Paris Hilton and manufactured fame

Paris Hilton is a socialite and media personality who has ventured off into careers in music, movies, and modeling. Her great grandfather Conrad Hilton is the founder of the Hilton Hotels chain. Although she has appeared on TV and many other media related events, her rise to fame can be seen as manufactured. Unlike other celebrities she really hasn’t done anything to garner the attention she gets. She is not really a talented actress and she’s basically something that has been created by the media. Her family name is very famous and that can be the reason for a lot of the attention she receives. She also appeared in the 2007 book of Guinness World Records as the world’s “Most Overrated Celebrity”.
Joshua Gamson talked about two types of famous people. On one hand you have people with special skills and are greatly talented. They may be aided by promotion but it is ultimately there talent that gets them such fame. Even If someone with no talent received the same amount of promotion they would not match the fame of the person who actually has talent. The second society publicity focuses attention on those who are talented and those who are not talented. In many cases the media is in fact what has made people famous and not their skills and accomplishments. The shift has in large part been contributed to the growing media and technology of present day. Everything about celebrities is so much more known and there is little to no private information about them.
Paris Hilton is a perfect example of this manufactured fame that Joshua Gamson talks about. I’m not saying that she is an untalented individual, but at least she hasn’t shown her talents to the rest of the world. She has skated by on her name and because of this she has become famous instead of people who work hard day in and day out to reach such levels of fame.