Author Barbara Ehrenreich has filed a lawsuit against Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, stars of the TV show 'The Simple Life,' which just started its third season this week.
"Those sluts so totally took my idea," Ehrenreich complained to reporters outside the courtroom. "I wore my fingers down to, like, stubs or something cleaning hotel rooms six days a week so I could do this story about, you know, poor people and stuff - and these ditzy, rich anorexics hog all the attention. God, it's so unfair!"
Perpetually charming celebutante Paris Hilton dismissed the whole matter.
"This woman's legal maneuvering is a transparent attempt to freeload off my hard work and signature personality," a contemptuous Hilton said. "It's a specious attack by an envious second-rate intellectual whose tedious drivel fails to garner her the attention she craves. Her inability to gain fame or fortune on her own in our free market system merely underscores her inferiority."
The lawsuit charges intellectual property infingement, claiming Ehrenreich had the idea of pretending to be an unskilled low-wage American first. As detailed in her 2001 book Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich traveled across the U.S. posing as a high school drop-out while taking any job available to make ends meet.
"It's just that Ehrenreich did it without the humor and charm mustered by these two endearing young women," says celebrity columnist Sheery Dunhill. "Hilton and Richie have such spunk and enthusiasm that you really don't care what the show's about. They're simply a joy to watch.
"Contrasted with the doom and gloom of Nickel and Dimed, 'The Simple Life' just reminds me that attitude is everything. It gives people hope that you don't have to be intelligent or knowledgeable to become a rich celebrity."
Television critic Seamus Morgan sums it up. "This show celebrates our great freedom in America to choose how we want to live and where we want to go. Paris Hilton is an inspiration to us all. It just looks so glamorous and fun, I know lots of people who are thinking about going working-class now."
External Link:
Barbara's Blog [1]