The Reluctant Whore

Jesus Christ, surprise surprise, Paris in jail is still the main focus of the collective consciousness.

Consequently, making headlines right now is the non story that Paris Hilton is sick of being made the brunt of everyone’s jokes. Well, sure. Of course she is but this is the job description when you’re the zeitgeist.

Anyway, she said this to Ryan Seacrest:

"I'm so much more grateful for everything that I have, even just to have a pillow at night or food," Hilton told Seacrest. "You know my gratitude has gone up so much, and I just realize that the media used me to make fun of [me] and be mean about it."

Remember during the 2004 presidential election there were key words that candidates would use to encapsulate a certain aesthetic? Market research had suggested that the words “kill the terrorists” would illicit the best possible response from voters even though in areas like New York and LA the word “kill” coming out of John Kerry’s mouth was almost jarring. People in the flyover states needed their leader to say “kill the terrorists” though. So, they all did and it paid off for Bush. He ran the campaign on his message of promising to “kill the terrorists” and won because he could demonstrate that he would kill them better than Kerry.

Paris’ “kill the terrorists” is the concept of “gratitude”. These last few statements make complete business and marketing sense and they are almost one in the same. She can’t continue to have breakdowns, she can’t act out and complain (particularly in light of the 1.3 million bucks she’s getting to sit down and be interviewed on NBC) so she has to be grateful and accepting and gracious. The other day there was the publishing of the nauseating hand written letter Hilton wrote to a fan from jail and now this. It’s the same basic point being repeated again and again.
This is the metamorphosis to celebubeast. It is in process. The trouble is, she won’t be able to ultimately pull it off. Translatable groundedness is hard to fake. [source]