Bland Ambition: In Defence of Paris

Though I may be accused of heresy, perhaps Paris Hilton isn’t the worse thing to happen to popular culture. I’ve always dismissed the hotel heiress as a vapid lightweight famous just for being famous. This, though, is changing. Sure, she’s still a vapid lightweight but it’s hard to dismiss her growing fame.

The Simple Life has been renewed for a fifth season; she’s had a few film roles (even outside of her infamous sex tape) and won a Razzie for House of Wax; she is signed to Ford Models and several other agencies – tell me you haven’t seen one of those ubiquitous Guess ads; she’s written, um, co-written, uh, well she has two books where she is credited with authorship; you can buy jewelry from the Paris Hilton Collection and she has designed purses and watches with more items to come; she has her own perfume as well as a men’s cologne; there is even a line of nightclubs. She is a never-ending brand.

Today her full-length album, Paris, was released on her label Heiress Records. As with everything Hilton, there is an appropriate amount of bile being thrown at it. Still her first single, “Stars Are Blind,” has already climbed to the top of the Billboard dance music chart. I wouldn’t listen to it, but I don’t listen to dance music to begin with. Check it out for yourself on her personal website or watch the video on her You Tube site (of course).

The point, and I do have one, is somebody likes her. A lot of somebodies it appears or Paris wouldn’t continue getting all of these gigs. Having rich parents will get you in the door, hell it will even buy you the building, but at some point she would hear the word no if she wasn’t moving units. Paris has two younger brothers and I haven’t heard word one about them and they’ve had access to the same Scrooge McDuck-esque money vault.

Sure Paris got her start as a rich, over-privileged socialite, but there are many in Hollywood famous for doing a whole lot less.