Celebrity scandals cloud real concerns
By Christopher Foster
News flash: Paris Hilton is involved in legal mud-wrestling with a club owner, a fellow heiress and a former lover in two separate law suits.
It's nice to think that as violence in Iraq escalates, our national debt soars, and threats of terrorism loom, we can take a break from all that stressful hogwash and ring in the new year with another delicious Paris Hilton faux-scandal. Unfortunately, this one won't involve her adorable teacup chihuahua, Tinkerbell.
But does anyone really care about inter-heiress disputes and boring libel cases? This news is not as "hot" as Paris Hilton's famous quips: it seems downright boring.
This new trial promises to be yet another charming tale of nightclub cat fights complete with "I am going to destroy you" comments and an attempted strangling, adding another chapter to Paris Hilton's charming, wholesome fairy tale life. As freshman Grace Nixon put it, "We love to hate her."
In a newspaper interview given to the New York Post, Hilton has been accused of "vicious lies" by Zeta Graff, another heiress who is dating Hilton's ex lover.
Yadda, yadda, yadda. Is this just another publicity stunt?
The dazzling socialite has promoted herself to the upper echelons of paparazzi hit lists in much more interesting and inventive publicity stunts.
"In my opinion celebrities like Paris Hilton are marketing wizards," commented Barbara Kelley, a professor of journalism at Santa Clara.
To Kelley, Paris Hilton represents a new breed of attention-hungry celebrities who are armed with hordes of publicists and handlers. "These celebrities are self-promoters like we have never seen before," Kelley added.
But while many wonder why a celebrity without talent can attain stardom and megabucks by releasing sex tapes and filming sudsy-porn-burger-endorsing commercials, a hungry audience of younger Americans are fans of the self-appointed princess.
Sophomore Summer McCormick, one of those big fans, lists Paris Hilton under her interests on Facebook, an online social directory. "I think Paris Hilton is kinda dumb, funny," McCormick said.
McCormick subscribes to US Weekly and is always excited to see what Paris Hilton is up to, or whom she was seen canoodling with at big-wig release parties.
While she thinks guys and girls are both equally drawn to Hilton, McCormick understands that older generations just don't get the new reality TV celebrity. "My mom of course thinks she's really slutty and stupid," she said.
But that raises an interesting question: Why does anyone really care?
"She is rich and famous and people want to be like that. She is very privileged: people wish they could be like her," McCormick theorizes.
"There is nothing to her. She is so vacuous. She is Wonder Bread. I don't even like to give her the time of day. Not even worth my while," Nixon said.
Others, like sophomore Brianna Hussey, admit to occasionally reading about Hilton, but think it is "ridiculous" that people can spend a "majority of their time concerned with what Paris is wearing or where she went out last night." Hussey thinks it's especially insensitive that people focus on Hilton while so many important problems confront our world.
In this year of natural disasters, war and heavy international politics, search engine Yahoo reported the most-searched for terms on the Internet did not include items like "hurricane relief," "tsunami" or "Iraq," but rather, hot celebrities like Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson and, of course, Paris Hilton.
Most people aren't building enormous shrines to Hilton in their front yards, as it was reported in the Associated Press in December. But caring about heiress gossip and celebrity libel cases should be last on everyone's New Year's resolution list.
Christopher Foster is an editorial writer for The Santa Clara.