Let’s take a moment to assault reason, shall we? The latest, glorious twist in the Paris Hilton story is something that can surely bring us all together, red or blue, male or female, rich or poor. Whoever doesn’t feel an ounce of pleasure at the sight of this mega-rich non-entity finally being treated with a modicum of justice has surely lost the capacity to feel anything. Sorry, Al, I know I should be studying carbon offsets. But far from undermining democracy, this little story about this pathetic, pampered wretch can only restore a little faith in the criminal justice system. It’s almost enough to make up for O.J.
Well, maybe. But at the same time, anyone who can not also feel sorry for her, as I do, has also lost the capacity to feel.
Paris Hilton is a horrible, empty, shallow person, who has spent her entire life being pampered, doted on and catered to by criminally incompetent parents (why aren’t these two in jail for child abuse?), all the while swooned over by a pack of sycophants and the fawning media. She has no concept of reality, no real relationships, no real understanding of love, sacrifice, and true friendship, and lives a shallow but gilded existence. She probably does think what is happening to her right now is unfair, but her poor grasp on reality is not entirely her fault. Unless things change radically for her as a result of this incarceration, she will go on and live out a meaningless and transparently fraudulent public existence, none the wiser that there really is much more to life than the fancy restaurants and trips to boutiques.
Yes, she is rich and spoiled, but only in the financial sense. Otherwise, she leads an empty and utterly meaningless existence. I wouldn’t trade places with her for all the money in the world (or in her trust fund, for that matter). It is entirely possible to loathe and feel sympathetic for this tragic figure.
I do.
Dreggas
Feel sorry for her on that level? Yup.
Feel sorry for her having to do time for violating probation not once but multiple times? Not a chance.
As I said back on the ANS thread here. I feel bad for these people for all the reasons you listed here as well as feeling bad for them WRT how much their lives are invaded by the press. I wouldn’t trade places with them for the world. However I have no pity for her having to do the same time as the rest of us would have to.
On a related note it appears there is going to be an investigation into Baca for overruling the judge on her release since the sentencing decision said she was not to be released to house arrest.
Daniel DiRito
See a satirical tongue-in-cheek graphic titled “The Big-Attitudes” which updates the Biblical Beatitudes to fit the Paris Hilton fiasco…here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
Dreggas
That was excellent.
Dulcie
She’s the Barbara Hutton of our generation.
rachel
I hope being jailed will be the wake-up call she needs; it’s sad to see a person be born with so many gifts and waste them all because she simply knows no better.
grumpy realist
Sorry, John–I guess I am far too allergic to the sort of trust baby brattiness that Paris Hilton epitomizes in all its glory to feel any sort of sorrow for her. I’d rather keep my emotions for empathizing with young women who didn’t have her background or chances and are trying to make decent lives for themselves. Paris just makes me want to pop her one across the snoot.
Tsulagi
Okay, if I turn off the snark, I just might agree with you. A little bit.
I do think it’s unfair if it’s accurately reported that the judge now bumped up her sentence from a previously agreed 23 or 24 days to the full 45. I can understand the judge being pissed, and I would be too, but he shouldn’t take it out on her. The sheriff made the decision to cut her loose. If the judge wants to make someone pay, make the sheriff serve those extra 20+ days.
Cromagnon
I think South Park summed up Paris in a nutshell in their episode ‘Stupid Spoiled Whore’… Which they reran last night BTW
Wilfred
Shorter Cole: “I Honestly Love Her”.
A textbook mental hardon. Cure: Get yourself some photos of Iraqi children blown to pieces, or American soldiers maimed for life, to moon over the ‘meaninglessness’ of it all.
Why don’t you fucking do it?
Dreggas
Ok changed my mind,
She was going to have a “getting out party” tonight. She is as much a party to her own shallowness as those who raised her.
Pug
Paris is a big girl now. She’s 23-years old or something. Sure, she’s been pampered and still doesn’t have a clue, but others overcome these handicaps.
A few days in jail will make her a better girl. It’s only a few days. Just think of it as Outward Bound or one of those wilderness programs for troubled teens. This will be a good lesson for Paris about actions and consequences, maybe for the first time in her life. Her empty life will still be there when she’s out in a week or so.
At the very least perhaps she’ll learn you don’t show up late for court. Judges just hate that. And for Christ’s sake, you don’t call out “Mom” when they lead you away. Be a “real con”, Paris.
Dreggas
Or do the REALLY adult thing and scream “That’s not fair!”
Dreggas
Oh and this is just rumor but apparently she suffered a massive, stress induced, herpes outbreak that was, on the whole, really bad. However there are medical facilities that treat that.
Tsulagi
Can’t, I’d be too busy bitchslapping a retarded idiot. Maybe after.
HyperIon
why not film it?
The Simple Life Goes to Jail
Stacy
My father is a prosecutor, and I asked him about this case. He said there are often disputes between sheriffs and judges on the discretion of letting people out of jail before their sentence is up. But that being said, in Arkansas anyway, nobody would serve less than 20 days for getting a DWI on a suspended license.
Dave
Gifts? What gifts? She blew a dude on a web cam. She’s the definition of vapid.
Jack H.
I sure don’t feel any pleasure, only a little pity for a wide variety of reasons and a lot of indifference for even more reasons.
The media idiocy surrounding this sure is arriving on cue for Gore. From the reactions of many media ‘sages’ to Gore’s book the ideas of McLuhan are unfamiliar and the works of Habermas completely foreign. Hey guys, finish those 17th century tome’s and work your way into the 20th century.
