Paris Hilton

Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American heiress of the Hilton Hotel fortune, a model and actress.

She was born in New York, New York, the eldest of four children born to real estate baron Richard Hilton and former actress Kathy Richards. Her sister and brothers are Nicholai Olivia "Nicky" Hilton, Barron Nicholas Hilton and Conrad Hughes Hilton.

Her paternal grandparents are Barron Hilton and Marilyn Hawley. He was the second child of Hilton Hotel chain founder Conrad Hilton and Mary Barron. Her granduncles are Conrad "Nicky" Hilton and Eric Hilton, and her grandaunt is Francesca Hilton, whose mother is Zsa Zsa Gabor. The family worth of Barron Hilton and his descendants is estimated at over $335,000,000. The family's original surname was Holver, which was borne by Augustus Holver, Paris's paternal great-great-grandfather, a Norwegian immigrant.

On the maternal side of her family, Hilton is a niece of two popular Disney child stars of the 1970s and 1980s, Kim Richards and Kyle Richards, who appeared in such films as Escape From Witch Mountain and television series like Nanny and the Professor and Little House on the Prairie.

Paris moved between several homes in her youth, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, California and the Hamptons. After secondary education, she decided not to go to college. Instead, she worked as a fashion model for Catherine Malandrino and Marc Bouwer, and on an ad campaign for Italian label Iceberg.

Paris and her sister Nicky, with whom she is often mentioned, are known for their jet-set lifestyles, though Paris has more readily sought the spotlight as a celebrity.

In 2000, the National Enquirer reported a casual friendship with Leonardo DiCaprio as something far more intimate. She has, however, dated several notables, including actor Edward Furlong, boxer Oscar De La Hoya, model Jason Shaw, Chicago Bears football player Brian Urlacher, singers Rob Mills, Deryck Whibley, and Backstreet Boy Nick Carter. While Paris was dating Nick Carter she sported bruises, which caused rumours that Nick may have hit Paris. This rumour was neither confirmed nor denied by Paris at the time. A few months later, she announced that those "bruises" were from a magazine photo shoot (just when the magazine was coming out). Hilton was blamed by the media for breaking up the relationship between Australian tennis player Mark Philippoussis and singer Delta Goodrem.

Hilton had a cameo appearance in Zoolander (2000), and has also appeared in the short QIK2JDG as a model, as well as The Hillz, Wonderland, and the big-screen adaptation of The Cat in the Hat. Pictures of her have appeared in several magazines, including GQ, Vanity Fair and FHM.

Hilton and her best friend, Nicole Richie, starred in the 2003 FOX hit reality series The Simple Life, in which they lived with a family on their farm in rural Altus, Arkansas. Highlights of the show included the girls performing poorly at various jobs, making out with the local boys, and numerous instances of them shown as "fish out of water." On March 19, 2004, she suffered a horseback riding accident while filming The Simple Life 2, requiring treatment at a hospital.

On top of her acting career, she has helped to design purses for Samantha Thavasa and Toys for Tots. Despite her successes, Hilton's recent attempts to start a modeling company and a makeup line seem to have been unsuccessful.

She is the founder of Heiress Records, a label on which she plans to release her debut album in 2005.

An unauthorized video of Hilton with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, who leaked it onto the Internet, was released shortly before The Simple Life debuted, causing a sensation. On June 9, 2004 it was released as a DVD titled One Night in Paris. Hilton sued Salomon for releasing the tape. In July, the suit was settled, with Hilton receiving $400,000 and a percentage of the profits. The original video, and a rip of the DVD, are still circulating on the Internet.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Hilton stated that she did not receive much enjoyment with men. It has also been rumored that there exists a video featuring Paris with her friend Nicole Lenz. In February of 2005, she admitted in an interview that she has a crush on Jennifer Aniston.

Hilton owns a teacup Chihuahua named Tinkerbell. In August 2004, Tinkerbell was reported lost and a $5,000.00 reward was offered for her safe return. Tinkerbell was found a week later.

In the fall of 2004, Hilton released a book, Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose, which brings full color photographs of her and gives her tips on the dos and don'ts of living as an heiress. The writing was parodied by Robert Mundell on The Late Show with David Letterman.

On February 19, 2005 a hacker posted the contents of Hilton's personal T-Mobile account to the internet: Hilton's phone numbers (which included many celebrities such as Christina Aguilera, Fred Durst, Eminem, Lindsay Lohan, Jay-Z, Anna Kournikova, Avril Lavigne), notes (with even more numbers and email addresses, and reminders such as her date to host Saturday Night Live), and thirty-five pictures sent by Hilton via her T-Mobile Sidekick device. In at least two of the leaked photos, Hilton is standing topless next to the MTV Latin America's VJ Eglantina Zingg, whom she is kissing in one of the photos.