TIFF ‘08 off the red carpet

PARIS, not FRANCE - Hilton an icon for a new media generation?

Posted by ShoVine editor - 16/09/08 at 03:09:25 pm

Having PARIS Hilton at the Toronto Film Festival this year deserves another mention. If anything, you cannot escape a certain irony in the Toronto Festival questioning different notions of celebrity, with the selection and premiering of the documentary Paris, Not France - but still making sure TIFF rides the wave of publicity that Hilton brings to the machine. Hilton is already being credited for bringing some badly needed buzz to the festival this year.

Ghita Loebenstein expands on that in a good piece for the official TIFF news daily, Pedro and Paris: The Power of Celebrity. Loebenstein got some good new media food for thought out of the Hilton documentary director - Adria Petty (Tom’s daughter, no shit.)

” What intrigues me the most about her is how mysterious she is and what an incredible relationship she has with the camera,” says Petty, speaking from Los Angeles. “She has this incredible resilience and a kind of magic to her.”

Five years ago, few people would have associated the name “Paris” with anything but the city. Today, however, Hilton enjoys a unique kind of celebrity. “Paris is an icon for this generation, based on the dawn of a new media age. She was the first celebrity created through the “viral-ness” of the Internet. She stoked that engine so effortlessly and spoke the language of this new media so well.”
- Pedro and Paris: The Power of Celebrity

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