Dulcie
I wonder if Bush will pardon her?
matt
John, and those who agree with him, might find this video of Craig Ferguson talking about Britney Spears interesting.
Dulcie
Oh, and apparently poor Paris didn’t even graduate from high school.
jake
I received most of my education among trust fund babies. Some of them were raised like Hilton and were perfectly acceptable human beings. Others made her seem like Mother Teresa.
The difference? Personality and personal decisions.
I grew up among people who had squat (if they were lucky) and the same applied for the same reason. Some were nice, some were dicks.
If you decide for whatever reason to be a shit, I really don’t give a damn how you got to that point. A shit is a shit.
PeterJ
She’s the reason why there should be an estate tax.
PeterJ
She’s the reason why there should be an estate tax.
PeterJ
oops
RSA
Is bored apathy a reasonable reaction?
matt
This is like the reverse of the “poor people should pull themselves up by their boot straps” vs “it’s not that simple” left, right argument.
jake
By this logic, a failure/inability to feel sorry for George 43 is also an indication of callousness.
Oh. Woe.
Pb
All I really needed to know about this I learned from reading Richie Rich comic books…
arnott
I do feel sorry for her when I see the photo of her crying in the car. But, she is 26 and has to learn than actions have consequences.
Mark
Excellent, Matt, thanks!
rachel
” She blew a dude on a web cam?” Please.
She’s healthy, wealthy and decent-looking. She can afford the best food, clothes, and healthcare that money can buy. Every material need she could ever possibly have will be taken care of, and every opportunity one can think of is open to her. Are you telling me those aren’t gifts?
PAULQX
Please, for the love of god, no more. I think now that my last option will be to join a monastery at the farthest reaches on this earth to escape this drivel. All my once cherished sites are becoming infected with this insidious na na na about she who shall not be named by me. Shall I check back in another month…year…decade?
Zombie Santa Claus
Younger people have faced longer sentences with far less justification, and they did it without crying.
Do I feel sorry for her? I guess I feel sorry for anyone going to prison. It’s an unpleasant place, whether you spend 40 minutes or 40 years in it. One of the reasons it’s so unpleasant is that society doesn’t give a flying fuck about its criminals, rejects, and outcasts. If the wingnuts had their way, we’d probably be filling our ditches with criminals instead of our prisons. Since the sane 75% of the populace won’t let that happen, the authoritarians have to settle for the next best thing, and make penal servitude as unendurable as possible.
If Ms. Hilton takes this opportunity to learn something about the prison system and starts working for prisoners’ rights in this country, I’ll applaud her as a burgeoning human being. If she takes her eventual freedom as an excuse to throw a coke binge and drive drunk until she’s caught again, I’ll find myself unsurprised.
Zombie Santa Claus
They should commute her sentence if she agrees to join the Army. That way, we can segue this celebrity gossip shit into the War in Iraq, and force the news media and blogs to talk about something serious again.
Pb
…then she might have a real shot at the Presidency in 2036!
jpe
You seem to have made a mistake. It’s “hilarious,” not “sad.”
Tsulagi
I thought about that before commenting I felt a LITTLE sympathy for her, mainly due to the judge doubling the previously agreed sentence.
They’re both spoiled brats. Regardless of their upbringing by their parents or anything else, they’re still fully responsible for their own actions. She wants to be a pathetic brat, her call. The difference between the two is Paris’ brattiness affects just herself. And she knows she’s a brat.
But the clueless brat with less spine and brains goes out of his way to screw with the entire country and beyond in full self-serving brat mode. For him I will never have anything but contempt. Of the two, we’d be better off with Paris as president.
Krista
I laughed. Heartily. But that’s because I’m completely heartless.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike her because of her personality. It doesn’t affect me one bit. If she wants to be vapid and shallow and silly, that’s her business, as long as she’s not hurting anybody else.
But a DWI? She could have killed someone. And to then violate probation? She obviously doesn’t give a sweet goddamn that she could have killed someone.
So fuck her.
Aaron
Paris Hilton impresses me as someone who, while being born rich, still manages to earn a living as a girl who parties. a lot. – she made 10 million as a revlon cover girl.. and she models. so she is not completely resting on her laurels…
going to jail for the first time is tough. for anyone. and while she certainly earned it by her actions, lets not be too hard on her.
Frankly Im convinced that this is all a setup for her next season of the Simple Life- Paris goes to jail…
PeterJ
A reader points out to Andrew Sullivan that the photographer that took that photo, Nick Ut, took this photo (maybe not safe for work, your mileage may vary…) on the day 35 years earlier. That one got him a Pulitzer Prize, I doubt this one will.
Halffasthero
I completely understand the above posts, and with a DWI, she could have killed someone. That is exactly right.
Having said that, I agree with John 100%. She is behaving exactly as she was raised. One could argue that as an adult she becomes responsible for her actions but who here can argue that what they learned (or did not learn) from childhood has not affected them to this day? In her case, it was for the worse.
She had been catered to her whole life and thinks that someone else is responsible for what she should or should not be doing at any given time. If anyone watched her attorney plead her defense regarding how she was not properly advised what she was signing they would understand. That was a microcosm of her life (in my opinion). She did not seem to appreciate that, once you are an adult, there is no one between you and the law when you violate it. Anyone with a basic knowledge of this would understand the flaw in her logic but she does not. That is what is tragic about her. She does not seem to be responsible because she likely was not raised to be that way. Her parents were going to straighten things out for her no matter what she did, and to her, that was the natural order of things. Mr. and Mrs. Enabler would be a more apt way to describe how they raised her.
