Exposed

  She seems to be everywhere.  If there’s a Hollywood party, she’s there.  If there’s a red carpet rolled out somewhere, she’s on it.  If a single starlet should be chosen as the poster child of the jet-set crowd, it should be her.  She is famous because of her last name; she is famous because of her extravagant lifestyle.  And sadly, she personifies success and fuels the aspirations of today’s youth.

  This week, a new website made headlines by exposing the most private details of Paris Hilton’s personal life.  And it’s not pretty.

  How does a person like Paris end up in a situation like this, with so much of her private life posted online for the world to see?  Well, according to legal documents filed by the heiress this week, it was all because of a misunderstanding.  It started two years ago, after a burglary caused Paris and her sister, Nicky, to move from one L.A. mansion to another.  Paris and Nicky put a lot of their belonging in a storage unit—a storage unit that Paris claims the moving company was supposed to pay for.  When the storage company didn’t receive payment, they tried, unsuccessfully, to contact the heiress to collect the $208 she owed.  Eventually, the contents of the unit were put up for auction and sold for $2,775.  The buyers, realizing whose stuff they had purchased, turned around and sold it stuff to an Internet entrepreneur for $10 million—for a profit of $9,997,225.

  The man who paid $10 million for Paris’ property—6,000 square feet of it, to be precise—catalogued, itemized, digitized and uploaded every last piece of it, and for about $40, looky-loos can peruse every morsel for 60 days.  Or until the Hilton lawyers get their way and the site is taken down. 

  The items are shocking, even by Paris Hilton standards, and are not suitable for young eyes or the easily offended.  Paris seems to enjoy being naked, judging from the abundance of photos and video.  She likes doing drugs, too.  One video shows her and her “billionaire-buddies” snorting cocaine—and A LOT of it—off of a friend’s chest.  Another shows her smoking a pipe while extolling the virtues of marijuana.  Paris’ passport, driver’s license, medical records, address book, love letters, and journals are also available.  In essence, her life just became an open book.

  And so much for denying a relationship with Girls-Gone-Wild-creator Joe Francis.  Video footage of the two, as well as footage, captured by Francis, of Paris in a bubble bath, is available for all to see on the new website. 

  As I took the site’s free tour, I began to analyze my own curiosity.  Truth be told, I began psychoanalyzing myself.  What drives our curiosity about people like Paris?  It’s more than voyeurism.  There’s something about seeing these filthy rich pop-culture icons living dangerously and carelessly, compromising their own integrity, and self-destructing.  I don’t get any gratification from it, but it’s interesting.  It’s baffling, almost incomprehensible.  People like Paris seem to have it all, but lack responsibility, integrity, and accountability.

  I guess it makes me appreciate the life I have a little bit more. 

 -From Pulse
   February 1, 2007