1. Paris Whitney Hilton was born on February 17th 1981 in New York City. Daughter of Richard and Kathy Hilton, her family is known for the Hilton chain of hotels founded by Conrad Hilton. Paris is regarded as an American heiress, model, actress, socialite, singer, author and entrepreneur.
2. She epitomizes the new age phenomenon of a ‘celebutante’. In our now technology friendly world, celebrity lives are very easy to access and a celebrity can be famous not for their talent, but for their newsworthy lifestyle. In essence, one is simply famous for being famous.
3. Hilton’s initial success in entertainment news was generally for her ready-to-party attitude. What brought her directly into the limelight was her role in 1 night in Paris, a sex tape of her and then lover, Rick Solomon that was leaked to the press.
4. Paris Hilton feels that she herself is a brand and has an image to uphold. It is for this reason that she dyes her hair blonde. She also wears blue contacts to cover her natural brown eyes because that is part of the image that she wants to portray.
5. Montana Fishburne, daughter of Laurence Fishburne of The Matrix fame, has cited Hilton as a key influence. Impressed by her fame and success after releasing a sex-tape, Fishburne copied suit in Aug 2010 at the age of 18, resulting in breaking off ties with her family, who did not approve of the career move.
6. Paris’ fame has spread to Korea as well where she took part in a music video of the Korean singing sensation, Kim Jang Hoon. Hilton was chosen over Jessica Alba and Scarlett Johansson after a survey from the Korean public showed Paris was more popular than the other stars. It is said Hilton earned up to US$ 1 million for her participation.
7. Throughout the years, Paris’ love life has been tabloid news. She has been romantically linked to Jamie Kennedy, Nick Carter, Leonardo DiCaprio, Oscar De La Hoya, Mark McGrath, Deryck Whibley, Chad Michael Murray and Benji Madden to name a few.
8. Paris Hilton was well known for her simple catchphrase, ‘that’s hot’. Although not an uncommon saying, Paris was able to officially trademark these words as her own to use for her products. The trademark only applies to specific merchandise including clothing, electronics and alcohol.
9. South Park, the highly rated animated comedy, aired a spoof of Paris Hilton in December 2004 entitled ‘Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset’. In the episode, Paris opened a shop in the city called ‘Stupid Spoiled Whore’ and sold products for the girls of the town to become a version of her.
10. In 2004, with the presidential vote for Obama versus McCain, Hilton took part in a campaign hosted by Seam Combs to encourage the youth of the nation to vote. Her participation was criticized when news surfaced that not only did Paris Hilton not vote, she was never even registered to do so.
11. The Internet Movie Database Website has an IMDB Bottom 100 movies list to represent films they consider a complete waste of time. As of 2011, five of the films that Paris Hilton appears in are on the Bottom 100 list.
12. There is a total of 42 Paris Hilton stores around the world that carry her perfume, footwear, watches and handbags, among many of her other self-designed products. Paris makes approximately US$ 10 million a year from the products that are sold worldwide.
13. Hilton wrote a book that made it to the New York Times bestseller list, ranking at number seven. In autumn 2004, “Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose”, covered the life and times of Paris Hilton and advice on how to live her life. This book would later be referenced in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations in September 2009.
14. After hosting a February 2005 episode of Saturday Night Live, Hilton scored the role of Paige Edwards in House of Wax alongside Chad Michael Murray and Elisha Cuthbert. She won ‘Best Scream’ at the Teen Choice Awards and ‘Best Frightened Performance’ at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards.
15. House of Wax brought in over US$ 70 million. Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum unveiled a wax sculpture of her coinciding with the release date of her movie on May 6, 2005. Warner Brothers granted Hilton special permission for selling T-shirts which read “On May 6th, Watch Paris Die” to promote the upcoming piece.
16. Paris Hilton’s first studio album release was in August 2006. Her debut album, Paris, remained on the Billboard 200 top ten for an entire week and 600,000 copies were sold around the world. The album’s first single, Stars are Blind proved to be a top-ten hit in 17 different countries.
17. In 2007, a new website was launched named ParisExposed.com. This featured pictures of private documents, pictures and videos that were found in a locker rented out by Paris. This material was made available when auctioned off after Hilton defaulted on the US$ 208 payment for the facility. The site began by charging its online traffic to view its material and had more than a million hits in less than 50 hours. Hilton later shut the website down.
18. In January 2007, Paris was detained for driving around after her license was suspended. The next month, again with a suspended license, she was caught driving 70mph in a 35mph zone, with her headlights off in the dark. She was sentenced to 45 days in jail for the offense.
19. Hilton was denied entry to Japan in Sep 2010 after being questioned and made to sleep overnight at the airport hotel, over her drug possession conviction earlier in the year. Japan’s laws deny entry to anyone sentenced for drug crimes and Ms. Hilton was made to fly back to the U.S. the very next day.
20. Paris Hilton’s Grandfather, Barron Hilton pledged 97% of the Hilton family wealth to the charity started by his own father, Conrad Hilton. Due to this selfless task, the inheritance of his grandchildren is proportionately minimized. That being said, Paris Hilton has her own personal net worth at US$ 44 million.