There are two words in the English language that perfectly sum up how we feel about the news about A24’s reported next TV series. Two words that perfectly describe how we feel about them dropping a hefty six figure sum to the rights to adapt the life of Paris Hilton into their next big TV series: That’s hot. ‘Loves it’ and ‘sliving’ are also applicable here too.
However you choose to phrase it, there’s no doubt that a show about Paris – the hotel heiress-slash-00s It Girl-slash-OG influencer – from the production company behind Euphoria and The Idol will indeed be hot. A24 will no doubt revel in the sexy Y2K glam, extreme partying and aggressive, camera-flashing tabloid culture that by 2007 made the icon one of the most talked about topics in American media (search interests of her at the time were higher than the then-upcoming presidential election). But anyone who has read Paris: The Memoir, the 2023 book from Paris that the TV series is set to be based on, will know that this story is going to be fairly harrowing too.
Paris: The Memoir, covers the years from 1919 – when her paternal great grandfather set up the first Hilton Hotel which would, over the course of the next century, turn their family into one of America’s wealthiest families – us all the way up to 2022, just months before the arrival of her first child. The vast majority of the memoir, though, is set within Paris’s tween and teenage years. She writes of sneaking out as a pre-teen to go clubbing with lifetime bestie Nicole Richie and being kicked out of many prestigious high schools. So many, in fact, that at 16 she was kidnapped in the middle of the night, unbekownst at first to her with the support of her worried family, and taken to a boarding school for “emotionally troubled teens”.
Subscribe to i-D NEWSFLASH. A weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox on Fridays.
“For years, people have tried to tell my story for me. They never got it right. The truth is, my experiences are complex and multifaceted, and nobody can fully capture them except for me,” Paris tweeted upon the release of her memoir. While at Provo Canyon School, Paris and the other students were routinely abused mentally and physically by the staff, forced into solitary confinement and forced medication. After many failed attempts to escape the school and related institutions she was sent to during that period, Paris graduates and creates a new persona and a new life for herself to deal with the trauma. Struggling to trust those around her, she retreats further and further into the ditsy, bimbo, Marilyn Monroe-inspired character the world became obsessed with, using it as a protective guard against the real world, and her real self.
Not just a harrowing personal memoir, the book is also full of celebrity gossip, as you might expect from a world famous heiress. There’s also the David LaChapelle shoot that first showcased Paris’s NY it girl status, the devastating leaking of an old sex tape, the glorious release of her hit reality show The Simple Life, and, of course, her legendary 21st birthday celebrations across the world. As long as we get cinematic, visual re-enactments of that famed car picture, and her inventing the selfie, then we’re happy. In other words, there’s plenty here for A24 to use.
And for now we have to speculate about what might be included; it’s early days yet, and not much is known about the TV series and what it will look like. What we do know is that Paris is taking on an executive producer role with her 11:11 Media company. Dakota and Elle Fanning have signed on too, producing under their Lewellen Pictures production company. No writers have yet been enlisted to adapt the memoir for screen, nor do we know who will be playing Paris – perhaps Dakota and Elle will take on the roles of Paris and her sister Nicky respectively? We can dream! Based on the memoir, though, we can also expect to see characterisations of Real Housewives’ Kathy Hilton and her sister Kyle Richards, alongside Nicole Richie, Britney Spears and potentially Lindsay Lohan. That’s already a pretty iconic line up, and with A24 behind it there will no doubt be some buzzy, style icons taking on the parts. Imagine how slay that red carpet for the premiere is going to be!
With writing still to begin it’s unlikely we will see the Paris Hilton TV series of our dreams until 2025 at the earliest, but when it does finally air, nothing in this world will stop us from being seated.