Paris Hilton - Stars Are Blind ｜ Paris Hilton

2006

Paris Hilton - Stars Are Blind ｜ Paris Hilton (2006) Director: Chris Applebaum Era: Mid-2000s Celebrity Pop / Reality TV Crossover Era (2006) - The apex of tabloid-celebrity-as-pop-star culture, coinciding with Warner Bros. Records' bet on Paris Hilton's crossover from socialite and reality TV personality to mainstream pop artist. High curatorial value as a time-capsule artifact of mid-2000s celebrity culture at its apex. The video encapsulates the Warner Bros. pop crossover formula, the tabloid-socialite-to-pop-star pipeline, and Chris Applebaum's mastery of aspirational beach glamour cinematography. Its dual-version release (US desaturated color cut / international black-and-white narrative cut) makes it an unusually rich subject for comparative video studies. MTV premiere on June 6, 2006 and subsequent YouTube upload in August 2006 also document the transitional moment between broadcast-TV-first and digital-platform music video distribution. Context: Released June 5, 2006 via Warner Bros. Records as the lead single from Paris Hilton's debut album 'Paris,' 'Stars Are Blind' arrived at the cultural zenith of the socialite-as-celebrity phenomenon. Hilton was simultaneously one of the most photographed and parodied public figures in the world, known primarily through The Simple Life (2003–2007) and tabloid omnipresence. The song's reggae-pop sound, written by Fernando Garibay, Sheppard Solomon, and Ralph McCarthy, and reportedly originally targeted to Gwen Stefani, confounded low critical expectations and became a genuine chart hit, peaking at #18 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Dance Club Play chart. It reached #1 in Hungary, Scotland, and Slovakia. A plagiarism lawsuit from Sparta Florida Music Group (holders of the 1970 song 'Kingston Town') was filed in 2007 and settled out of court. The video's Malibu beach setting and desaturated glamour aesthetic served as both personal branding exercise and deliberate visual contrast to Hilton's tabloid-scandal persona. Director notes: Directed for Warner Bros. Records. Shot over two days in May 2006 on location in Malibu, California. Premiered on MTV on June 6, 2006. The primary (US) version features beach romance imagery in a desaturated / muted color palette. A separate international version was also produced, shot primarily in black-and-white, featuring a photoshoot narrative storyline with beach scenes recontextualized as fantasy sequences. The video was edited by Nabil Mechi (per IMVDb). The Malibu beach setting directly mirrors the reggae-pop, tropical sonic identity of the track. The video was later listed at #49 on NME's 50 Worst Videos of All Time, while simultaneously becoming one of the most recognizable visual artifacts of mid-2000s celebrity pop culture.