Paris Is Not An Island
Paris Hilton wants a transformation. No, she doesn’t want some of those little plastic toys that you twist around and change from a robot to a dinosaur that shoots rockets from its eyes, she wants to transform herself from the airheaded bimbo we have grown to know and love into someone we should take seriously. No, I’m serious.
She wants us to forget that she was ever a club-hopping, spit-swapping, firecrotch-laughing, pouty-posing, drunk-driving party animal of an heiress, and she wants to reinvent herself as someone worthy of our respect:
As you may remember from the incessant news coverage, Hilton spent 23 days this summer in jail for violating her probation on a DUI charge. Like so many ex-cons before her, she says that she emerged a changed woman. She’s cut her hair and moved into a paparazzi-proof gated community. She’s cut back on the clubbing and even—ohmygod—changed her phone number. “There are a lot of bad people in L.A.,” she says. “Before, my life was about having fun, going to parties—it was a fantasy. But when I had time to reflect, I felt empty inside. I want to leave a mark on the world.”
While I do give Paris props for doing some self-reflection (and I truly believe she has, as much as she is capable at this point in her life), I have to wonder if a leopard can change its pink, sequined spots so quickly. After all, the only life Paris has known is one of privilege, with little to no want or restrictions, save that pesky little stint in the pokey. It’s difficult to go from a life of doing whatever one wishes, to a life of self-control.
And just what does Paris want to do, anyway? Well, for starters, she’s going on a charity mission to Rwanda. Yes, that Rwanda. If “Paris Hilton” and “Rwanda” sound like oxymorons to you (and no, I am not calling Paris an ox moron), they do to me as well. I’m not saying that Paris’ newfound philanthropy is not genuine, because it very well may be. But I’m not so sure that she knows exactly what she’s getting into:
She’ll be in Rwanda for five days, visiting schools and health-care clinics and bunking in decidedly un-Hilton-like accommodations. “I’m scared, yeah. I’ve heard it’s really dangerous,” she says. “I’ve never been on a trip like this before.” She says she’ll resort to eating candy bars if that’s what it takes to get her through any foreign-cuisine issues.
Well, I hope she is packing them in her suitcases, because I don’t think that Rwanda will have a 24-hour Walgreen’s on the corner. And she does realize that chocolate melts in warm conditions, right?  I think the last thing I’d be worrying about there is what I’m going to eat or how I’m going to keep my candy bar from melting. And if being in jail caused her to have panic attacks, Rwanda might be even more likely to unsettle her.
But my beef with this whole thing is not that she’s going to Rwanda, or that she’s making an attempt to change her party lifestyle, both admirable things if she can pull them off. No, it’s that she seems to be thinking of this as yet another photo-op, another soundbite of her made-for-reality-TV life:
She’ll be traveling with a little-known children’s charity called Playing for Good. “She’s using her celebrity and the cameras that follow her for the good of humanity,” says Scott Lazerson, the organization’s founder. Let’s not forget the good of Lazerson, and Hilton. Turns out that he’s filming the trip in hopes of selling it as a reality show called “The Philanthropist,” featuring various selfless celebrities who rescue the world’s poor. Hilton says she doesn’t think this sideshow undercuts her sincerity a bit. A camera already follows her everywhere, by her own arrangement. Hilton wants to use that footage to make a film about herself. “I love having everything documented,” she says. “It shows people what everyday life is like for me, how hard I work. There are a lot of misconceptions about me.”
A reality show?
Don’t get me wrong. I can understand wanting to bring attention to the plight of the underprivileged around the world. I can understand wanting to film and record people working with charity missions. I am in no way saying that the charity in question is not a fine organization doing good works around the world (and here is a link to their site, in case you would like to make a donation). And I absolutely do not think Paris is stupid, an impression Paris admits she has helped along. I think she is a bright young woman, as is evidenced by the multi-million dollar empire she’s built for herself outside of her inheritance.
But what I am saying is that I’m not so sure Paris really “gets” it, not quite yet, not when she’s got to have cameras filming her every move. I certainly do hope she does after this trip, once she sees that there are people who live in situations unimaginable to Paris and her ilk. I sincerely hope it finally sinks into her head that instead of using her millions to party and get high, she can do some good with her place in life. I think that if she ever truly “gets it”, she could be a tremendous force for good in the world.
Oh, and here’s one more beef I have with the whole situation….why do we need to see “various selfless celebrities” going about the world “rescuing” the world’s poor? Like I said, I’m all for publicity for a cause, but I have a feeling that many of these celebrities treat these things as simply another photo-op, swoop in and pose and look concerned and then never go back again, leaving people hanging with nothing but empty promises.
Why do so many celebrities (not all, but many) need a camera in their face to do a good deed? Do people have to be rewarded (in this case with publicity) when they do something good? What happened to doing one’s good deeds in secret? Yes, there are times when you do need a famous face to bring publicity to your cause, and there are a great deal of celebrities who are attached to various causes and do great things for them. But for some, that is all it is….just loaning their face, just doing a photo-op, just giving a soundbite and going home.
Paris, I certainly hope that you can do some good with your trip. I wish you the best and I hope you have a safe journey. Just remember…when you leave Rwanda, all those people you met there have to stay there. Don’t get back to your clubs and your gated paparazzi-free community and forget about all of what you saw and learned….if you truly want to be a changed woman, that is. Remember these words by John Donne:
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.  (Meditation XVII)
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K, You expound words of wisdom and insight as though they were water and the world were on fire. Humbling.
As for you sweet Paris, do good once, and keep doing it forever. Therein will lay your mark on this world.
Comment by D — October 15, 2007 @ 9:32 pm
I have never liked Paris - indeed, it was my seething dislike for her that brought me to celebrity sites in the first place. I consider her shallow, vapid, tasteless and a waste of food as she has lived her life thus far. If she is going to change, good for her - indeed, good for the entire world, as you have pointed out, no man is an island. But I doubt that she’ll really be able to pull it off. The fact that she’s having cameras follow her seem to point out that she just doesn’t quite get it, that she is too steeped in the surface realities of her own world to see outside of it. As you pointed out, k (and for once I am humbled by someone else’s eloquent writing and cannot quite express myself well enough, so I’ll just say, “what she said!”). Maybe I’m wrong though, and Paris is capable of change. The mere fact that she’s actually going to Rwanda is astounding. I guess maybe her jail experience did make an impression on her after all? And, possibly that process of change will be exponentially speeded up by a trip to Africa. But I think she’s just trying to reinvent her image, and this is part of the plan. I think that after her jail stint, and since she is getting a little older, her old glittery image doesn’t quite fit her as well as it used to she she’s being advised to do something with a little more substance and portray somebody who cares. The whole trip was probably thought up by her image-makers. We’ll be lucky if any of it penetrates her gilded heart, which sits in there like a bird in a cage. Sadly, I am that cynical and that’s what I think.
Comment by Mitsu — October 16, 2007 @ 9:49 am
Thank you, Mitsu, I sincerely appreciate your kind words. It’s nice to not be called evil.
If I did the zodiac thing, I’d say I was a true Gemini…one part of me is very cynical, and says, “Yeah right!” to any declaration of Paris wanting to change; but the other part of me is very hopeful, and thinks it could very well happen. I’m very much divided on this particular issue. I’ve never been a Paris fan, but I am curious to see just what does happen.
Comment by k — October 16, 2007 @ 10:15 am