Notoriety

I was very alarmed to read this in today’s Times:

Hating Hilton, according to a recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times, is “a sign of lingering cultural sanity” (the same piece also referred to Hilton as “America’s Slut in Chief”). Similarly, a recent Newsweek profile of Hilton screamed “Could Anyone Be This Stupid?”

As you can imagine, I was deeply hurt - at least until it dawned on me that I haven’t, in fact, been profiled in Newsweek recently, and that the article was probably referring to Paris Hilton (pictured, rather gratuitously but that’s marketing for you, at the top of this post.)

Reading about Cousin Paris I was reminded that one of my favourite words of 2007 was coined specifically to describe her: celebutard. Just in case you can’t work it out for yourself, it’s a portmanteau of celebrity, debutante and (rather unfairly, given our clan’s history of academic high achievement) retard.

Ah, English. How infinitely flexible.