July 9, 2007--Is Paris Burning?

I’ve been struggling for a while to come to grips with, or at least to some understanding of my obsession with Paris. Paris Hilton.

As the blogger of Behind The NY Times I should be ashamed to admit that this obsession is not of the cultural-studies variety—an expression of my eagerness to extract meaning from even (especially) the tawdriest manifestations of popular culture. Though I have tried to do that too, more I have totally enjoyed following her escapades and have looked forward each day to the guilty pleasure of sneaking a peek at what might be written about her on the New York Post’s notorious Page Six. I will even admit to occasionally checking her out on the Internet. And it has been impossible for me to check out any groceries at the super market without thumbing through The Enquirer or The Star. Both could be depended upon to dish up something titillating.

But what ever happened to my Paris? She got arrested, was sentenced to serve some hard time, actually went to jail, got out of jail for a few days, was reincarcerated, and then was set free after serving her sentence. As a result, I would have thought she would indefinitely inhabit the front pages of the tabloids and been covered 24/7 on the cable news channels. But she has pretty much slipped from sight. OK, so she’s on probation and is keeping a low profile or has found God, but this shouldn’t be stopping the paparazzi. Where are the photos of Paris walking her dog, Paris at her neighborhood Starbucks, or Paris in church? Nada. (Thus no articles from the Times or anywhere else linked below.)

Here’s what I think happened—she made the mistake of talking.

A day or so after being let out of jail she appeared for an “exclusive” interview on The Larry King Show. In snippy comments after her hour with Larry, gossip columnists and media critics alike pointed out how phony and scripted she seemed. Evidence for this was when after she told Larry how she read the Bible every day while in prison and he asked her what her favorite passage was, she looked to the side, presumably at her notes, and, not finding the “answer’ there, said something like “They’re all my favorites.”

Never mind that this is in fact quite a profound answer--how can mere humans rank or choose among the words of God—what they failed to mention was that the problem with her appearance was the very fact that she appeared in the first place; and by talking, uttering speech of any kind, she shattered the illusion that was at the heart of what made her a truly world-spanning celebrity.

Paris is/was about the way she looked and acted, and this hypnotic image was promulgated expressly because she never was heard to speak when being truly Paris. Yes, we did hear her on The Simple Life, but that was when she was in effect ripping herself off—when she was Paris doing an imitation of being Paris. Whatever we more deeply felt about her came exclusively from the images flickering silently on our TV and especially our computer screens.

She is thus, was thus, the first Internet mega-celebrity, but ironically suffered the same fate as those much-lower-tech shimmering silent film stars who lost their allure once they were forced to talk.