Paris Hilton, born on 17th February 1981, heiress to the Hilton empire, model and co-star of hit TV show "The Simple life":
Sex Video? Check. Blonde hair? Check. Lots of money? Check. Welcome to route one to launching a celebrity career. Paris Hilton's famous "one night in Paris" video seems to have done little to harm her career. Is this perhaps due to the artistic night vision camera work that seems to take its influence from "Silence of the Lambs"? Or perhaps its down to the fine acting?
It is easy to stereotype Paris Hilton as a rich blonde airhead with all the personality and charm of a Skoda. Whilst Paris certainly isn't the next Mother Teresa nor is she the next Jenna Jameson. Apart from her video Paris is famous for appearing in tv series "The Simple Life". The premise of this show is that two rich girls learn what it is like to live with "ordinary" people whilst having their credit cards and other luxuries taken away. To be fair to Paris she doesn't show the obnoxious arrogance that you would expect from a rich girl. She does demonstrate a certain charm and humility. In doing so she gets her audience believing she is just an ordinary girl after all. The social faux pas she makes are generally more down to naivety than malice. Although she seems harmless you get the impression that the show is just a game to her and she is playing all the time. Would Paris go back and work on a farm if she weren't being paid to be there? Probably not. Perhaps then this is social awareness born out of financial greed.
The problem is that Paris knows that no matter what happens her fortune won't go away she can always fall back on it. Its like swimming in the sea when you're little and you know your dad is just a few metres away ready to save you if you falter. That safety net is ever present and removes the risk out of a lot of what Paris does. She will let herself be subjected to working on a farm but knows ultimately that show will end and she will go back to her mansion. The worst thing that could happen would be that the show gets panned. An ordinary person who makes a mistake at work risks getting fired and that affects their livelihood and their existence.
People always noted that Princess Diana was always down to earth when you spoke to her and treated you like you were her equal rather than her subject. This always annoyed me. Why shouldn't Diana treat you with respect? You ARE just like her. She's just a person. When your existence is so financially cushioned and the only thing people expect is for you is to be to be humble and kind its not that hard. It is harder to be kind when you don't have the cards stacked so heavily in your favour. Having these traits when you are rich and famous might make you appear extraordinary in the world of celebrity but it does not make you an extraordinary human being. Humility and kindness are a bare minimum for being a good person what ever your background rather than special trait to be demonstrated when you are rich.
There is something quite sickening if you think about it about shows like 'The Simple Life'. There was once a J-Lo song called 'Jenny from the block'. If you don't know anything about J-LO you will know that she is famed for having a big entourage and making ridiculous demands when she "sings" live. Anyhow In the song jenny from she sings " don't be fooled by the rocks that I got, im still im still jenny from the block, I used to have a little and now I have a lot, no matter where I go I know where I came from". Now excuse me but a person whose diamonds probably cost the price of the average persons wage package singing about how humble she is whilst she's lying on a on a yacht with Ben Affleck is slightly repugnant. Its like someone sipping champagne and eating caviar whilst talking about drought and famine in Africa. "Im there for you african children don't worry..mmm this caviar is lovely".
Ok people are famous, ok they are rich but this kind of thing seems to be like flaunting your success in peoples faces and saying on the other hand im just like you accept me! That's the problem with things like the simple life. It's an illusion. Money made J- Lo sing about being a girl from a Bronx rather than her apparent "humble girl next door persona". Money put Paris Hilton on that farm not some deeper love of working class people. Credit to Paris for standing on her two feet but in many ways she is just a symptom of celebrity culture. A victim of her own background. She could have just done nothing with her life and sat on her fortune. Instead she tried to make her own money .Ironic then that by showing she was like you and me, she just get richer, securing her financial affairs so she will never have to be seen mixing with any of our working class people again! Thanks. No really.
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