That’s my two cents. Carry on.
By the way, the beer was good tonight. Ghostrider’s Ale. I posted about it before. : )
jake
Once again Krista nails it.
If Hilt-on doesn’t care, why the fuck should I? Hell, I barely have time for the arseholes I know, never mind the complete strangers.
It’s funny because it’s true.
No wait. It’s not funny because it’s true.
Ted
She’s only crying because she’s facing something she never thought possible: that her and her family’s money didn’t exempt her from the justice system the rest of us have to work within. She drove drunk, which suspended her license. Less than 7 days later, she drove on the suspended license (claiming she didn’t know she couldn’t drive). Then, she got caught driving AGAIN on the suspended license.
She thought the rules didn’t apply to her. She’s just shocked that they do. If you don’t think the driver’s license laws in California are correct, fine. But don’t boo-hoo over Hilton’s case. This might be the best thing that ever happened to her, actually.
Jimmm
Are you fucking deranged. Paris’ parents are not responsible for how Paris acts at age 26. Period.
Not only does she deserve what she’s getting, she should be getting a LOT more of it. It’s fine to feel a bit sad for somebody who’s clearly depressed and suffering. But I think Paris’ sadness is about being treated like any other criminal, and not from some epiphany about what a waste existence she’s living.
I just hope a few of her fellow inmates have the chance to tell Paris in person how they feel about the brand of justice Paris’ lawyers were able to affect.
dslak
As for the argument that Hilton may not deserve our sympathies but is still being dealt with unjustly, try this (not work safe).
MBunge
rachel said “She’s healthy, wealthy and decent-looking. She can afford the best food, clothes, and healthcare that money can buy. Every material need she could ever possibly have will be taken care of, and every opportunity one can think of is open to her. Are you telling me those aren’t gifts?”
One thing that should be considered is the very real possibility that Paris isn’t that healthy emotionally, mentally or physically. Aybody who’s seen a “VH1 Behind The Music” knows how damaging a life of booze, drugs, sex and general debauchery can be. Folks like Paris can have very serious, festering problems that they’re able to manage, medicate or compensate for with their great wealth. Take away those allowances and enabling forces, and it’s very likely that going to county lockup is considerably more traumatic for Paris than it would be for a normal person.
Not that she doesn’t deserve it, but she’s probably, genuinely suffering a lot more than I would if I got thrown in the pokey.
Mike
DougJ
Well said. I feel the same way.
John Cole
Hi. I wrote this post. Please show me where I said Paris is not responsible for her actions.
KTHXBAI!
FredR
People raised by worse parents, in worse circumstances, have, by their own efforts, become better people. In fact, probably a vast majority of the world’s decent people grew up under more difficult circumstances.
I will reserve my sympathy for those who fought to make something of themselves — despite having every handicap and more you cite — and never had the resources to make good on their efforts.
capelza
Yes….her extremely dire medical condition apparantly disappeared once she got out of jail.
I wonder if the judge got wind of that planned party, too. Might have helped with his decision to up her sentence.
Paris wants to be famous (that is her career)…well she certainly will be now.
DecidedFenceSitter
Actually, from what I’m reading, the standard in LA is to serve 10% of your sentence due to overcrowding. Which means somewhere between 2.3 and 4.5 days.
She’s actually getting punished MORE for her celebrity status.
Big E
so.. sometime in the future when Paris Hilton kills or injures somebody with her car while high or loaded,.. will her lifestyle and upbringing somehow mitigate the damage done?… don’t think so..
John Cole
WTF is wrong with you people- of course she is responsible for her behavior, and if she does something in the future in which someone is killed, of course she is responsible for that as well.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t feel sympathy for her for having a shitty life, being a miserable wretch of a human being. I know someone who did kill someone when they were driving drunk as a 16 year old. It didn’t ruin just the victim’s life, it ruined his. And I feel sorry for both.
For some reason, you all seem to think it makes you better than Paris Hilton to act all tough and sounding like the right-wing nutjob law and order types. It is, quite frankly, disgusting. Being able to be compassionate to those who may not deserve it, and being able to empathize with someone who may not be the best of people is a good characteristic to have.
If she were poor and black, none of you would be devoid of sympathy. But because she is rich, some other double standard apparently exists. Personally, I feel bad for anyone whose life is this screwed up- rich, poor, black, white. That doesn’t mean I think she should get away with breaking the law, and it MOST CERTAINLY does not mean I think she is a good person, but it does mean I can feel bad for her while I watch to make sure justice is fairly administered.
But if it makes you feel good to sit on the sidelines tut-tutting, swelling your chests, and proving to everyone that you are better than Paris, knock yourself out. I think it is kind of pathetic, and you have set a pretty low bar.
Wilfred
Superior, self-righteous, manipulative and whiny. Just like Paris.
Zombie Santa Claus
This is the crux of the matter here. Watching someone with so many resources squander them all grates on people who started with substantially, substantially less (which would be pretty much 99.99% of America, and 100% of Balloon Juice commenters).
I feel bad for everyone incarcerated. I feel worse for many, many other people than her- for example, people who face prison rape for nonviolent drug offenses.
Leopold and Loeb brought out the line, “Poor little rich kids.” That was in the 1920s.
I despise the institution of prison, and I feel bad for anyone forced to enter it. I wish that society could come up with a comprehensive, alternative form of rehabilitation. But that doesn’t mean I should feel worse for Paris Hilton than I do for the fucked-for-lifers or the people on death row.
