The Star Report: For A Fleeting Moment, Stars Align For Paris Hilton

August 06, 2008

Suddenly, it's OK to embrace easily ridiculed, allegedly dim-bulb heiress Paris Hilton. She's funny! She speaks in complete sentences! She's . . . haawt! All it took was her good-natured participation in a video response to an ill-advised John McCain attack ad that mentioned her in a not-flattering way.

Even the notorious meanies at gossip site Gawker dusted off their seldom-used "Things We Actually Like" tag when writing about Paris and her video.

Not that she actually wrote her part - that was Adam McKay, co-founder of the Funny or Die comedy Web site. But according to the Associated Press, she didn't even need cue cards! She memorized her entire monologue, which included outlining her energy plan, a combination of McCain's offshore oil drilling plan and Barack Obama's incentives for new energy technology. She also suggests a running mate: R&B singer Rihanna.

"I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead," she says in the video.

McKay came up with the concept for the rebuttal starring Hilton, which has received over 3 million views since it was posted Tuesday.

"Adam thought it would be really funny to get Paris to respond to the John McCain ad that featured her," Funny or Die content director Amy Rhodes told the Associated Press on Wednesday. "Adam contacted Paris directly, and she agreed to do it. He wrote the sketch. And she really, really loved it."

Rhodes said the video was directed by Jake Szymanski and produced byChris Henchy of Gary Sanchez Productions. She said the video took a few hours to shoot at the house where Hilton was staying at in the Hamptons.

Rhodes also said Hilton was not compensated for appearing in the video "because she decided she just wanted to do it for fun."
OK, there. Now can we get back to normal?