Saturday, June 09, 2007

A Narcissist Celebrity? Oh, Yeah.


With Paris Hilton all over the news lately, it may be a good time to dust off an old article that came out days after Paris' DUI ...the DUI which started the ball rolling on current events in her public life.

A study on narcissism, especially as it relates to celebrities, had come out just before Paris' run-in with the law. She was held up as the poster child for narcissistic celebs by the writer of the article; a perfect illustration of the new study by Drew Pinsky and S. Mark Young.

This silly little trollop's histrionics in jail, and later when she was again hauled to the courtroom and back to jail after her brief home detention hiatus, are another sign of the narcissism of our Ms. Hilton. I was amused by vague descriptions of her inexplicable mental deterioration in jail; reasons cited by the L.A. Sheriff for sending her home. It isn't hard to imagine that Paris is having a hard time dealing with her first run-in with accountability. Watching her ridiculous mother in tears over her daughter's incarceration is a clear sign that Paris has never been expected to own up to her bad behaviors.

My daughter and I watched the first season of "A Simple Life" in 2003 with Paris and Nicole Richie. We were transfixed by the sheer absurdity and pure narcissism of those two girls. Our conclusion was that there was more hope for Paris than Nicole. Nicole came across as a sociopath. A totally remorseless and conscienceless bitch. Paris demonstrated once or twice that she had a tiny smidgen of conscience. Neither my daughter nor I were up for any more seasons of this train-wreck of a reality show, but I sure did get a feel for the character of Paris and her side-kick. So I agree with Blog Critics Magazine that Paris Hilton illustrates narcissistic celebrity to a tee.

I don't spend much time on this blog pinning a label of "narcissism" on public figures. But with a case so obvious as this it seems like a safe venture. Especially since I wasn't the one who first labeled her.

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