Paris Hilton Biography

Defining Paris Hilton has been no walk-in-the-park. "Career party girl" doesn't cut it; nor does "fashion guru" or "B-class actress," and "American royalty" was arguably too dramatic a label for a girl whose true breakout role cost less to film than a night in a Motel 6 Honeymoon suite. Luckily for Paris, the early 2000s looked toward the financial elite and borrowed heavily from Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous in hopes of creating a new rush of money envy. Enter MTV Cribs, The OC, My Sweet 16, VH1's The Fabulous Life, and Paris Hilton, celebutante.

Heiress of hotel king Conrad Hilton, Paris became famous for possessing the ingredients for stardom, minus the experience/brains. As she grew skinnier, blonder, wilder, and richer, society blindly embraced her, and allowed Paris to adopt a movie-star mystique without doing anything camera worthy (no pun intended). This is not to say Hilton has no film credits to her name; in 2001, she landed a cameo role as herself in Ben Stiller’s Zoolander and later stretched her award winning acting skills to play a rowdy clubber in The Cat in the Hat (2003). Unfortunately for Hilton, her small role in James Cox’s Wonderland that same year was overshadowed by a larger role in a first class homemade sex video, which her ex-boyfriend promptly sold to the masses on the Internet. Interestingly enough, the ensuing lawsuit and barrage of negative publicity did nothing but bolster the ratings of The Simple Life, Paris’ new show at the time with her cheap sidekick Nichole Ritchie. The series chronicled Hilton and Ritchie's reactions to the pitfalls of everyday life, such as holding a job and shopping in outlets that don't stock $500 t-shirts. Sometimes it is truly amazing what America defines as “cool”, and Paris Hilton has not let this long-standing tradition down.

Paris has made a very public attempt over the past two years to clean her image up for not only the sake of the family name, but also her board room pursuits. Whether it is perfume, music, clothing, modeling, or any of her other many ventures, Paris is becoming a global brand in her own right. There is one thing you can count on, and that is a lot more Paris to come.