Paris Hilton, Damien Hirst, Sophie Monk, Internet TV and porn

Davey Winder
Saturday, 27 September 2008 18:25

Business IT - Networking

You can never see enough of Paris Hilton. That seems to be the message that the Internet is telling us this week as the IT girl and occasional porn star keeps the web buzzing this week.

Face it, there is no escaping the fact that the Internet needs Paris Hilton just as much as Paris Hilton needs the Internet. It is a strangely symbiotic relationship born out of the publicity following that infamous porn video clip of Paris many years ago. Publicity which simply refuses to go away.

We have reported many times here at iTWire on the Paris effect. From news of how Paris Hilton is the spam queen through to a spoof video claiming she is running for President of the United States.

More recently, however, it appeared that the Paris effect was on the decline with the Hilton online star fading fast.  

But relax, Paris watchers, you can breathe easy as a week of web media activity has once again produced an online Paris feeding frenzy.

First came the news that controversial, and hugely successful, British artist Damien Hirst had paid "an undisclosed sum" for a portrait of Paris which rather aptly happened to be a collage of images taken from pornographic magazines.

The work, entitled Paris 2008, is something of a masterpiece by Jonathan Yeo. A masterpiece of marketing, right up there with Damien Hirst that is, by combining 'Paris Hilton' and 'Porn' it was bound to create online controversy.

Then, hot on the heels of this, we have Sophie Monk who has been described as the Australian answer to Paris Hilton getting through the roof hits on Facebook.

Or at least a Facebook entry claiming to be Sophie Monk (former lead singer of Bardot), and featuring 'candid' images claiming to be taken on the set of her upcoming 'Bigger Than Paris' reality TV show, did.

Once again, the marketing people felt the pulse of the Internet and got this dead right: confidential and candid photo diaries, Facebook, Paris Hilton by association and a good looking Australian girl will always awaken media interest.

Then finally, and perhaps most bizarrely in this Paris Hilton Internet media trilogy, there is The Complicated Life of Michael James.

The 19 year old British man apparently filmed his own reality show on a UKP £50 video camera and it has become something of a YouTube hit. Inspired by Paris Hilton and reality TV, the Brighton-based transvestite started filming his life and tens of thousands tuned in.

Now if only I could get Paris Hilton, Damien Hirst, Sophie Monk and an Internet transvestite starring in an online porn video the Internet would be mine and I could retire tomorrow...