Paris Hilton, Celebrity News and Gossip: Why is Paris Hilton in the News?

With the U.S. at war and on the brink of a new war, I have no idea what keeps media darlings such as Paris Hilton in the spotlight. Is the ability to be completely devoid of any redeeming qualities so interesting? Is celebrity news gossip so powerful?

Her one brush with true stardom came accidentally, in a leaked adult home video of the heiress in a late night romp. Upon review, there is nothing special about the 'One Night in Paris' video, it certainly doesn't hold up to the professional competition. Yet, somehow, this single act of lewd and lascivious behavior catapulted a virtually unknown rich socialite ditz to the top of whatever charts measure whatever type of celebrity status the woman has.

In a nation obsessed with celebrity stardom and the cult of personality surrounding the Hollywood elite, it comes as no surprise that Paris Hilton gets more press than she logically should. What is surprising is that this celebrity ogling takes precedence over more compelling news, involving politics, the war that is currently raging all over the middle east or even that guy that broke the world hot dog eating championship.

Seriously, what is this woman's claim to fame? She had sex on film? She was born ridiculously rich? Her own sister changed her hair color so as not to be associated with the drunken debutante? She starred in 'A Simple Life', where she showed the world what a clueless, self-centered, lazy, sniping, morally bankrupt tramp she is?

None of these ring true as ''accomplishments'' to me. But for some insane reason, people love her. Young girls wish to be like her. Her name comes up in the top 50 searched terms every single day, generally in the top ten. What are these people searching for? They had to have already viewed the sex movie by now, right? What are they hoping to learn that's new information? Still in jail. Still a tramp. Still weighs 9 pounds.

Unfortunately, it is physically impossible to remove a subject of interest from the national zeitgeist, so we are stuck with our ''media darling.'' And we used to complain about Debbie Gibson!