celebrity.

maybe i've got cellphones on my mind, especially since my new one has bluetooth and the symbian os, which is a nicely hackable combination, but i've been pondering the phenomenon of ms. paris hilton.

so her cellphone got hacked. and the addressbook was posted on the intarweb. and she says,

"I feel horrible that, once again, someone has invaded my privacy. I want to apologize to all my friends and family. I don't know why this stuff always happens to me, but I wish it wouldn't anymore."

i related this to a friend who responded, "because you're a celebrity, honey!"

the funny thing is, when did she become a celebrity? i mean, yes, we know now that she was always part of the high-end new york party scene, but where was that news when she was a teenager? did the media have some kind of agreement with her father the way they did for charles and di's sons?

or is paris hilton the first democratic celebrity? she didn't come from hollywood, she was practically nowhere in pop culture until a homemade tape of her having sex with her boyfriend was leaked to the 'net (which he has since released, to his great profit, commercially under the title 1 Night In Paris, ha ha so clever). then all of a sudden, bang! a tv show, awards shows, a designer line of jewelry, a cd, a hacked cellphone. i half think that in the world of manufactured celebrities today (for instance, oh, britney spears), we're fascinated by what appears to be "the real thing." she's rich, she's an heiress, and she didn't have a marketing campaign.

i guess any publicity is good publicity.

i wonder who was in her addressbook 5 years ago.