Bottom line is, why are we talking about her, and ignoring the 1,001 other abuses of the American prison system? She’ll be out of jail in two months, most likely unchanged for the ordeal. Prisons will continue to fuck millions of non-rich Americans over on a daily basis. Meanwhile, in Iraq, dozens of our soldiers die every week; why don’t any of them get half as much attention?
Davebo
Maybe I don’t feel sympathy for her because she hasn’t had a shitty life at all.
She’s had the exact life she chose. She could have chose differently, but she didn’t.
And frankly I’m shocked her Mommy couldn’t even buy her a high school diploma.
Don
Responsible for as in should be held accountable for? Clearly not. Responsible for as in she’s clearly the product of an amazingly permissive upbringing that has continued to fund her train-wreck of an existence? Absolutely.
There are kids who go bad that nobody in the world could have predicted it, children who get reasonable advantages and rational discipline who never the less become violent or mean and whose lives spiral the drain. That Paris Hilton would be the waste of life that she is couldn’t possibly surprise anyone who has seen her in the media these last six years or so.
A crying, tormented human is a sad sight and I do not cackle with glee to see her misery. Maybe those of you lambasting John can’t see a more nuanced way to have empathy for a person, but I suspect he and I are somewhat on the same wavelength in this. I don’t see her being taken back to prison to serve her time and think – as some insane folk do – that the punishment is inappropriate for the crime.
I do see that and think what a tragedy that we’re at that point and someone with such possible advantages has fallen so low. I’d think the same thing – minus the disgust at squandered potential – if she was a dirt-poor man who’d been raised in ignorant and abusive conditions who was being led away after being convicted of a violent crime. I glad for all of us to have such a person serve their just punishment, I hope that they might be redeemed and improve themselves, and I think man, what a waste of a person.
srv
Paris is a creature of the ideal culture so many Americans have spent so much time helping to create. They laughed at the parody the Simple Life, they bought the magazines she modeled in (she made that money the hard way, she earned it). It’s no wonder her class looks down on the rest of us, we’re really just a bunch of apes, and she’s just making a living apeing us.
RSA
I saw a picture of Paris crying in a police car. It reminded me of the people I’ve seen crying as they’re being loaded into police cars during the few seconds I’ve caught of the TV show Cops before I changed the channel. I feel equally sorry for all of them, in a general sort of way.
grumpy realist
Sorry, John. As said before, I’m going to reserve my sympathy for people who deserve it, not for screwed-up rich brats who have had all the opportunities in the world and chose to squander them left right and center. She’s a brat, she’s acted like a brat for years, and no one has ever (seemingly) called her on it. At some point reality would have to crash in on Paris Hilton’s life, and it looks like this is the time. For a 26-year old she’s awfully immature. Continuing to make excuses for such dingbat behavior would just be continuing to act as enabler.
And as for Paris’s “torment”, this is simply because it’s the first time in her life she hasn’t been able to get everything she wanted. Maybe it’s a good idea that she’s getting slapped up inside her silly head with the fact that she isn’t the centre of the universe.
Or maybe it’s just her way of getting attention yet one more time: wahhh, look at me, look how nastily that mean judge treated me!
As said, brat.
taoless
i think the reason for all the schadenfreude has to do with the false sense of entitlement that’s so pervasive in the american economic aristocracy, which paris hilton exemplifies so purely as to be its avatar. while we as a nation and a people generally refuse to embrace class consciousness (probably because of its association with marxism, our ideological enemy for a half-century), we sure as hell hate uppity folks who think they’re better’n us. yes, we make exceptions for people who’ve genuinely accomplished something, because one of america’s great strengths is our commitment to meritocracy. but the flipside of that admiration for those who enjoy privilege they’ve rightly earned is that, since most of us have to strive for status and the good things in life, we resent people who get them for free, through no effort of their own but just the simple good fortune of being born into the right circumstances. say what you will about paris’ upbringing and the relative richness and/or poverty of her lived existence, but it cannot be denied that she flaunts her unearned privilege in ways that are offensive to those of us in the hoi-polloi who lack the plentiful resources put at her disposal. even a casual observer of her public persona and exploits (and i count myself as one such) cannot help but conclude that she genuinely believes that she is not only better than the rest of us, but that the normal rules and laws of american society do not apply to her in any meaningful way. and while mr. cole is right that she is still a human being whose suffering should provoke a sympathetic reaction in anyone whose emotional neuroanatomy is even semi-developed, it is nonentheless gratifying to see her get her comeuppance, even if the hammer falls a little harder because of her celebrity status.
so while i do have some sympathy for her plight, having spent a few nights in the pokey myself, i also believe that she deserves what she got, as it is the consequence of her own freely chosen actions. that those actions seem to have stemmed from a sense of entitlement and being above the law in a way that excludes me and everyone else i know, i think that maybe it’s okay for me to derive some small joy from the proceedings.
Krista
At any rate, can we all agree that we really, really are just very tired of hearing about this person?
Krista
Understandably so. However, there is a bit of a difference here. We’re talking about a 26-year old. An adult. Someone who certainly had plenty of cabs at her disposal and the wherewithal to pay them. Perhaps this is one area in which I’m unable to do a lot of nuanced thinking, but I still cannot help but feel that when one is an adult, one is responsible for one’s choices. If a mentally fit adult, ANY adult, be they rich, poor, black, white, or whatever, makes the choice to get behind the wheel of a vehicle after they have been drinking, then I’m sorry — I simply cannot muster any sympathy for them. I’ll save my sympathy for those who have lost family members and loved ones because someone made the selfish, stupid decision to drive while impaired. I respect your opinion on all things, John, but asking me to muster sympathy for an unrepentant drunk driver? I’m sorry…I just can’t do that.
