Paris Whitney Hilton was born on February 17, 1981. Paris is an American celebrity and heiress of the Hilton Hotel fortune, as well as her father's real estate fortune. She is a socialite, model, entrepreneur, and actress. She has been described as a "celebutante," a portmanteau of "celebrity" and "debutante".
In recent years Hilton has gained recognition by appearing in television, movies, commercials, and sex tapes, as well as modeling. According to Forbes magazine, in 2003-2004 she earned approximately US$7.5 million for her television and movie roles, but in 2004-2005 her earnings from television, movies, modeling, and personal appearances have earned her an additional $15.5 million. During this period Forbes Magazine has ranked Paris Hilton as one of the top 100 celebrities in the world.
She also appeared in the short subjects QIK2JDG and L.A. Knights, as well as minor and supporting roles in the feature movies House of Wax, The Hillz, Wonderland, Uptown Girls, Raising Helen and Nine Lives. She landed her first lead role in a theatrical release with National Lampoon's Pledge This! (2005).
Hilton and Nicole Richie (daughter of Lionel) starred in the 2003 FOX hit reality series The Simple Life,
in which they lived with a family on their farm in rural Altus, Arkansas. Highlights of the show included the girls performing poorly at various jobs, making out with the local boys, and numerous instances of them shown as "fish out of water." It was followed by two more seasons: The Simple Life 2: Road Trip and The Simple Life 3: Interns. Plans for a fourth series were put on hold when Hilton and Richie fell out and, although Kimberly Stewart and Bethany Carkhuff were mooted as replacements for Richie, but the series was eventually shelved by Fox with the explanation that the stars "no longer proved compatible."
On top of her acting career, she has also helped to design purses for Samantha Thavasa and Toys for Tots, and has created her own jewelry line for Amazon.com. Currently, her design work earns around US$250,000 per year.
She is the founder of Heiress Records, a label on which she plans to release her debut album in 2006, tentatively titled Paris is Burning. Her planned first single entitled 'Screwed' was leaked to the Internet and has been remixed by Alex G. Her producers for the album include Jane Wiedlin from The Go-Go's and Scott Storch. She will be covering Blondie's hit "Heart of Glass" for her album. She describes the album as pop, rock and hip hop, she says it sounds like Blondie and Madonna. Hilton has announced in some interviews that her album is due in April 2006. Paris Also has a single out "Caught Up In The Rapture" with Wong-G and Gizelle.
1 Night in Paris
An unauthorized sex video of Paris Hilton with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, leaked onto the Internet shortly before The Simple Life debuted, hence causing a sensation. Hilton sued Salomon for releasing the tape. In July, the suit was settled, with Hilton receiving $400,000 and a percentage of the profits. All profits she received from the video were donated to charity.
The exclusive Paris Hilton sex video, where she and Rick Salomon's private footage of one hot and steamy night together is exposed. Full video is 1 hour long. They're doing it horizontally, doggy-style and using some other "techniques" and we see 19 year old Paris Hilton sucking like a real porn star at the end.
Hacked address book
On February 19, 2005, the contents of Hilton's personal T-Mobile account were posted to the Internet.[6] They included phone numbers (which included many celebrities such as Nicky Hilton, Christina Aguilera, Fred Durst, Eminem, Lindsay Lohan, Alsou, Nicole Richie, Jay-Z,Anna Kournikova, Snoop Dogg, Andy Roddick, Kimberly Stewart, Benjie Paras, Avril Lavigne, Frankie Muniz, Ashlee Simpson), notes (with even more numbers and email addresses and reminders such as her date to host Saturday Night Live), and thirty-five digital snapshots. In two of the leaked photos, Hilton is standing topless next to the MTV Latin America's VJ Eglantina Zingg, whom she kisses. The images from the hacked phone can be seen at CallingParis.com. In other leaked videos, she is seen making out with celebrity lesbian Ingrid Casares and Playboy Playmate Nicole Lenz. Many of her notes showed heavy usage of Internet slang.
Within days, it was revealed that Hilton's account could be accessed by anyone guessing the answer to the "forgotten password" challenge question she chose: "What is your favorite pet's name?" As the answer to this question is a matter of public record, an anonymous party was able to guess it and notify the press.
"That's hot!"
"That's hot!" is a phrase used by Hilton (although an earlier usage is attributed to her Simple Life co-star Nicole Richie and has been used by others for many years). The catch phrase, a synonym for "That's cool" or "That's awesome," has since been parodied in pop culture outlets such as Saturday Night Live and even by Hilton herself, on The Late Show with David Letterman.
In 2004, Hilton filed a successful request to trademark the phrase. She wishes to market clothing with the phrase prominently emblazoned on the garments; she felt it was time to trademark the phrase because "I've been saying it forever. I want to put it on T-shirts and stuff like that."
Advertisement controversy
Another controversy involving Hilton was her appearance in a Carl's Jr. television advertisement, originally broadcast in May 2005. In the commercial, which introduces the restaurant's "Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger", Hilton wears a provocative swimsuit and soaps up a Bentley automobile and herself before taking a big bite out of the burger. According to Forbes Magazine, Carl's Jr. paid Hilton $400,000 for filming in this commercial. (as available to download at SpicyParis.com)
This has drawn criticism from television watchdog groups, including the Parents Television Council. The research director for the PTC, Melissa Caldwell, says; "This commercial is basically soft-core porn. The way she moves, the way she puts her finger in her mouth - it's very suggestive and very titillating." The Los Angeles, California based group says they plan to mobilize their more than 1 million members to contact the restaurant chain and voice their concern.
Andy Puzder, CEO of Carl's Jr., says the group needs to "get a life... This isn't Janet Jackson; there is no nipple in this. There is no nudity, there is no sex acts; it's a beautiful model in a swimsuit washing a car." Puzder was referring to the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy. Puzder says he showed the ad to this three children, ages 7 to 12, and says they weren't corrupted.
FOX News host Bill O'Reilly speculated that Hilton did not in fact eat the burgers she endorsed and was therefore dishonest, inviting her to come on his show The O'Reilly Factor and eat one of the burgers on the air in order to prove him wrong. Hilton has not thus far acknowledged the invitation.
In addition to featuring the ad on their website, Carl's Jr. has also built a separate site to play a longer version of the commercial. A similar ad with Hilton for Hardee's hamburger chain (also owned by Carl's Jr. parent corporation CKE Restaurants) aired in 2005.
Before this deal with Carl's Jr., Hilton lost out on a $750,000 multi-commercial deal with Burger King because the company did not feel her sexy image was a good fit with their brand.