Paris Hilton isn't really an heiress. She stands to inherit little from the Hilton hotel fortune and has to work for a living. She was pushed into the spotlight by her mother and maternal grandmother. She makes up stories. She inspired the new word celebutante (and celebutard). Zsa Zsa Gabor and Liz Taylor are among the cast of in-laws. And her wild escapades are firmly in the Hilton family tradition of comic, tragic, amoral, pill-popping, boozing and sexually-athletic lives in a dynasty that began when her great-granddad started a global empire with a backwater Texas fleabag.
Those, in a nutshell, are highlights of the new book, House of Hilton-- From Conrad to Paris: A Drama of Wealth, Power, and Privilege, the definitely unauthorized biography that's published on Tuesday.
Despite the weighty title, you can count on judging this book by its cover, since author Jerry Oppenheimer is a master of quickie, sordid celeb bios (past subjects include Martha Stewart and Rock Hudson) and got lots of extra dirt after Paris' mom Kathy threatened legal action to stop him.
Oppenheimer treats the Hiltons as the Kennedys of the hospitality business. But the real focus is on Paris. And the author's spin on the promotional circuit? He feels sorry for the poor girl. "It is a bizarre family. Behind the scenes her parents were not opposed to (the sex video) because that totally launched her. Her mother, Kathy, put her in make-up and allowed her (into) nightclubs from a very young age. 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."
The biographer-from-hell says he was surprised to find that grandma was the "stage mother from hell," pushing Kathy into a modeling and acting career that never really took off. He didn't go as far as blaming the old bird for greenlighting Kathy's reality show, I Want To Be A Hilton.
As for us? We love Paris, even if she did use a body double for that Carl's Jr. commercial.
Comments (5)
The title of the article had me thinking of something else...
1 of 5 | Posted by JohnEDowney | Posted on November 5, 2006 7:27 PM
Celebutard — brilliant.
2 of 5 | Posted by Ms. Tumnus | Posted on November 6, 2006 5:50 AM
Wait, wait. That was a body double? Awww, man, that was the only Paris Hilton thing I ever liked!
3 of 5 | Posted by Tony A. | Posted on November 6, 2006 9:43 AM
Gah! I am so over that Celebutard.
4 of 5 | Posted by Ubiquitous | Posted on November 7, 2006 3:08 PM
How about CelebuSkank? I think its much more fitting for that walking praying mantis looking disease!
5 of 5 | Posted by KatiesHole | Posted on November 7, 2006 4:29 PM