John Cole
Krista,
She isn’t even in jail for drunk driving, let alone drunk driving that resulted in that resulted in a death. She is in jail for driving on a suspended license.
Nothing more, nothing less.
This is not Tookie Williams. This is not even Scooter Libby, for chrissakes.
And I am not asking you to have sympathy for her decisions, which I will state straight up have been one string of stupid after another. I am asking why decent people can’t look at this pathetic loser, who could have everythign but is so screwed up and whose priorities are so out of whack that she has everything and nothing at once, and feel a little bad for her.
Redhand
Why in the world express sympathy for Paris Hilton? Would you rather that she spent 23 days “grounded” in her luxurious home with Mom and Dad? Where’s the deterrence in that?
There is a need here for a stinging punishment to deter her reckless endangerment of others by driving drunk with a revoked license. Other, real celebrities, like the German actor Martin Semmelrogge (Das Boot), have done years in the slammer in Germany for similar offenses. And that’s the way it should be.
Zombie Santa Claus
‘Cuz we’re jealous of her opportunites and embittered by her failure to take advantage of them, okay?
J. King
Don’t give a rat’s about Paris Hilton one way or the other. I do think this national obsession with her is just bizarre. The fascination with a dead blond bimbo (A.N. Smith) and a live (sort of) blond bimbo (P. Hilton) just baffles me.
jake
Shorter John Cole:
I’ve got a race card and I’m not afraid to use it!
Thing is, John is as wrong as I’ve ever seen him, having leapt head first into the Librul = Racists trap. That’s OK John. I think most of the statements here are pretty straight forward and non-race related: Fuck the spoiled twerps who land in trouble, whoever they may be.
But John has to make this some sort of race related issue because for whatever reason it’s vitally important to him that someone feel sorry for a woman who does not need more sympathy. He should know better but in his haste to make us feel guilty for not being what he thinks is decent (because spoiled twerps really need more people saying “poor baby”), he’s made himself look like a cretin.
She’s a spoiled brat she’s in a little bit of trouble. Maybe this little bit of trouble will keep her from getting in yet more trouble of the sort that leaves her or a victim seriously injured. I don’t have time to waste feeling sorry for someone who will do less than two months in jail and it will have no negative impact on their lives in terms of being unable to get a job, etc.
You want to talk about people in need of sympathy? How about the guys who are in the pen for things they didn’t do? You want to make us laugh? Keep wagging your finger.
Krista
I can totally see what you’re saying. I really can.
Yes, she is screwed up. Yes, her priorities are totally out of whack. But, if she genuinely feels that her life is empty and lacking something, then she should stop being so silly and actually try to do something meaningful with her life. And if she is perfectly content with things the way that they are, then why does she need your sympathy? She’s a happy camper, and this jail time will soon be nothing but a bad memory for her.
John Cole
Yeah, because her wealth and her skin color have nothing to do with it.
Tell that to Al Sharpton.
John Cole
I genuinely do not understand the notion that because I think Paris is getting what she deserved for her behaviors and feel sorry that she is such a mess translates into support for Paris.
And for those of you who are bitching and moaning that she thought she was better than you and treated normal people like peasants, stop acting like peasants. Or continue on go and burn the queen- SHE DROVE ON A SUSPENDED LICENSE! SHE’S A WITCH!
John Cole
I think she is so screwed up she doesn’t understand how screwed up she is. I am willing to bet she will concoct some notion that she is somehow the victim here, and go on with her life just as she has in the past- surrounded by people who giver her everythign she wants, people that never correct her or show her how screwed up she is, completely convinced she is “happy” as she does her next line of coke while on the way to the club, where she will probably blow the DJ in the bathroom.
The only real plausible change to her behavior is that she and her handlers will probably be more vigilant when it comes to making sure she has a designated driver. The rest will probably stay the same. IN a few years, she will probably think she has grown up, andproceed to have a kid that she will fuck up as badly as her parents fucked her up.
And that, my friends, is the DEFINITION of sad.
rachel
We ‘ave found a witch! May we BURN her?
demimondian
I think Krista nails it:
and then you add
If she’s genuinely “happy”, then she neither needs my sympathy and nor deserves my pity. She deserves my scorn, for being so coddled, so cosseted, so much the princess in her own mind that she honestly thinks that the laws are for the little people.
And, yes, I’d say that same thing if she were poor, black, and male, and told me that the law was for the “conformists” or whatever bit of self-justifying crap that came with that.
demimondian
And she turned me into a NEWT!
[audience looks on skeptically]
Well..I got better!
Krista
Not really. It’s just my own opinion. I can truly see John’s point. She is probably one of those people who will always seek happiness inside a bottle, inside a shopping bag, or inside some Greek playboy’s $400 jeans, not realizing that things like that are sources of amusement, not happiness.
Or maybe she is truly happy, and we’re just being self-delusional fools, comforting ourselves by thinking that someone that rich and cossetted could never experience true happiness.
