It’s Paris Time!!!

I have been getting an enormous kick out of the Paris Hilton saga. Not so much the Paris Hilton herself part of it, although we might add, that is often more entertaining than 90% of the entertainment available on TV, but how the media explodes with Paris into this atomic bomb mushroom cloud and then a multitude of other people, pundits, and events take over and it all becomes one huge unending, gigantic circus — it’s life imitating art imitating reality tv.

From a sociological perspective, it’s just too rich, there is so much to comment and analyze. From an entertainment perspective, it’s colorful, light enough not to be depressing or disturbing, funny, sad, pathetic, twist-turning, ironic, and therefore quite entertaining — and there is nothing about entertainment that is not serious business.

From a journalism perspective, again, a million things to follow, to criticize, and also to appreciate — the barbs, the colorful descriptions, the tongue-in-cheek humor, the tabloids, the jaw-dropping desperate need to fill in huge chunks of media time and space with anything Paris-related because it attracts viewers.

Here is a little collection from my very entertaining following of the Paris Hilton drama this week.

***** Nice headlines/expressions *****

America’s favorite heirhead

Weep and wail and back to jail

“Mom! Mom! Mom!” the blubbering blond screamed

Hilton’s hysterics capped a day of demented drama that had paparazzi pummeling each other for a shot of a weeping Hilton

“It’s a bizarre, Tinseltown, la-la land story that you can’t make up,” said Frank-Jordan Fastner of the German TV station RTL elevision. “She’s the longest ongoing reality TV show.”

Baca also said that he reassigned Hilton based on “her severe medical problems,” and confirmed TMZ’s original story that her condition was mental.Comment 5. Sounds like baca has severe mental problems.(and Baca reportedly is a big Scientology guy!!!)
I thought the guy quoted below sounds like a very good attorney and a very media savvy one. I liked how he found a way to put the whole back-to-jail issue in such a concise frame, so nailing it in white versus black terms, so perfectly tailored for the intended audience of “jurors” in this case, the mass idiotic public of America. From the disputes I read on the issue, I would agree with him, specially since the sheriff apparently did some big hidden doodoo. So inspite of there being claims that other similar offenders don’t serve more than 5% or 10% of their sentences, there was just too much monkey business with how Paris got out. And since the reviews of the judge are all positive on his decades old track record, it’s nice to see him assert his authority over the questionable sheriff.

“This is a simple case,” deputy city attorney David Bozanich said. “There was a court order. The Sheriff’s Department chose to violate that order. There is no ambiguity.”

***** Article 1 *****This was a very nicely written article, opinion, whatever.

In February, the adventurous star of a leaked sex tape was caught driving 70 m.p.h. in a 35 m.p.h. zone.

Her headlights were off, police say. It was after dark, her license was suspended from an earlier arrest and she had—Oops!—failed to enroll in a court-ordered alcohol-education program. If you wonder why people keep picking on the poor girl,this night of adventure gives you some idea. The result is a weird situation in which a judge wants her in jail, but the sheriff wants her out.

Her screaming fans, aptly dubbed “Paris-ites” long ago by the Los Angeles Times, want her free. Then she can return to clubbing with her “BFFs,” which my son tells me is “best friends forever” in text-message speak.

Before she turned herself in last week, Paris appeared to be going through the sort of on-camera, life-changing epiphany that leads many addictive personalities to cures, interviews with Oprah Winfrey and best-selling memoirs.

Paris told a firing squad of cameras and microphones outside the MTV Awards last week that she wanted to serve her jail time “like everyone else” even though “I did have a choice to go to a pay jail.”

Pay jail? What, I wondered, is pay jail? Even O.J. Simpson, with all his wealth and fame, didn’t get pay jail. Pay jail turns out to be a California thing for minor lawbreakers with major cash in their pockets. For about $100 a day, you can get a little room with a regular door instead of jail bars and a roommate who is not a tattooed enforcer for a gang. You might even get to keep your cell phone, iPod and computer, but don’t expect to find a nightly chocolate mint on your pillow.

Could it be one of those legendary perquisites that many black people believe only rich white people know about? Judging by news accounts, apparently so.

“The [pay jail] program is little known,” the Los Angeles Times reported in March, “but its popularity is growing so quickly that you had better make your reservations soon.”

“Many of the self-pay jails operate like secret velvet-roped nightclubs of the corrections world,” The New York Times reported in April. “You have to be in the know to even apply for entry.”

Well, those days of the program being little known ended when Paris blabbed about it.

[Opinion] Blogger Cody Lyon wonders what would happen if Tom Hanks were in the same boat
On one hand, to go there, might be seen as caving into media frenzy, talking about a subject, many are embarrassed to admit they follow, a topic that will surely invite criticism. But, to not, would be missing an opportunity to ask some deeper questions about national priority, fame, and the places Americans obtain information they consider important.[…]

Regardless, the attention meter was running at high speed during the Friday circus surrounding her return to prison.The arrest at the mansion, trips to court and jail were all covered live by the cable networks from up in the sky, ala OJ. On the ground, minute by minute reports, graphic descriptions of tears, screams and pleas all poured in from reporters. An assortment of Pundits, cable anchors, activists, legal “experts” and even a sheriff from New Mexico, all cawed like crows in a cornfield with, opinions rants and raves on the three cable news networks.

