Paris Hilton
The original "famous for being famous" heiress. "That's hot," a tiny dog in her handbag, a pink Sidekick, and a permanent spot on the tabloid covers — Paris Hilton was the face of 2000s celebrity culture.
A great-granddaughter of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton, Paris Hilton became the archetypal 2000s celebutante — famous less for any single craft than for being everywhere at once. Her breakout was The Simple Life, which premiered on Fox on December 2, 2003 with fellow heiress Nicole Richie; the fish-out-of-water reality show drew 13 million viewers to its first episode and ran five seasons. A leaked sex tape released just before the premiere only intensified the spotlight.
She turned sheer ubiquity into a string of ventures. Her memoir Confessions of an Heiress (2004) hit the New York Times best-seller list, and her 2006 debut album Paris reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 behind the single "Stars Are Blind," a top-20 Hot 100 hit that went top ten across Europe. She even trademarked her catchphrase "That's hot" and sued Hallmark for putting it on a greeting card. Forbes repeatedly named her the most overexposed celebrity of the decade.
The saga peaked in 2007, when a probation violation from a DUI case sent her to jail; after a chaotic early release to home confinement was reversed by the judge, she served 23 days under blanket media coverage. Alongside Nicole, Lindsay, and Britney, she defined the paparazzi-and-Sidekick tabloid era before 2000s celebrity culture moved on.
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