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December 31, 2007
Paris Hilton, seen through the window of a Los Angeles sheriff's car, weeping as she's being hauled back to prison to complete a probation-violation sentence: a 23-day prison term after repeated probation violations (stemming from a drunk-driving arrest).
Nick Ut, Paris Hilton, 2007
A suitable image from a celebrity sightings for a modern day Warhol to work upon? Is the pain real? An event in Hilton's "poor little rich girl" performance? Is it pop cultural detritus?
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Warhol would have loved Hilton. Until she came along celebrities sold themselves as products. Hilton pushed that further and made celebrity itself the product.
She dovetails nicely with Big Brother and Idol, which also sell celebrity itself as the product, but appear to make it available to ordinary people.
Hilton is apparently snubbed wherever she goes now, which makes you wonder about the value of having something to anchor celebrity to. Celebrity is about being celebrated. Fame is still celebrated, but Hilton is not, though she still has her fame. Too many layers of abstraction between her self and her achievement maybe?