Evidence that a huge swath of America found satisfaction in Hilton’s return to jail was soon evident all over the web.

Comments like, “I think she deserves it”; “She’s long overdue”; “Celebrities are no better than the rest of us”; “she’ll serve as an example” and the endless “rich bitch girl” comments that in the end, quiet frankly, sound just a bit mean spirited.

On Fox News, Rev. Al Sharpton weighed in by phone about what’s good for one is good for all, Geraldo and Shep Smith hollered and giggled and Greta worried that Hilton was ill, or perhaps, “twitching”. But then, of all the pundits, a very interesting comment came from the high priestess of outrageous and offensive right wing ideology herself, Ann Coulter.

Of the madness, Coulter hypothesized, that if this were Tom Hanks, you wouldn’t have all this blood lust.

Perhaps she’s correct. For one, Tom Hanks is a respected and talented actor who, unlike Hilton, earned his status as such. But more significantly, regarding the Coulter comment, Tom Hanks possesses a wholesome Americana Jimmy Stewart like image. Most people can’t help but like him, he embodies nice guy and rarely shows up in tabloids or in gossip columns.

On the other hand, Paris Hilton is the quintessential example of what many Americans claim to hate, a symbol of tawdry excessiveness, seen as spoiled, fame and wealth for no reason, and most of all, the privilege that money affords anyone in America who has it.

But, Hilton, a woman with the genes of Conrad in her system, is, for some reason the object de jour of countless magazines, television programs a virtual all you can eat buffet of guilty pleasure that Americans love to chow down on and the media loves to feed.
———–
[my comment ] This was a very nice succint sociological commentary.

Feminists highlighted a long time ago that the “personal is political,” likewise we can see that the most superficial aspects of media culture, including the celebrity section, are also just as “political,” feeding into and reflecting deeper currents of modern society for masses of people.

According to google.news, the Hilton saga was by far the most widely covered event this week in all English speaking digital media, with literally thousands of articles, making headlines from the US to Korea to Brunei.

***** Comments to articles about the Paris saga *****For all their talk of equality, America is the most stratified society in the world. Not even in India is the class-difference so great as in the usa. So this is what you get when Paris starts screaming at her parents “GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!”: acorrupt sheriff who is probably promised a cool million when he let her out.The only interesting thing is how much did the sheriff get paid, AND does he still get paid, now that Paris is back in jail?She didn’t have to serve the whole 45 days, can you imagine the outrage if she fakes an mental instability if she is released prematurely AGAIN??? [Actually, it is exactly what I am waiting for 🙂 the circus must go on 😉 and the reports of her not eating? cmon, we all know what’s coming… ]

Posted by: CrashTestSmartie 12:05 AM

Of course Paris deserves to sit and watch her herpes develop all day for a month; anyone else breaking the law in the manner(s) she did would have their license revoked, their car taken into police custody, and ordered to over a year of jail time. Here’s to Nicole RIchie and her drunk, high, driving-the-wrong-way-on-the-highway self getting a year in prison, and the same with Lohan and her coked out body. Lets just make sure these vapid skeletons get their 3 meals a day and GET THEM OFF THE ROAD, since its incredibly apparent that wealthy, drug addled young women are so dangerous on the road. Who approves their driving exams?!? Anyone who disagrees (ie people with no self esteem, who absolutely love the supercelebgigglygossip culture, the kind that can’t do it with an eye towards hilarity ala WWTDD but instead actually become FANS of these morons) can try and defend one of these pathetic human beings when one of them finally kills someone. Brandy-style. A coalminer in West Virginia develops lung cancer so he can barely provide bread and Kool-Aid for his children, and people actually STICK UP for gross approximations of a human being such as Paris Hilton? Maybe the Russians and the Cubans and the Chinese weren’t so wrong about communism after all

Posted by: swayzex Jun-9

I am so sick of hearing about that snot nosed little twit I could scream. Who does she think she is? You do the crime , you do the time. So shut your pie hole Paris and sit there like a good little girl. Don’t be screamin for your mommy. Your an embarassment to this whole nation. We have men and women dying every day to protect this country, they go for days without eating or showering or sleeping even. You have 3 square meals a day, a safe place to lay your head and a hot shower. She could always come stay at my house, I’d make her beg to go back to jail, pompous lil brat! Go away Paris.

Posted by: Aww.Naww Jun-9

I don’t believe it is celebrity vs non-celebrity. It is money vs no money-I have a friend who was eligible for the home arrest/ bracelet program, but couldn’t do it because it cost so much.

Posted by:

Paris Hilton never took responsibility for everything she does. She manipulates the system and creates her own drama. It’s not because she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth that makes people dislike her, it’s all about her attitude and her demeanor that makes people feel less sympathy for her. Obviously people don’t feel the same way about Nicky Hilton although they came from the same family.
Posted by: Phoenix21152 Jun-9