At least I thought it was funny.

A few years back, I finally made it to Europe. Paris to be exact. And on my return, my inbox was filled with emails, subject line: Paris Hilton. Now this was around the time of the sex tapes, so she was not ubiquitous yet (and I'm not the most plugged-in guy in the world), so I thought that they were junk mail from the Hilton Hotel, Paris. And I thought, goddamn it, Expedia sold my info, those f***ers.

Eventually, I opened one of the emails.

And that's parlaying her 15 minutes of fame into a whole five years.

The lot of them -- Paris, Britney, Lindsey, Tara Ried, The Olsen Twins, Jessica Simpson, and every other vapid party girl out there in the Hollywood scene are all pretty much a horrid waste of human flesh. Drunken party tricks, tasteless exhibitionism, stupid feuds, an overdeveloped sense of entitlement, and basic overwhelming self-absorption are not entertainment, They are disgusting habits that shouldn't be encouraged. Yes, they are fascinating -- much in same way a 10-car pileup on the highway is fascinating. But no one would ever want to be up close to one.

That being Paris's BFF has a tendency to seriously wreck your life isn't really surprising or of any import. That she and her ilk have legitimized this parasitic, plastic form of celebrity as an avenue to fame is what's worrying. Because Paris's success at this game will spawn imitators who will be just as annoying, just as vapid, and just as destructive. And the only thing worse than Paris Hilton herself would be a host of wannabe Paris Hilton's. Which is exactly what we're setting ourselves up for.

I heard Paris interviewed "off the record" and couldn't believe it was the same person I'd heard about in the MSM. She is no more a ditzy airhead than Sacha Baron Cohen is an anti-Semite. To put it simply, this is all an act, just like Borat.

She is not stupid ... quite the contrary. Despite her complete lack of talent or beauty, she's made herself a household name, capable of ruining just about anyone's reputation. I think she is quite brilliant ... albeit crass and wicked ... but brilliant nonetheless.

What amazes me is how long she's been able to pull it off. At some point, this will become clear to all. But at that point, I suppose, I'll only admire her more.

Is not a word. Irritates me that it's in the article.

Instead of proving her wrong, you're essentially proving her point. You've fallen for her game hook, line, and sinker.

You can call Paris a lot of things, but calling her dumb only makes YOU look dumb.

I expected more from you than jealousy of Paris Hilton. I find it difficult to ascertain any other motive for you writing this piece. To state the obvious, your weakened ability to ignore her falls prey to her very act. I did not miss your attempt to hide your tracks by saying your point is to expose her evil ways; as opposed to a fruitless attempt to end her exposure. My guess is about 25% of the readers bought that silly cover story.

There's probably only one thing worse than loving and worshipping Paris Hilton, and that is hating Paris Hilton. To her, wither way is payday.

Well done, Rebecca. This is a piece to be proud of.

Trister doesn't speak for me. I'm a woman and I don't hate Paris Hilton. Her antics are quite entertaining, when I need a mindless diversion. I find her fascinating (partly because of how well she's manipulated the media to gain wealth and "success") and I actually think she's beautiful, but I don't admire her because of what I have *heard* about her behavior. Note that it's all second-hand. Very few of us have actually witnessed Paris doing anything. The evidence is that she has a rather boring reality show and a legion of papparazzi ready to follow her around the world hoping for a crotch shot. The rest is gossip, sometime supplemented by photos that can't possibly tell the full story. Does she egg her "friends" on to bad behavior. Well, they make their own choices. Is she a bad role model for little girls? I suppose so. There are plenty of bad role models out there and always will be. If the goal it to make Paris and her ilk have less sway on our culture, then the only solution is to ignore her and them, not devote hours of pseudo-intellectual debate to justifying hate and anger that perhaps masks a certain amount of envy. I don't hate Paris Hilton because she I don't envy her and she has very little effect on my life.

If you really wanted to be rid of her...wouldn't you just stop writing about her? The media's to fault for making the role of 'village idiot' an international phenomenon. But Salon certainly didn't start the fire...

and, becasue it effectively touches a real nerve, impossible for people not to take seriously, even when they can see what is right in front of them.

you're spot on about hilton, but if you don't see the same empty shallow plastic values inherent in britney, then you are as deluded as paris...

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

And this entire article is so over-the-top it landed on the moon. I sure hope Traister had tongue planted in cheek when she called Hilton "evil", among other epithets. If she didn't, she'd better check HERSELF into some kind of mental health facility.

Oh, come OFF of it already!

As one commenter clearly noted before, Paris Hilton is all over the media - attaching herself to America's former darling-cum-flasher at one of her admittedly weakest moments, forcing herself on unwitting television viewers via commercials, and even finding a way to wrack up endorsements in print. And now, on a quite reputable website, Salon.com. As the previous commenter noted, yet again, if you feed it, it will continue to return, as long as you've got the grub for it to dine on.

Yes, Paris Hilton is disgusting. Maybe even calculated in her demonry. But it didn't begin with Britney Spears, because if Britney is capable of birthing and raising two children, you can't blame her demise on Hilton. Some (myself) would argue that Britney is of the same camp as Hilton - talentless, an attention whore, and banking on America's inability to discern between quality and quantity. So don't go blaming Hilton for what Spears did to herself by marrying a sleaze like Federline and having two children within a year of each other. And if the Simple Life is one of the most watched reality television shows, you also can't blame Hilton for capitalizing on everyone else's blind stupidity and desire to roast their brain cells on the resulting wavelength. Um, if it's selling, if it's "working," who wouldn't do the same thing? The problem is, it IS doing just that - and suckers are eating it up like a freebie night at Spago's.

No, we cannot blame Hilton for this. Instead, it began and continues with people just like you, Rebecca - the journalists, the photographers, the social commentators. Indeed, in the end, the only person you can blame is yourself - for allowing this sort of glamourized idiocy to continue. In writing this article, you can take a little bit of the blame for perpetuating her for now. Because without hands to feed her, she will have nothing to eat. In berating her and giving her attention on such a generally intelligent website, you are giving her just what she wants - validation.

Way to go.