Background

Hilton was born in New York City, the eldest of four children of Richard Hilton and Kathy Richards. Her younger sister is Nicky Hilton, and her younger brothers are Barron Hilton and Conrad Hilton.

On the maternal side of her family, Hilton is a niece of two popular child stars of the 1970s, Kim Richards and Kyle Richards, who appeared in the motion picture Escape to Witch Mountain and TV shows like Nanny and the Professor, Little House on the Prairie, and later, ER. By marriage, she also is related to Zsa Zsa Gabor (the Hungarian-born actress who married Paris Hilton's great-grandfather Conrad Hilton) as well as Elizabeth Taylor (the actress's first husband was Paris Hilton's great-uncle, Conrad Nicholson Hilton Jr.).

Her paternal grandparents are hotel chairman Barron Hilton and his wife, the former Marilyn Hawley, and her paternal great-grandparents were Hilton Hotel founder Conrad Hilton and his first wife, Mary Barron. When Conrad Hilton died in 1979, he left nothing in his will to his children or other descendants. Barron Hilton contested this decision and won in 1988. According to Forbes magazine in 2005, the net worth of Barron Hilton is estimated at just over US $1 billion, of which Paris is expected to inherit a little over US $50 million.

Hilton moved between several exclusive homes in her youth, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Hamptons. Currently, her parents own a $30.5 million mansion in Bel Air, a $12.3 million estate in the Hamptons, as well as $10 million house in the Hollywood Hills in which she and her sister stay to give them privacy and easy access to clubs in Los Angeles.

After attending high school at the Dwight School in New York, but dropping out and eventually earning a GED, Hilton decided not to attend a university. A naturally brown-eyed curly brunette, Hilton worked as a fashion model for Catherine Malandrino and Marc Bouwer, and on an ad campaign for Italian label Iceberg. She appeared in cameo roles in Zoolander (2001), The Cat in the Hat (2003) and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004).

What really shot Hilton to prominence was a sex video of her with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, which was leaked onto the Internet shortly after The Simple Life debuted, causing a sensation. On June 9, 2004 it was released as a DVD titled 1 Night in Paris which was hosted by Salomon. Hilton sued Salomon for releasing the tape, but the suit was settled, with Hilton receiving US $400,000 and a percentage of the profits.

Hilton is often seen with her teacup Chihuahua, Tinkerbell. She has been voted the worst dog owner ever in an online poll by New York Dog and Hollywood Dog, while Joss Stone was named as the best dog owner.

Hilton and her sister, Nicky, are known for their jet-set lifestyles. Paris in particular has been trying to build herself into a marketable brand much like Donald Trump, claiming she must be regarded as a role model.

She has been widely discussed by tabloids. In 2000, the National Enquirer reported a casual friendship with Leonardo DiCaprio as something far more intimate. She has also been linked with other young celebrities, including actor Edward Furlong, boxer Oscar De La Hoya, model Jason Shaw, Chicago Bears football player Brian Urlacher, and singers Rob Mills, Deryck Whibley, and Backstreet Boy Nick Carter.

Hilton has also received some gossip attention for a variety of other incidents, mainly party antics. She has been said to have pushed in front of others in line for a public bathroom, saying she only wanted to look at herself in the mirror. She has reportedly danced on bar tops, worn shirts reading "Got Blow?," and other times worn no top at all. Her most famous quote is probably "That's hot," as she has used it in myriad situations.

Hilton received an offer from the U.S. version of the reality TV show "Big Brother" to participate in their show. Rumors said she has been offered more than US$1.8 million. If she will agree to be in the reality-show, “she will join a bizarre band of ex-strippers, beauty queens, a married couple and a virgin, who are living under 24 hour scrutiny on the set".

Paris has also been featured in several television commercials including a T-Mobile commercial for which she was paid $250,000 and her Carl's Jr. commercial (see more below) for which she was paid $400,000 according to Forbes Magazine.

Hilton has been a spokes-woman for the products of GUESS clothingת 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. Hilton was reportedly given a $100,000 advanced payment for this book. Some in the media panned the writing as amateurish, and the book was parodied by Robert Mundell on The Late Show with David Letterman. Still, it became a New York Times bestseller.

In the March 2005 issue of Playboy, she was named the "Sex Star of the Year" in their list of the 25 Sexiest Celebrities. Someone appearing to be her was on the cover of the issue, but she did not pose for it; she says she does not know where Playboy got that picture.

Hacked address book and sexuality

On February 19, 2005, the contents of Hilton's personal T-Mobile account were posted to the Internet. 

They included phone numbers (which included many celebrities such as Christina Aguilera, Fred Durst, Eminem, Lindsay Lohan, Alsou, Jay-Z, Anna Kournikova, Snoop Dogg, Andy Roddick, Benjie Paras, Avril Lavigne, Frankie Muniz, Ashlee Simpson), notes (with even more numbers and email addresses and reminders such as her date to host Saturday Night Live), and thirty-five digital snapshots. In two of the leaked photos, Hilton is standing topless next to the MTV Latin America's VJ Eglantina Zingg, whom she kisses. In other leaked videos, she is seen making out with celebrity lesbian Ingrid Casares and Playboy Playmate Nicole Lenz. Many of her notes showed heavy usage of Internet slang.

Within days, it was revealed that Hilton's account could be accessed by anyone guessing the answer to the "forgotten password" challenge question she chose: "What is your favorite pet's name?" As the answer to this question is a matter of public record, an anonymous party was able to guess it and notify the press.

In September, it was reported that a 17-year old teenager in Massachusetts, known by his online alias Cam0, plead guilty to accessing Hilton's account and making bomb threats. He was sentenced to 11 months in a juvenile detention center and prohibited from using computers or other devices that can connect to the internet for two years.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors, This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Paris Hilton".  

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