Paris Hilton

Conrad Hilton, the founder of the Hilton Hotel chain, had no way of envisioning the images his name would conjure up when the new millennium rolled around. But now, almost 90 years since he founded his first hotel in Cisco Texas, his great-granddaughter, Paris Hilton, is changing the face of the Hilton name forever.

Born February 17, 1981, Paris Whitney Hilton grew up living among America's elite. After a childhood spent romping around the halls of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the location of her family's New York suite, Hilton shunned the rigors of college and set out to make a career of being famous.

Her first step toward actualizing her dream was to make her face known by modeling. Paris being Paris, she was able to find work modeling for GQ, FM, and Vanity Fair. Although the exposure contributed to her first mentions on Page Six, in the beginning it was the combination of her last name with her burgeoning sex appeal that helped her to become known to those living outside the upper echelons of the Hamptons and Beverly Hills.

As Paris made her way through a slew of Hollywood rumors about her private life, including tales of flings with Leonardo DiCaprio, Nick Carter, Edward Furlong, and Oscar de la Hoya, she began to accumulate name recognition among the plebeians outside the limelight. Paris represented the life that none but a select few will ever have the chance to live. She was fantastically wealthy, beautiful, and came equipped with an attitude that told the world that she didn't care what you thought about her