When you work in a bookstore, you get to interact with a lot of interesting people. People who buy books are generally literate, smart, and entertaining. In fact, my opinion of the average Orange County citizen has risen in the past couple of weeks since I started working at the Borders in Brea.
Unfortunately, that opinion took a crushing blow yesterday when an employee returned from his lunch break and reported that he’d spent 40 minutes trying to find a parking space at Brea Mall before giving up.
“Ah,” we thought, “here at last are the frenzied masses we expect of the holiday season.” Fellow blogger Jill commented on the rather mild post-Thanksgiving Day crowds and I’ve noticed the same thing myself, both in Borders and when I was out doing my own shopping.
But no, it wasn’t Holiday madness that brought people flocking. It was another kind of madness all together. Apparently, a customer reported, Paris Hilton was making a publicity appearance at the mall, signing copies of her new book.
What is it about this floozy (I honestly can’t think of another word to describe her that wouldn’t involve profanity) that provokes such excitement and attention? While there are plenty of other publicity whores out there, most of them have at least done something productive, like an album or a movie. The only product Paris has to promote is herself, and I can’t really see much of value there. And yet, people flock to see her. Maybe it’s the same thing that makes people go visit the sideshow freaks at an old-fashioned circus.
Oh well. I’ll go back to hiding in my bookstore, and take comfort in the number of people who bought copies of Jon Stewart’s America.
Paris isn’t any different than any other socialite – rich, and famous for being rich. She’s just extended her appeal into the 18-24 crowd, which tends to attract a lot of media attention. She does have a book, and she does have a television show (both obtained by being famous for no reason), but that kind of thing builds on itself, until she’s in the news for concrete things.
Luckily for us, she’s terribly uninteresting, and will likely go away (out of the mainstream consciousness) in the next 12-18 months. Of course, something new will come along, but that’s been the way it’s been for many generations.
Hey, stop calling Paris Hilton a floozy! Don’t you realize there are perfectly reputable floozies out there whose reputation you’re destroying?!
although paris does have a new book, that is not what she was signing. she was hawking her new perfume. it was all terribly entertaining, really, and you can read my article about it in this thursday’s ocweekly, if you care to do so.
Boy, since Ellen went to teh same event you did, I sure hope you’re not going to say she plagiarized you!
Michael: Now I’m depressed.
Ken: You’re right. My apologies to all the reputable floozies of the world. Next time, I won’t be so lazy about getting my thesaurus. Welcome aboard!
Ellen: I might, but I’m not sure I could stomach a whole article about Paris. No offense to your writing or anything. Very sorry you had to witness her spectacle of self-aggrandizement.
Rebecca: Boy, I really didn’t want to get involved in the whole Metblog vs Weekly feud, which is really lame (on both sides!), but your snarky comment is too much to pass by. First, it’s spelled “the”. Yeah, I know, common typo, but it’s not too hard to check and fix before you hit the “post” button. Or maybe you do it deliberately to look geek-cool? Second, if you’d read a bit more carefully, you’d notice I didn’t actually attend the event, but heard about it second or third hand. I could hardly accuse someone of plagarism for writing about an event they were at when I wasn’t even there myself. Third, you demean your profession with such petty sniping. Does your editor know or care that you’re creating such a bad impression of your publication? I get that you’re supposed to be clever and sarcastic and all that, but really you don’t come off any more intelligent than, well, Paris HIlton. Trying to provoke a flame-war with this sort of comment is behavior fitting a teenager, not a journalist. Don’t get me wrong — you can slam the OC Metblog all you want, but try to at least have a little class and creativity when you do it.