – including the newest Prada shoes.

Paris is so much a ‘character’ that people can write for/as her. Which is too bad. I’d rather have Paris’s real answers than have the Harper’s Bazaar interview having been written ‘as Paris’, and not by her.

Can Paris become more than her image? Does she even want to? Or is this ‘image’ the most lucrative and easy way for her to be in this industry? While we laugh at her, is she laughing right back (all the way to secret bank made of solid gold)?

But has anyone else become a convert? Stylefrizz’s stance is that Nylon’s November issue with Paris on the cover was a major let down. Which I can understand. I love Nylon, and it was like – whaaaaat? ‘Nooo! Don’t let her take over a good magazine like Nylon!’ Celebrity Today, and Hollywood Backwash seems to feel the same way – utterly unimpressed. Superficial Diva seems possibly a bit more pro-Paris. But does ANYONE else want to give Paris another chance? Have I simply suffered a bout of insanity? Tomorrow will I wake up and laugh at ever thinking about taking Paris Hilton seriously? (I still loathe Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton, for anyone keeping track. I haven’t gone totally bonkers.)

One thing is certain, I’m left wondering just who IS this strange Paris Hilton figure, and where can I get her shoes?

Edit:

I actually wonder a few more things.

1. WHERE is Tinkerbell? She was more famous than the Taco Bell dog, and now I never see or hear about her. It’s possible there’s a blog dedicated to Tinkerbell sightings, but I’m not that google-crazy. With that Tinkerbell movie coming out, you’d think she’d be going to the premiere.

2. Is all of this ‘Paris for President’ good, clean, fun to make these political times less tense, or is this just making our political system seem even more like a joke? Are people going to write in ‘Paris Hilton’ on their ballots? Because that? SAD and WRONG. That’s like voting for Nader - who yes, is running for president this year once again. Voting shouldn’t be a joke.

Unless maybe you’re voting in a clown competition.

Paris Hilton on IMDB.com

Amazon links:

The Simple Life – The Complete Fifth Season (Goes to Camp)

House of Wax (Widescreen Edition)

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