Social Diary 6/22/05 - The debut of Kathy and Rick Hilton’s “I Want To Be A Hilton” on NBC

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Looking south from the terrace of John and Andrea Stark. 8:00 PM. Photo: DPC.

Summer Solstice, Full Moon, a beautiful day in New York with surprisingly light traffic on the Bloomberg streets in midtown.

Last night was the debut of Kathy and Rick Hilton’s “I Want To Be A Hilton” on NBC. Andrea and John Stark (the carpet tycoon — and I don’t use that word lightly) gave a “viewing party” for the Hiltons with a buffet dinner at their brand new East 57th Street duplex penthouse for the most famous parents in America and their national television debut.

Donald and Melania Trump with John and Andrea Stark

The Starks moved only two months ago into the new Jeffrey Bilhuber decorated apartment with its exclusively Stark carpets and Stark fabrics covering the chairs, sofas, draperies and many walls. The tower apartment on the 46th and 47th floors has terraces with 360-degree views of all five boroughs of New York.

There were about sixty or eighty guests who started arriving about 7:30 while the waitstaff from Food Design of Greenwich served up the wide variety of hors d’oeuvres and guests started touring the Starks’ farflung duplex with its wall-to-wall sensational views.

The Hiltons came to New York from Los Angeles in the late 80s, early 90s and soon established themselves with the New York – Southampton set. This came easily to them, with the famous name and the means to keep up (read: entertain) and very congenial personalities.

The couple demonstrated a remarkable skill for camaraderie as well as a strong marriage and made a lot of friends. Within a few years, as celebrity history now confirms, their two young daughters (they have two younger sons) Nicky and Paris became a kind of phenomenal sister-act media-wise. At first it seemed like a novelty, and a fleeting one at that. It still might be, ten years from now, but as we know Nicky eventually drew back and Paris has gone on to become an international celebrity and TV and movie actress.

The Trumps and Hiltons watching “I Want To Be A Hilton”

While this was developing, there were many in the Hiltons’ set who found the spotlight and the pursuit thereof to be in “bad taste” or just simply “how could they?” But such assessments or questions never affected what turned out to be a strong contemporary career-move, especially for Paris who now ten years later continues to draw attention all over the world.

Part of the phenomenon of her attention-getting is the simple question: why? The answer will have to be explained in the future by some sociologist or culture maven. The reality is: just because. My personal theory is that Paris has turned out to be the sex symbol of her generation, like Monroe was of hers and Harlow was of hers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know a lot of you out there can’t bear the comparison, but ... Blonde and sexual and come-on-in-and-see-the-show is what it is.

You can be sure that many of the types who are regarded (or regard themselves) as New York society pooh-poohed this matter to death. As well as all the other commentators who have mocked and scorned it. However, what the Hiltons seem to know innately is: that’s show business, baby.

And so now, on the heels of their eldest daughter’s fame and fortune, it’s not so unusual that they, especially mama, should be following in her footsteps ... all the way to the bank.

Screenshots from “I Want To Be A Hilton”

Last night’s crowd included a lot of the Hiltons’ friends from the aforementioned set including Rand and Jessie Araskog, Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia (who is a judge on the show), Mai Harrison, Peter and Jamie Gregory, Muffie Potter Aston, Beth Rudin DeWoody and Howard Blum, R. Couri Hay (who is also featured on the show), Patty Raynes, Dana and Dr. Patrick Stubgen, Denise and Larry Wohl, Susan Hess, Bettina Zilkha with Andrew Saffir, Christina and David Wasserman, Claudia Cohen, Peggy Siegal, Allison and Leonard Stern, Jeffrey Bilhuber, Cynthia and Dr. Donald Frank, Maggie Norris, Dennis Basso and Michael Cominotto, Ann Rapp with Hunt Slonem, Jeff Zucker, Melania and Donald Trump, Mark Gilbertson, Ellen Liman with her son, Doug Liman, the director of the new Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt film, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” Ellen told me that her son was going to be on Charlie Rose on this same night and she knew it not because he told her (he didn’t) but because she happened to see it in the New York Times. Also present: Caroline Hirsch and Andrew Fox, Catherine Saxton, who played an important role in the early development of the Hiltons’ professional and social image, Paul Podlucky who may be the number one hair stylist in New York these days with a stellar clientele of fashionable young social women such as Tory Burch, Aerin Lauder, Dana Stubgen, Jennifer Creel. Also: Peter and Jamie Gregory who just got back from L.A. where she was publicizing her book on New York apartments and having had a taste of the good life of the Southland (and looking none the worse for it), proclaimed that she “could live” there. Doesn’t surprise. I could and did.

