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Hard to believe now but ten years ago, the Hiltons were
regarded as just another “family next door” in fashionable Southampton
summertimes. Family-next-door in that part of the world is not
exactly Ozzie and Harriet or Leave It To Beaver from a socio-economic
point of view, although there are many points in common with the
so-called all-American family summertimes – school vacations,
beach club, tennis and other outdoor sports, convertibles for the
lucky ones, not to mention cheeseburgers and peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches. More apple-pie American than media might lead
one to believe.
The Hiltons California background was nevertheless present — with their occasional weekend houseguests especially. Former baseball
great Steve Garvey and his wife were weekend visitors. And during
the days of the OJ Simpson trial, occasionally Faye
Resnick (remember
Faye Resnick, intimate friend of Nicole Simpson?) was occasionally
in residence, adding a little dash of Hollywood to the sniff and
stiff-upperlip Southampton atmosphere.
Unlike most of their Southampton (and Manhattan) neighbors, fame,
celebrity and even notoriety have always been part of the Hilton
family name and legend. Rick Hilton’s father Barron
Hilton is one of the most famous businessmen in America. His grandfather
(great-grandfather to Nicky and Paris) Conrad
Hilton was not only
the most famous American hotelier of his time – both the
Waldorf-Astoria and the Plaza were part of the Hilton chain) but
was once married another decades-long tabloidal celebrity and glamour-puss,
Zsa Zsa Gabor. Zsa’s daughter (and only child) Francesca
Hilton is actually great-aunt of Paris and Nicky. Another son of
Conrad, another Nicky Hilton, gained early celebrity in the early
1950s as the first husband of Elizabeth Taylor (they married when
she was 18 and he was in his early 20s). He came to an untimely
and tragic death at a very early age.
In retrospect, it was little less than ten years ago that the girls – Nicky
and Paris, and especially Paris – began getting a toe-hold
on their own celebrity (albeit locally) during those Southampton
summertimes, with their early and occasional forays into the club
scene where photographers were snapping and the playgirls and playboys
were hard-partying big time. In those days Paris gave the impression
of being just another one of those teenagers who liked the limelight – and
she was only one of several. No one could have/would have predicted
what followed for the sisters.
As their publicity machine gathered its phenomenal momentum in
the late 1990s, however, and as Paris stepped out into the nightlife
(and the limelight) more, the tongues were wagging, with few, if
anyone thinking or seeing the potential of a professional career
for the lithesome blonde and her equally photogenic, if somewhat
more circumspect sister. Almost no one perceived the obvious — what
I pointed out in television interviews (and which are still running
ad nauseum) — that this was a family affair and that they
were a close-knit family. Which they are. Families that play together
stay together ....
All that is history now. Television ratings have taken over the
dictates of what is now a budding acting career of Paris. Nicky
has dyed her hair brown in an apparent effort to maintain her own
individuality. Momma and Poppa, Rick and Kathy, are now embarking
on (at least one of) their own reality TV show. The Southampton-Manhattan
life is less of a staple in their social world as they are moving
closer and closer to their original L.A. roots. Rick has a prospering
real estate business (which he’s had for years) out there
(and here) and Kathy, once a child actress now has revived and
re-invented an earlier career for herself, as well as guiding a
career for Paris.
Tabloidal notoriety which has often kept the cell-phones buzzing
about the Hiltons, particularly Paris, has proved to be the same
old reliable that is was for the erstwhile great-step-mama Zsa
Zsa and that once upon time auntie, the one and only star of all
stars, Elizabeth. Meanwhile, back in Hollywood, bling-bling and
ka-ching ka-ching are the sounds surrounding Southampton’s
former next-door neighbors, the Hiltons. |
Albemarle,
Rufus
Aston, Muffie Potter
Basso, Dennis
Benedict, Daniel
Capehart, Jonathan
Cominotto, Michael
Curry, Boykin
Dahl, Tessa
DeWoody, Beth Rudin
Duchin, Peter and Brooke
Duff, Patricia
Eaton, Phoebe
Fales-HIll, Susan
Fekkai, Frederic
THE FULL LIST
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