The American Legal System: We'll Always Have Paris

Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton apparently likes the courts as much as the tabloid headlines. Try as she might, she can’t stay out of them.
We previously covered her misadventures in the criminal justice system (culminating in her prison stay). This week she shows up on the civil side. From the AP:

Paris Hilton hated her 2006 movie “Pledge This!” and refused for months to make promotional appearances for it despite a contract requiring her to do so, lawyers for the film’s investors said as trial opened Thursday in an $8 million lawsuit against her….

With Hilton nodding vigorously from her defense table seat, her attorney Michael Weinsten insisted she did numerous appearances for the movie but was unavailable to meet many requests by the film’s producers because of her extremely busy schedule. Hilton also had the right to refuse some promotion events that might harm her brand….

Was she required to wear panties to said events?
More discussion, including an eyewitness account of how Paris looked in court today, after the jump.

The lawsuit is being heard by Chief U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, who has a well known sense of humor. Moreno at one point asked West whether the contract allowed Hilton to refuse even the most outrageous promotion requests.

“If you said, ‘She has to parade nude down the Champs-Elysees with a Pledge This! banner’ … and she said no, would that be breach of contract?”

Nah, Paris would do that for free.
Thankfully, Hilton did wear clothes to court today. Lawyer / blogger David Markus has this account of how she looked and carried herself during the proceedings.
Hilton did have the good sense to laugh at Chief Judge Moreno’s jokes — which is, of course, 75 percent of a lawyer’s job. Maybe Paris should think about law school (as Monica Lewinsky once did).
Paris Hilton, Esquire? That’s hoTTT.
I heart Paris [Southern District of Florida Blog]
Lawyers spar in Paris Hilton film contract dispute [AP]

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