Plane crash ‘prank’ no joke to Paris Hilton
Actress reportedly threatens to sue Egyptian TV show over elaborate incident
When she debuted in the larger public consciousness with her 2003 television series The Simple Life, it was hard to find sympathy for the entitled socialite Paris Hilton.
Dating a Greek shipping heir or being lauded simply for being famous did not add to her relatability.
But thanks to an Egyptian TV program, Ramez in Control, it is possible to find emotional common ground.
A clip shows Hilton being duped into thinking her plane is about to crash. TMZ now reports that Hilton plans to sue.
Viewers of the clip might deem that an appropriate response. The reported lawsuit is not over the usual celebrity “You took my seat at Nobu” nonsense.
It shows an elaborate and altogether cruel prank.
An extended YouTube clip shows Hilton at the opening of a new hotel in Dubai. She is invited on a plane along with other passengers for a tour of the city with actor Ramez Galal.
While in the air, the pilot starts to perform stunts to make it appear as if the plane is out of control. An alarm goes off, the plane starts to drop. Hilton and other passengers scream. For no reason, a passenger opens up the plane door and pushes a man outside. Hilton screams, “I don’t want to jump.”
She seems absolutely terrified. The footage is far more disturbing than funny.
When she lands and Galal tells Hilton he is an actor she replies, “I’m going to kill you.”
“That’s been my biggest fear my whole life, dying in a plane,” she says.
Reportedly, Hilton is “totally freaked out” over flying, although she is required to travel extensively for work. Her lawyers have reported said she has a solid case for “emotional distress.”
Celebrity pranks have rarely been this brutal. Ashton Kutcher’s Punk’d on MTV was about as vicious as it gets, at least for North American television.
Placing mounds of pink foam peanuts into basketball star Shaquille O’Neal’s SUV, or telling Justin Timberlake his house had been repos-
“That’s been my biggest fear my whole life, dying in a plane.” PARIS HILTON AFTER LANDING
sessed, was the extent of the squirm factor. Putting the stars in a life or death situation was not.
Still, the prank video has achieved what hours of television, her perfume line, her books, her music and hair extension products have not. It has made Hilton just another scared passenger on her way to an unknown destiny that is not at all glamorous.
Not quite on brand. But sort of like the rest of us.