Fan Fare

Paris Hilton – the new Marilyn Monroe?

Celebrity heiress and businesswoman Paris Hilton is back in Cannes to drum up some interest in the documentary “Paris, Not France”, which follows her as she goes about her daily life being rich and famous.

The 28-year-old tried to prevent the film, directed by Tom Petty’s daughter Adria, from reaching the big screen, but now sees it as a  kind of set-the-record-straight exercise for someone whose portrayal in the media is not always flattering.

“I was a little scared,” Hilton told reporters at the Cannes film festival, where she said she was partying hard. “I filmed it over three years ago so it was a different period of my life.”

“It also shows how it is living in this life and how much pressure there is. It definitely shows a different side than the media portrays me as.”

You can read about the documentary here, from a story we did when it screened back at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2008.

Asked why she thrust herself into the limelight as much as she did, Hilton replied: “I have a brand, I have a business … I always have something to promote. I love doing it, it’s fun. I always loved Marilyn Monroe and she loved the camera and the camera loved her and I just think of her as one of my idols.”

“Paris, Not France” — almost not Toronto, either

(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng)

Even before she arrives for the Toronto film festival, the business of being Paris Hilton has rolled into town.

Hilton made headlines on the first day of the Toronto International Film Festival when the New York Post’s Page Six reported that she forced festival organizers to cancel two of three screenings of a documentary about her, “Paris, Not France,” in order to amp up the promotional volume for the premiere.

“We wanted to create more buzz – create some hype . . . We felt the impact would be more extreme if we had one screening,” her spokesman Jason Moore is quoted as saying in the Post.

We tried to reach Moore and festival organizers, but neither was immediately available late in the afternoon. The film’s makers, however, did release a statement saying: “We are pleased to have this opportunity to screen the film. For a variety of reasons — which we are unable to discuss — the film will only be screened once. We are optimistic that the film will ultimately be released commercially, but we are not able to comment further.” 

Oh well. Paris happens.

The documentary is among the hottest — pardon the pun — titles here at Toronto. It is described on the Toronto web site as an exploration of the business of being Paris Hilton, and the human being behind the public persona. Its title is a nod to some polls that have revealed that amongst certain people, a higher percentage identify the name “Paris” with Hilton rather than with the Paris, France, according to the festival.