Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton (born 17.2.1981)

Paris Hilton is an American celebrity, known primarily for her public appearances at social functions, as well as her television appearances and musical career. She is an heir to the Hilton hotel-chain fortune.

Paris Hilton: Childhood

Paris Hilton was born in New York City. She has one sister, Nicky and two brothers, Barron and Conrad.

Paris lived in a number of luxury homes whilst growing up, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Beverley Hills. She also attended a number of different schools before dropping out.

Paris' grandfather, Barron Hilton, pledged 97% of his wealth to a charitable organisation that had been set up by his father, thus reducing his grandchildren's inheritance.

Paris Hilton: Modelling Career

Paris first started modelling when she was a child, mainly at charity events. Aged 19, she signed with Donald Trump's modelling agency, though she has also worked with Ford Models, Models 1 Agency, Nous Model Management and Premier Model Management. She has featured in a number of advertising campaigns, including GUESS, Tommy Hilfiger and Christian Dior.

Paris Hilton: Acting Career

Paris Hilton has made a number of movie appearances. She had cameo roles in Zoolander, Wonderland and The Cat in the Hat. She also had supporting roles in Nine Lives, Raising Helen, The Hillz, and The House of Wax. Her performance in House of Wax earned her a Best Frightened Performance award at the MTV movie awards in 2006. Her first lead roles were in national Lampoon's Pledge This! And Bottom's Up!. Both films went straight to DVD, without a cinema release.

TV appearances include The O.C., The George Lopez Show and My Name Is Earl. She has also appeared in music videos for John Oates and Eminem.

Paris Hilton: The Simple Life

The Simple Life is a reality-TV show, starring Paris Hilton and friend Nicole Richie (daughter of Lionel Richie). The idea behind the show was that the two girls would try living like 'ordinary folk', a far cry from the lavish lifestyles to which they are both accustomed. The show was a hit, but was cancelled by Fox after its third series, when Richie and Hilton fell out with each other. The fourth and fifth seasons were aired by E! Entertainment Television.

Paris Hilton: Musical career

In 2004, Paris Hilton set up Heiress Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records. Her debut album, Paris, was released under this label. The album debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 chart, although overall sales for the album have been relatively low. She has installed a recording studio in her house in order to work on its follow-up.

Paris Hilton: Books

Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose is the title of Paris's autobiography, written with the help of Merle Ginsberg. It has been reported that Hilton received an advance of $100,000 for the book. The follow up to the book was a designer diary, entitled Your Heiress Diary: Confess It All to Me.

Paris Hilton: Personal Life

In 2003, a tape of Paris and her ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon having sex was leaked onto the internet. It was later released on DVD as 1 Night in Paris, despite legal attempts to block it.

Paris has also been romantically linked to two shipping heirs, Jason Shaw and Paris Latsis. Most recently, she has been dating Benji Madden, guitarist with Good Charlotte.

Paris Hilton was arrested in 2006 and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. Her license was suspended and she was punished with 36 months' probation as well as fines of around $1,500. In January 2007, she was caught driving whilst her license was still suspended. The next month, she was caught speeding; again, whilst her license was suspended. Along with her failure to enroll on a drivers' rehabilitation course, this was considered to be a violation of her probation terms. She was then sentenced to 45 days in jail, on May 4th 2007. Hilton entered jail on 5th June 2007. After two days, she was reassigned to 40 days of home confinement, with an electronic tagging device. The cause for this change in sentence remains unknown. However, the original judge recalled Hilton to court, pointing out that her original sentence had explicitly stated 'no electronic monitoring.' She was subsequently sent back to jail to serve her 45-day sentence. She served a total of 22 days, including the day-long home detention.