Paris Hilton, enigmatic socialite and rumoured ham radio enthusiast, is in Australia this week to launch Rose Rush, her 23rd fragrance. So obviously, she’s been asked to give her take on the wave of sexual assault allegations currently shaking Hollywood to its core.
Initially she seemed to come down on the side of sensible support, telling Fairfax:
Of course it’s Hollywood, I think everyone has experienced it.
I think it is amazing how many women are coming together and making such a huge difference. I think it’s going to stop now because people are going to be too scared to be like that.
But, it’s gotta be said, she followed up with a real head-scratcher. When asked if she had any personal experiences of the endemic culture of harassment, she said:
I am such a strong woman, no one could ever take advantage of me. Girl power.
Last month, Page Six reported that someone had witnessed none other than (Alleged) King Sex Pest himself, Harvey Weinstein, attempt to come on to Hilton in a bathroom in 2001, when she was just 20.
He was pushing the door of the stall Paris was inside, demanding she open the door, saying he ‘needed to talk to her’. She didn’t open the door. A male event worker had seen Harvey follow Paris into the ladies’ and alerted a security guard, who went into the bathroom and orderd Harvey to leave the women’s bathroom.
Fairfax report that when they asked her about the incident, Paris said she couldn’t remember it.
There are two ways of interpreting this. One is that Paris Hilton takes a fairly flip, ‘girl power’ view of this whole debacle, and possibly buys into the heavily victim-blame-y narrative that suggests that if only women were a little “stronger”, they wouldn’t have to deal with unwanted sexual advances.
The other is that asking someone about their experiences of sexual assault on the pink carpet of their perfume launch could be considered at best a little presumptuous, and at worst callously intrusive, and Hilton’s breezy response and disinclination to get into specifics re: Weinstein is the best way she felt she could deal with someone probing without warning into an unpleasant moment of her life.
Just a thought.
