AUSTRIA: Paris Hilton, star guest of Vienna's Opera Ball almost denied entry by border control

Record ID: 602355

  • Title: AUSTRIA: Paris Hilton, star guest of Vienna's Opera Ball almost denied entry by border control
  • Date: 22nd February 2007
  • Summary: (NIGHT SHOTS) EXTERIOR OF FRONT OF OPERA HOUSE, HORSE IN FOREGROUND
  • Embargoed: 9th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Austria
  • Country: Austria
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAB0SFD6CKGRIGE5971XNJCDUGP
  • Story Text: Two days before her birthday, celebrity heiress Paris Hilton, star guest of Vienna's iconic Opera Ball on Thursday (February 15), was initially denied entry when changing flights in Munich Wednesday night as she produced an expired passport at the controls.
    A sheepish Hilton explained the situation to reporters at a news conference in a packed Vienna cinema in a mall owned by her host, Austrian building tycoon Richard Lugner.
    The U.S. embassy vouched for Hilton when contacted by German authorities, and the heiress of the hotel empire was allowed to go on. But Hilton had to check in at the embassy Thursday morning at 8.30 a.m. (0730 GMT) to get an emergency passport.
    Hilton's early start came after millionaire Lugner, who since 1992 has made it a personal quest to adorn his private box at the ball with renowned showbiz figures, took her to a Valentines Day party where she stayed until 2 a.m. before retreating to her 15th floor suite in the Vienna Hilton.
    And the position at the Opera was apparently well appreciated, with Hilton telling reporters she was something of a classical music fan.
    "I love classical music, I grew up listening to it. As a little girl it would help me fall asleep at night and my mom would put it on, so I've always loved classical music I think opera is amazing, their voices are so incredible. It's not really my type of music to sing but I do like listening to it," she said.
    Lugner made his fortune in the construction industry and is a society luminary in Vienna where his nickname is 'Mortar.'
    Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, acting legend Sophia Loren, former SpiceGirl Geri Halliwell and the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, have accompanied Lugner over the past years to the highlight of Austria's ball season staged in the neo-romantic splendour of one of the world's most famous opera houses.
    None of those celebrities drew the same crowd hunting autographs to the Lugner City mall as Hilton though. Around 2,000 cheering, phone-camera toting fans were lining up to have cans of Prosecco that Hilton is advertising signed by the socialite.
    But only a few handful managed to secure their bounty when signing was broken off after half an hour because lighters, lipsticks and other items were thrown at Hilton from the audience and she was escorted away by security.
    First held in 1877, the Opera Ball has taken place religiously since, with the only significant breaks being during the first World War and from the end of the second World War to 1956, when Austria regained independence.
    Almost 500 balls are held in Vienna during the carnival season which lasts from November 11 to Shrove Tuesday, before the start of the Christian period of Lent.
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