- Title: FRANCE: PARIS HILTON BUILDS BRAND AT CANNES.
- Date: 18th May 2005
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 13 2005) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PARIS HILTON SAYING: "I'm already building my own empire and I have so much going on that I wouldn't need to. I'm already doing my own hotel Parises, so they are not going to be Hiltons they're gonna be my own boutique hotels. So, I'll be their competition." MV/CU: PARIS HILTON BEING PHOTOGRAPHED AND SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS (2 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 2nd June 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CANNES, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA53PE6V3U1X1V74YDUMR2H4LLM
- Story Text: Partying in the past for Paris as she builds brand.
Long derided as a celebrity air-head, hotel
heiress Paris Hilton is starting to demand a little more
respect with her rapidly expanding business empire. In
Cannes to promote her latest film, the former wild child is
prepared to stop at nothing.
She has her own canine clothing brand called Paris Tinkerbell,
named after her chihuahua, and even a "doggie jewellery line".
"I'm 24 years old now and the party girl days were when
I was 16 years old and I'd just moved to New York City, and
now I'm too busy," she told Reuters in an interview on
Friday (May 13). "I am a businesswoman, I work every single
day and I don't go out any more," she added.
The image most have of Paris Hilton is one of a
vacuous party animal, best known until recently for
appearing in a homemade film having sex with her then
boyfriend that spread via the Internet. But TV series "The
Simple Life", in which she lives with ordinary people and
mucks in with the family chores, her businesses from
fragrances to hotels to night clubs, and even a lengthy
profile in the New York Times, are changing all of that.
Reclining on a chaise longue by the beach, Hilton's
demeanour is demure. She wears a simple white patterned
dress, and refers to herself as a "brand".
"I'm already building my own empire and I have so much
going on that I wouldn't need to," she said, when asked
whether she would one day take over the family Hilton hotel chain.
"I'm already doing my own Hotel Parises, so they're not
going to be Hiltons. They're going to be my own boutique
hotels ... I'll be their competition." When asked to
estimate just how big her business was, she said: "A lot".
Hilton believes she has inherited an ambitious streak.
"I always think it's very important to make my own money,"
she told a packed news conference. "I come from a very
ambitious family. My grandfather started the Hilton hotel
chain after being a bell-boy and I wanted to do my own
thing and make my own name for myself, and not be just the
Hilton hotel daughter." Time will tell whether her business
ventures turn out to be vanity projects or financially
successful companies. But Hilton has not forgotten that sex
sells. When asked about her new film "Pledge This", in
which she plays an American university student called
Victoria who leads her colleagues astray, she answered:
"This is a very sexy movie. It's all about hot sorority
girls in college, and everybody's beautiful. It's hot, and
there are some sexy scenes with me."
The next instalment of reality TV show "The Simple
Life" is also scheduled to be set in Hawaii, where the
beaches should provide a more glamorous setting than
previous series. Barely ever out of the limelight, Hilton's
reception in Cannes had A-list celebrity written all over
it - the arrival by boat, a media scrum and a long section
of the exclusive Cannes beach devoted to her sizeable
entourage. "Obviously I sometimes think everybody is always
watching me," she said. "It gets hard, but that's the
business I chose to be in." - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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