Friday, March 27, 2009
Paris Hilton was born on February 17th, 1981, to Rick and Kathy Hilton, making her the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton hotels and source of the family fortune — estimated at $300 million.
Hilton moved between several exclusive homes in her youth, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Hamptons. She attended her freshman year of high school at the Marywood-Palm Valley School in Rancho Mirage, California followed by the Dwight School in New York for her sophomore and junior years. Famously she went to school here with Lady Gaga.
Hilton has worked as a model, actress, musician, and engaged in occasional business pursuits. According to Forbes Magazine, she earned approximately $2 million in 2003–2004, $6.5 million in 2004–2005, and $7 million in 2005–2006.
Hilton co-starred with Nicole Richie in the Fox reality series The Simple Life, which premiered on December 2, 2003. The Simple Life ran for three seasons on Fox. The show was cancelled by Fox after a dispute between Hilton and Richie, but it was subsequently aired by E! Entertainment Television for the fourth and fifth seasons. Despite talks of a sixth season, the series finished its run at the end of the fifth season. In March 2008, it was reported that Hilton would star in a new MTV reality series tentatively titled Paris Hilton's My New BFF, about her looking for a new best friend.
Paris Hilton has been quoted as saying that she is the "iconic blonde of the decade"' and compared herself to Princess Diana and Marilyn Monroe (a claim she denied in the May 2007 issue of Harper's Bazaar). She appeared in the 2007 Guinness World Records as the world's "Most Overrated Celebrity". In a poll conducted by the Associated Press and AOL, Hilton was voted the second "Worst Celebrity Role Model of 2006", behind Britney Spears. Critics suggest that Hilton epitomizes the title of famous for being famous; echoing that sentiment, the Associated Press conducted what they called an experiment in February 2007, trying not to report on Hilton for a whole week.