I don’t know. I spent 6 hours today on my property hauling logs and firewood, and am too tired to think, let alone make any sort of point. But I’m damn happy. And damn poor. :)
rachel
Every single one of us used to feel that way back when we were small, but as we grew up we were taught it was not so. We didn’t like it; we threw all kinds of tantrums, but Mom and Dad knew it was their duty to civilize us, and eventually we all (some of us better than others, I’m sure) learned to behave like adults. Paris, on the other hand, was obviously born to parents who were either incapable or unwilling to civilise her. This is a terrible thing, when you think about it: she has no idea how society really works or how she should act in it. And at this late stage, she’s probably never going to. Yes, I pity her and now I thank God my parents punished me when I was naughty.
grumpy realist
My maxim to live by has always been “stupidity should hurt.” Paris Hilton has demonstrated stupidity in spades.
John seems to think Paris is so screwed up nothing will bring home to her the situation. He’s probably right that she’ll get out of jail, whine all the way home to Mommy about how MEAN everyone is to her, and go back into the little cocoon of syncophants and enablers. A point of interest: will the MSM still be able to obsess over the continually occurring road accident that is Paris, or has she made herself into such a joke that her selling power has diminished?
At some point, I think Paris will fall off the cliff. Her main devotees supposedly are girls in their very early teens. (Most girls grow out of Paris adoration as they grow up and discover exactly how bad a role model Paris is.) Hard to have adoration about someone who’s the same age as Mommy (which Paris will be, at some point.)
Also, I think as Paris gets older, people are going to be less and less inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. Up to now her behavior could be explained away as a “bad girl” still trying to find a place in the world. I think that as Paris passes the big 30, people will have far less tolerance for her antics, saying to themselves, “she should have grown up by now.”
This jailing is the first slap of reality in Paris’ life. It won’t be the last. Either she learns, or she’s going to end up a freakshow like Michael Jackson. Some would say she already has.
Pb
Hell, tell it to the cable news networks who keep covering this sort of dreck for that very reason.
But I have to say, it’s nice to see Paris Hilton getting the jail time that Bush, Cheney, etc. never got–maybe the system is slowly getting fairer?
Zombie Santa Claus
Anyway, you moonbats were all up in arms when Clinton got impeached. But he deserved that, and more, for having Vince Foster whacked.
Dave
Well when you look how she turned out, I’d say no.
jake
Congratulations on releasing the lamest jackalope I’ve seen in weeks.
Here we go:
[Emph. Mine]
Has Sharpton commented in this thread? In that case, the correct statement would be “If she were poor and black, Al Sharpton would not be devoid of sympathy.” I haven’t seen a comment from the Rev. Blowhard so I assumed you were talking about the people who have commented in this thread.
Unless you’re suggesting we’re all following Sharpton’s orders to rag on her received through the Lubrul HiveMind Control Centre (TM)?
But perhaps I’m missed the part where Sharpie announced that Hilton should go to prison because she’s rich and white and a bunch of people said “Yes! I agree with Al!” which caused you to make a connection between the comments here and whatever Rev.’s been bloviating about recently. Is that it? It would of course be illogical and unfair, but right now I can’t make heads or tails out of what you’re trying to say. Care to explain?
srv
Fixed. With all that court experience, didn’t GW’s history ever give you pause?
Frank
John- I feel I should congratulate you on your compassion. You have really grown in the last few years. I knew something was bothering me about the current Paris Hilton story but I wasn’t able to put it into words, thanks for doing it for me.
grumpy realist
We’re also looking at this in total fascination because it’s not just Paris–it’s the unholy mess of Paris + Paris’s totally nutty parents + the star-struck sheriff + the constant pumping of Paris by the media + Hollywood’s celebrity culture in general.
A Perfect Storm, in other words.
And the rest of the characters involved seem to be as crazy as Paris, if not more. Her parents wanting to use “Habeas Corpus” for a 45-day stay in the slammer? My goodness. The next thing they’re going to want to do is appeal to the Supreme Court.
I guess I do feel a bit sorry for Paris, in as much she obviously grew up in an environment which never taught her that there are limits, that society (and the law) works by certain rules, and you can’t continually hive off the responsibility for your actions onto someone else. (Now if someone had only taught that to her mother.)
Still, as has been pointed out, it can’t all be family upbringing. Paris’s sister doesn’t seem to indulge in half of these shenanigans. So where’s the difference from?
Tulkinghorn
Paris holds herself out as some sort of royalty, in that her wealth and status, by themselves, are supposed to make her a worthy and admirable figure.
As and American it is my right, indeed my patrimony and my duty, to loathe royalty of all kinds. We, as a country, need to denounce, ridicule, despise and (culturally) depose people like her. It is not exactly watering the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots, but it is a start.
Someday, when the last Hilton is strangled to death with the intestines of the last publicist…(apologies to Diderot)
Mr Furious
Yeah. One is sitting in the White House right now — matching drug and DUI history and everything. Hilton’s only mistake is that her daddy wasn’t running the CIA when she got pulled over.
The Other Steve
Have you ever considered, that maybe this is the key to good health?
Mike Toreno
As I understand it, the sentence was WAY out of line with what would have been handed down to the average person under similar circumstances. Paris Hilton isn’t entitled to more justice than the average person, but she isn’t entitled to less, either. Also, as I understand it, the judge acted like an ass on Friday, when he excoriated some media outlet for giving out the incorrect information that Ms. Hilton would be allowed to attend by telephone, when a court spokesman had given out the information. The judge should look to his own house.
I am disgusted and ashamed of America because of the Paris Hilton hatefest that has been going on all this time. For everybody that’s indulging in it, I want to say, don’t you have anything better to do?
