I know it's not an edifying subject, but Kay Hymowitz entertainingly dissects the cultural phenomenon that is Paris Hilton:

Now despite her fame and good fortune, for most sentient adults Hilton personifies the decadence of our cultural moment. With her nightclub brawls, her endless sexcapades, her vapid interviews, her rodentlike dog and her lack of ostensible talent, she reeks of every vice ever ascribed to our poor country. She has become a synonym for American materialism, bad manners, greed, "like" and "whatever" Valley Girl inarticulateness, parochialism, arrogance, promiscuity, antifeminism, exposed roots and navels, entitlement, cell-phone addiction, anorexia and bulimia, predilection for gas-guzzling private transportation, pornified womanhood, exhibitionism, narcissism -- you name it.

The "rodentlike dog" in particular tickled my funny bone. But as Kay points out, it's not about worship of her, but hatred. Deserved or not, she's our Marie Antoinette.

She's also the heiress of the Hilton hotel chain. Like her or not, that is something that those of us in the alt.space community should bear in mind, unless we expect that only Bigelow will be making hotels in space.

According to some English press reports, Paris Hilton is interested in space flight and has paid Virgin Galactic for a flight on Space Ship Two. So maybe people interested in promoting manned space flight should ease off a little on Paris Hilton.

(Virgin Galactic? Paris Hilton in space? Geez, I wasn't even trying for irony!)

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17635404&method=full&siteid=62484&headline=paris-a-real-space-cadet--name_page.html

Here is the link to the story

And the funny thing is that she probably didn't have to try that hard. I can't imagine the effort it would take me to attain that depth of reputation.

Once Hilton builds its first Orbital Hotel, I wonder how long it will take until Paris has her zero gee sexcapades leak onto the interblab?