Dinner was served about eight-fifteen on the Starks’ new vast terrace – curried chicken and rice, lampchops, hamburgers, and salad. And at just about nine o’clock, as it was getting dark, almost everyone congregated in the Starks’ new media room with its wide screen TV to watch. I was more interested in getting a picture of the two of the most celebrated couples in America – the Hiltons sitting with the Trumps watching the show that some of the critics have already likened to Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice.” I have no idea what they were thinking watching this show about fourteen young people from the hinterlands being set up to compete for the winning role in “making it in society” in New York. (The winner gets a $200,000 trust fund.)

Kathy Hilton is an excellent television hostess. As a matter of fact, Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe wrote that she was “so poised, so flawlessly gracious, so stiffly coiffed, she’d probably give Diane Sawyer a good run for her money.” He also added that in his opinion, the show was “rather tacky vanity venture for a woman who's supposedly a national leader of good taste. Appointing yourself a judge of etiquette and then humiliating blue-collar types because they don't know how to eat escargots isn't exactly classy behavior. It's the behavior of someone who needs money or attention so badly that she'll flaunt herself and exploit her own daughter Paris's infamy. It's hard to believe that those in Hilton's circle, no matter how nouveau riche, won't be appalled by her show, which is coproduced by her husband, Rick."

Guest watching “I Want To Be A Hilton”

Watching her on the screen, I could only concur with Gilbert’s assessment of her abilities. Except I was also watching the woman as I’ve known her for the past almost fifteen years. She’s a natural. She told a reporter in the Los Angeles Times that her daughter Paris gave her some important tips for the project: "Be very careful not to look in the camera. Always be camera-ready. And don't trust the producers.” Well, maybe not all of them: Rick Hilton is one of the show’s producers.

Gilbert’s take on Kathy Hilton’s role and participation in the society of New York presumes standards and traditions that may have applied in the age of Edith Wharton, or maybe even early CZ Guest but now reflects only a kind of pretense because the barriers have fallen to proletarian levels everywhere. Just look at the way the populus dresses for a broad hint of the way things are. “A national leader of good taste” nowadays is mainly an endorser of products, and a great many women who might look down on Mrs. Hilton’s career aspirations might also be quite happy to play the same role given the opportunity. As I said: that’s show biz, baby, and America is now so into show business that reality is being re-defined as fantasy right before our eyes.

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“I Want to Be A Hilton” has, in reality, nothing whatsoever to do with the reality of society in New York, except that Mr. and Mrs. H. are authentic members themselves. Otherwise it is a kind of combination “You Bet Your Life/Beverly Hillbillies” version of “The Survivor.” In other words, several winning formats rolled into one. Its cast includes a Texas ranchhand, a Mississippi construction worker, two Vegas citizens – a bartender and a dancer, a Romanian-born perfume salesman and a woman who describes herself as a “trailer park Barbie.”

Mrs. Hilton gives them some tips in “how to behave,” which is, like so many other things in the show, arbitrary. She takes them to a dinner at “21” which is a favorite restaurant among a certain segment of the monied and corporate executive classes. They are surrounded by “a group of prominent social personalities.” Sort of.

So what’s the beef? Watching a small group of young people from all over America being “exposed” to the world of the rich, the chic and the shameless. Looking at this gaggle of earnest young people who get to experience some of the more luxurious aspects of New York, and spend some time in the city with contemporaries in a hotel (which looked like it must have been fun for kids getting away from home and being entertained in the big town), and although none of them looked eligible for a role in the high sleek and fast lane, it is not altogether improbable that one or two might have a future here. It all depends, as it always does in New York, on the depth of their interest, commitment, and of course that chief ingredient that Kathy Hilton is well fortified with (and that which separates the men from the boys): ambition.

Time, in the form of eight television segments, may tell. Or may not.