If you don’t like what you perceive as excessive coverage of Ms. Hilton’s lifestyle and behavior, don’t pay attention to it. I have only a vague understanding of Ms. Hilton’s various activities; I gather that she sometimes fails to comport herself with what I would consider appropriate dignity, that she entertains herself in ways that I would not (especially at my age), and that if she asked me, I would advise her to conduct herself in a more circumspect manner.
But she hasn’t asked me, and I don’t see that she has done anything that bad, and she certainly hasn’t done anything that affected ME to the extent that I feel personal hostility toward her. Her story about what she was doing when she was arrested for drunk driving is reasonable, and in line with her blood alcohol level, which was just barely over the limit. She said that she had a glass of wine, and miscalculated how much it would affect her. Drunk driving should never be condoned, but a minimal first offense is not some great huge deal, and as I said, my understanding is that in this latest episode, she has been treated more harshly than someone else would be.
How Paris Hilton chooses to behave doesn’t affect me, but unequal treatment by the justice system does affect me, and living in a country that uses Paris Hilton (or anyone else) as its Emmanuel Goldstein does affect me.
There are plenty of people who have done grave harm to others. Paris Hilton isn’t one of them. There are plenty of people who have gravely harmed this country. Paris Hilton isn’t one of them.
If I were Paris Hilton, I know what I’d do. People feel free to hate on Paris Hilton the way they do because they don’t fear her. If I were her, as soon as I got out of jail, I’d start taking care of that little problem. There’s plenty she can do, all legal, to exert what must be her enormous power in ways directed to harm those who have derided her.
She might, for example, buy the internet service provider that serves the judge who sentenced her.
The Other Steve
This is funny…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19113385/site/newsweek
Michael Moore gave money to the guy responsible for MooreWatch to help him out with his wife’s medical bills.
The guy at least admits that Moore has an interest in keeping Moorewatch alive for the publicity.
grandpa john
Hmmm well as to the judge looking out for his own house I don’t know, But it would appear that he and the prosecutors are looking out for their own political futures, something that I don’t see being discussed here.
I wish more people would get as incensed about the daily flouting and ignoring of the law by privileged members of our government as they do about the actions of media created personalities. Of course our media is also the leader in disavowing any condemnation of the” above the law” acts of bush and his stooges.
grandpa john
Hmmm well as to the judge looking out for his own house I don’t know, But it would appear that he and the prosecutors are looking out for their own political futures, something that I don’t see being discussed here.
I wish more people would get as incensed about the daily flouting and ignoring of the law by privileged members of our government as they do about the actions of media created personalities. Of course our media is also the leader in disavowing any condemnation of the” above the law” acts of bush and his stooges.
capelza
Let’s review here….she got busted for a DUI, it got reduced to Reckless Driving but her license was suspended, then she gets busted for driving on that suspended license….agrees not to drive again, THEN gets busted for driving with a suspended license AGAIN very soon afterwards going 70 miles an hour with her lights turned off at night…(this I gathered from the news). She wasn’t just driving around casually and accidentally got caught. But yet again seriously endangering others by her behaviour (“sober” or not…).
Pity her upbringing and her criminally fucked up parents, but they aren’t the ones driving like that…
capelza
And let us not forget, that she showed for court late before..so do not disrespect the judge who handling your case…
Mike Toreno
Grandpa John,
“Hmmm well as to the judge looking out for his own house I don’t know,”
That’s not what I meant by that phrase. What I meant was, the judge should have taken responsibility for the fact that a COURT SPOKESMAN at HIS COURT gave out the false information that Ms. Hilton would be allowed to participate in the meeting by telephone. The judge blamed Ms. Hilton, and the media, for their actions resulting from something that, in essence, the judge did.
“But it would appear that he and the prosecutors are looking out for their own political futures, something that I don’t see being discussed here.”
If I were Ms. Hilton, I’d tell my people, “these people used me to further their own careers. This time next year, I don’t want them to have any careers. Make it happen.”
If the judge and the prosecutor aren’t as pure as the driven snow, they’ve got weaknesses that someone with the resources that Ms. Hilton has can exploit, to hound them to their doom.
CaseyL
Then you misunderstand it.
This DUI wasn’t her first offense, nor her second, nor her third, nor her fourth.
It was the fifth time she’d been stopped for DUI – on a suspended license, no less.
She was drunk. She was speeding. She had her headlights turned off. And her license had been suspended.
It’s a damn miracle she didn’t kill someone.
And since her parents have made sure she never learned any sense of personal responsibility, or any responsibility to other people, if she doesn’t serve the full sentence, it’s a sure bet she will continue to drive drunk, speeding, with her lights off, and some day she will kill someone.
Nothing else has made the slightest impression on her. Maybe cooling her butt in jail will.
ThymeZone
One of the best comments I’ve seen so far on the subject. If anyone here actually cares about disparities in the justic system, the correct, moral and responsible approach is to reform that system and especially to reform it in terms of how it treats the nobodies. Not to focus on whether rich people get a better deal. That’s not just dumb, it’s ineffective to the point of being destructive to the “cause” that underlies it. There are many, many things that need to be reformed and improved in that system, most of them having to do with the way that it treats people as disposable, and promotes prosecutorial abuses. None of which has anything to do with Paris Hilton, at all.
As for Hilton herself, WRT the particulars of the case, the right way to respond to people who drive impaired and on suspended licenses …. a huge problem, and a serious problem because so many people do it … is not to have theatrical jail sentences. It’s to devise effective enforcement. For me, that would start with things like taking away her car, home detetion on a short, strict leash, and strict probationary supervision. The fact is that the present “method” for dealing with this problem is a hodgepodge of bad policy and bad practice. In the era of supertechnology, we can devise ways to be sure who is driving cars, and where they are driving them, at less cost than staging a jail ingress and egress on the rare occasions when these people get caught. Most of them don’t get caught. That’s the real problem.
