Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton

NEW YORK - Some love her. Others hate her. Paris Hilton's latest biographer, who spent more than a year studying the world's most famous "celebutante," says he just feels sorry for her.

Hilton, whose great-grandfather, Conrad, started the global Hilton Hotel empire, was catapulted to international fame in 2003 when a home video of her having sex with a former boyfriend was plastered all over the internet.

Coupled with a popular reality television show called "The Simple Life," Hilton used the publicity to build a multimillion-dollar celebrity juggernaut. The wannabe star's outrageous behavior and skimpy clothing scored her headlines and magazine covers around the world.

Biographer Jerry Oppenheimer, author of "House of Hilton - From Conrad to Paris: A Drama of Wealth, Power, and Privilege," said Hilton, 25, has made herself into the IT girl of this decade, attracting scores of copycat fans.

But he said her partying and rich-girl antics -- including a recent arrest for drunken driving -- have irritated many others.

Dislike of her is so strong that she recently topped a survey as the female star most people would like to see slain in a horror film.

She also reportedly has won a place in the 2007 Guinness World Records as "the most overrated celebrity," and helped personify a new word, "celebutante," a blend of "celebrity" and "debutante" meaning an attention seeker better known for misbehaving than for talent.

Loved or hated, Paris Hilton is here to stay for a while, Oppenheimer said.

"Her brilliance is getting the attention -- the exhibitionism, canoodling with guys in clubs and getting on the covers of celebrity magazines around the world," he said.

Childhood pressure

Oppenheimer said he ended up feeling sorry for Hilton as he came to believe that her mother and maternal grandmother pushed her into using the family name and an exhibitionist streak to become a celebrity.

"Her mother, Kathy, put her in make-up and allowed her (into) nightclubs from a very young age," Oppenheimer, a biographer of Martha Stewart and Rock Hudson, said in a telephone interview.

"I feel sorry for her because in a way she had no chance to do anything else but live the dreams that her grandmother and her mother had for themselves."