Someone hurt Paris Hilton. Can you guess who? Hint: it's not Nicole Richie.
Paris is currently on a tour to promote her new book — of course, it's called Paris: The Memoir — and she's wearing the sort of wonderfully OTT outfits you expect from the former Simple Life star.
We're talking baby blue florals, extremely pink dresses, and plenty of Y2K flair, if you please.
However, one of Paris' outfits immediately stood out: the all-black ensemble Paris wore on the night of March 13, complete with matching heels, diamond accessories and a large bucket bag emblazoned with a quote from her book.
"The people who hurt you don't get the last word," Paris (or her ghostwriter) said in Paris: The Memoir. This is apparently a core theme, as Paris details her struggles in overcoming public sentiment.
Small potatoes compared to someone battling against, say, America's austere healthcare or immigration institutions but it's true that Paris became society's punching bag for a while.
Deemed an airhead in the wake of Simple Life success, Paris, Nicole, and friends like Brittany Spears and Lindsay Lohan were subjected to tabloid catcalls and widespread public criticism, in an eerie foreshadowing of the all-too online world we currently inhabit.
Nowadays, anyone who posts a photo online is subject to the whims of public scrutiny, for better or worse.
We're all plaintiffs in the court of public opinion but it began with omnipresent influencers from the aughts like Paris Hilton, who endured waves of slut-shaming, misogyny, and general harassment simply because they were famous folks who liked to have fun.
Nowadays, Paris has reclaimed her status as a prescient sociality — without Paris, there'd be no Kim Kardashian, obviously — and a new generation of fawning fans will forever celebrate the inimitable DGAF attitude and ephemeral early-'00s wardrobe.
However, some scars still sting.
In her memoir, Paris lays out some personal pains that irked her at the time, like South Park — which ruthlessly blasted Paris as a "whore" — and the video for Pink's 2006 single "Stupid Girls."
Therein, Pink portrays a vain woman obsessed with self-image, mocking everything from "itsy-bitsy doggies and their teeny-weeny tees" to eating disorders (in fairness, this was made almost two decades ago).
The video has aged pretty terribly and it's pretty clear why Paris Hilton would be hurt by it. Certainly, that's one of the reasons that she's wearing that custom handbag.