LBNL, the grotesque mob scene televised Friday is a sad wakeup call for those who really want to move America away from being the Land of Bush and Rove. I say again, when politicians see how easily a giant national mob can be manipulated and motivated into behavior that basically acts against the real interests of the people in the mob, they just smile and start figuring out how to scoop up the votes.
Nest time you see posts about the Pander Bears we have for politicians, just remember what and who it is they are pandering to. They are pandering to people who will react like emotional idiots over something that is totally symbolic and basically trivial. And they are concluding that if those are the people they are governing, then why bother with the complexities of truth and reality, when bullshit and theater work so much better. The latter are the subject of Mr. Cole’s expertise, I hear, so maybe we’ll hear more about the real significance of this whole sorry episode? I hope so.
Mike Toreno
I found a UPI story about the Feb 28 stop that says that the police said there was no indication of alcohol or drugs. Was there a later stop?
She was on Sunset Blvd, which is basically lit up like the sun all the time, so I’d classify the no lights as an oversight.
The few stories that I have found don’t say anything about the 70 mph, and HOW could you do 70 MPH on Sunset Blvd at any time? How could you do 15 MPH?
If you’re right, then yeah, she’s reckless and doesn’t care about other people, but my (admittedly cursory) search doesn’t support your factual contentions. This may, of course, be due to my simple failure to find those facts, rather than their nonexistence.
If my facts are right, though, it looks to me like a technical violation and other people committing the same sort of violation are not sentenced to 45 days in jail.
And no one is subjected to this media-inflamed hatefest.
taoless
yes, it is kind of sad that we all don’t have anything better to do than to cackle over paris’ incarceration or run each other down for doing so, but here’s an upside that’s been alluded to but not really fleshed out in this thread:
there is, most certainly, a pattern of the children of wealth and privilege getting away with stuff that the rest of us usually get busted for, and the parallel between paris and our banana republican president has been drawn pretty clearly.
what i’m hoping is that the popping of that bubble of invulnerability, even in such a trivial matter as this, might start the ball to rolling, and perhaps, if we are very lucky, the accountability snowball might roll all the way from la to dc.
if they can get paris, then why not w?
a fella can dream, anyway.
capelza
Meh…sure there’s truly awful things happening….the EXACT SAME THINGS I BITCHED ABOUT FOR YEARS on this very blog, including Iran, Iraq, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush…the whole clusterfuck of the last 6 years.
So pardon me for taking this one weekend to enjoy the discomfort of someone who has NOT bitched about the continuing clusterfuck…but instead has been giving the finger to the law because she thought she could. If she is being made an example of..the that’s bloody well fine. Noblesse oblige and all that All her little fans might get the clue that it is not alright to do these things…that there are consequences for bad behaviour.
My car was totaled by an uninsured suspended license driver (with me in it)…I am not sympathetic to this “victimless crime”.
As for the argument that LA jails are overcrowded and that’s why she was released…well NO. The Sheriff himself said that she was released for medical reasons…AND THAT is why I call bullshit on it. Please show me where others without the wherewithall and money also got out do to “medical issues”…the oversrowding issue is an after the fact excuse by people trying to CYA.
It’s just weird that some of the same people who have castigated (or relished in) Bush for the exact same bullshit in his past are rising to the defense of some mindless twit that would have continued to drive while suspended, obviously…until someone put the brakes on her..in a way that would get her attention. Fines and nice chats weren’t working….she was an unrepentent scofflaw (to borrow a phrase).
She had a document in her glove compartment that she had signed after she was pulled over the first time for a suspended license agreeing that she was not to drive…in the glove compartment of the car she was Driving the second time she was pulled over (the one where she didn’t have her lights turned on.)
She (and her mother) were rude to the judge (first, by not even bothering to show up on time..and then with comments.
By the way..which part of Sunset Blvd. was she on? That street goes a vey long way…it isn’t just the Strip. And that does not matter….how stupid does a person have to be to speed and not turn on their lights when they are knowingly driving illegally…?
Zombie Santa Claus
So far, nobody seems too interested in talking about it.
It fires us all up, though.
She’s useful for bringing it up as a tangential subject. Not that anyone really wants to talk about it, anyway.
ThymeZone
Nobody ever said that these people were the strongest batteries in the flashlight.
Being rude to a judge is about as stupid as it gets.
Pb
Regarding her record, here’s the AP’s Paris Hilton timeline (I wish I were kidding)… one interesting nugget:
grumpy realist
“Not the strongest batteries in the flashlight”–hey, I think we’re getting down to single digits when it comes to counting brain cells for these two (Paris and her mother.)
The other sister, Nicole, doesn’t seem to have nearly the same amount of difficulty. Why the difference?
(Yes, and Mom looks to be a Basket Case no matter how you look at her.)
les
I don’t think I get the definition of “shitty life.” She’s had every opportunity possible; and no matter how many shitty decisions she makes, she’ll never be in want–assuming she can keep from killing somebody, that is. Anyone–anyone–approaching average intelligence can look around and see how their life compares to the rest of the world, and very few people have the ability to act on their decisions as she can. Paris has chosen to be famous for being a rich, dumb, party girl, apparently just so she can be famous. I doubt she needs or wants my sympathy, and I sure don’t feel any.