NEWSWEEK: Paris Hilton Says She Plays a Dumb Blonde on TV 'Because It's Funny. I Consider Myself a Businesswoman and a Brand.'

NEWSWEEK: Paris Hilton Says She Plays a Dumb Blonde on TV 'Because It's Funny. I Consider Myself a Businesswoman and a Brand.'

Family Initially Resisted Title of New Reality Series, 'I Want to Be a Hilton' Because They Didn't Want Their Name in It 'It Does Sound a Little Obnoxious' Says Paris's Father Rick Hilton.

NEW YORK, June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Paris Hilton tells Newsweek that maybe when she was younger, "I thought it was cute to play a dumb blonde. On TV, I do it because it's funny. I consider myself a businesswoman and a brand." When Senior Editor Marc Peyser, who spent a day with the Hilton family to talk about their new NBC reality series "I Want to Be a Hilton," tells Paris she's a lot smarter than the woman who once wondered if Wal-Mart was a place to buy walls, she replies, "I know exactly what I'm doing."

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050612/NYSU005 )

She's certainly managed to turn herself into an icon and a conglomerate for essentially being a party girl -- that is, for doing nothing. And she's planning to give up her public life in two years, by which time she expects to become a mother with fiance Paris Latsis. "I don't enjoy going out anymore," she tells Peyser in the June 20 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, June 13). "It's a pain. It's everyone saying, 'Let's do a deal! Can I have a picture?' I'm just, like, 'These people are such losers. I can't believe I used to love doing this'."

Peyser reports that for the new series, the Hiltons actually fought with NBC about the show's title -- because they didn't want their name in it. "We thought it was too cheeky," says Paris's father Rick Hilton. "It does sound a little obnoxious." Paris's mother Kathy Hilton is the host of the show, in which she plays a Southampton Pygmalion who coaches 14 rubes, hicks and homegirls in taste and etiquette.

Peyser brings up the recent scandals over the girls' difficult boyfriends, the guy who hacked into Paris's Sidekick and, of course, Paris's homemade sex tape. "Well, that was very painful. Very painful. Very painful," says Kathy Hilton. "But it taught me that I really can't trust everybody."

So then why sign on for the reality show? In addition to acting being in Kathy's blood and famous actress relatives, another possibility may be the money, Peyser reports. Despite whatever trust funds they may have, Rick isn't on the family payroll. His day job is developing and selling real estate; he recently sold Cliff Robertson's $19 million house in La Jolla. "My father, like his father, always felt that the children should make their own way in life," Rick says. "We really have been taught to row our own boats."

(Read Newsweek's news releases at http://www.newsweek.com/. Click "Pressroom.")

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Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050612/NYSU005 AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/ AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN1 PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com Source: Newsweek

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