Thursday, May 10, 2007
Like a dutiful mom, Kathy Hilton goes to bat defending wayward Paris
Media-savvy mother describes her jail-bound daughter as eccentric.
By SANDY COHEN
The Associated Press
The Hilton who made the most noise in and out of court last week wasn't named Paris.
Kathy Hilton, mother of the notorious party girl, became a media magnet herself at her daughter's probation-violation hearing. She laughed in the courtroom when a city prosecutor argued that Paris deserved jail time. When a judge ordered the 26-year-old Paris to serve 45 days in county jail, Kathy Hilton blurted out: "May I have your autograph?"
She also shared her feelings with reporters outside: "This is pathetic and disgusting, a waste of taxpayer money with all this nonsense. This is a joke."
While her media exposure doesn't rival that of her famous daughter, Hilton is no stranger to the spotlight.
She was a guest star on "Happy Days" in 1977 and appeared on "The Rockford Files" in '78. She hosted a program on QVC and starred in her own NBC reality show in 2005, "I Want to Be a Hilton," in which contestants competed for a chance to live like a socialite for a year.
Accompanying her adult daughter to court made Hilton a public face again. She was likely on hand out of typical parental concern, said Dorian Traube, a professor of social work at the University of Southern California.
"Any time your kids stumble, you question yourself as a parent," she said. "She has one daughter that's done really well and another that keeps stumbling in the public eye. For a family that's very prominent, it's probably quite humiliating."
While it is common for families to come and show support in high-profile court cases, Hilton's outspoken behavior during and after the session was a little unusual, Traube said.
"Kathy Hilton acted as if her daughter was a minor in the way she had to give a statement," Traube said. "Not only is she enabling Paris' behavior, she's perpetuating it."
Kathy Hilton was 19 when she gave birth to Paris in 1981, two years after marrying Rick Hilton, a real estate developer and an heir to the Hilton Hotel fortune. The couple has another daughter, Nicky, and two sons, Barron and Conrad.
Hilton has publicly defended Paris before, calling her vulnerable.
"She's eccentric, she's herself and she never hurts anybody," she told the London newspaper The Guardian in December 2005. "It upsets me that she gets taken advantage of, but I think we've all learned to deal with it."
Hilton compared her daughter to Bambi in a 2005 interview with The Times of London.
"She's like a little deer," she said.
When a homemade sex tape featuring Paris Hilton surfaced, Hilton characterized her daughter as a victim.
"Well, that was very painful. Very painful. Very painful," she told Newsweek in June 2005. "But it taught me that I really can't trust everybody."
Kathy Hilton's spokeswoman did not return calls for comment. Meanwhile, Paris Hilton rehired her publicist, Elliot Mintz, late Monday. They had parted ways over the weekend after her court appearance, during which Mintz testified that he gave her erroneous advice about the status of her suspended driver's license.
"She continues to be my client," he said Tuesday. "I'm delighted and honored to represent Paris. I think the world of her."
