INTERESTS AND LIMITS: PARIS HILTON AND “PLEDGE THIS!”

Paris Hilton, descendant of the billionaire hotel baron, lives the life of a celebutante, touting products in exchange for fees and royalties. In 2006, she was supposed to promote the sophomoric film, “National Lampoon’s Pledge This!” Investors put $8.3 million into the picture, buying the script, hiring talent, shooting, and promoting. It was produced as an independent film, unaffiliated with the major studios that command commercial power in the industry. Investors nevertheless believed it had a good chance of financial success in theaters and on DVD.

Vital to its success was Paris Hilton, as a brand. The film company got Hilton, then twenty four years old, to play the leading role in the film and serve as one of its seven executive producers. Her contract with the Pledge group said she would “perform reasonable promotion and publicity services” for the film, “subject to her professional availability.” The contract gave Hilton the right to approve or disapprove specific publicity services but required her to reply to requests within seventy-two hours. Her duties extended to help market the DVD when released. The company paid her $1 million – $65,000 for playing the lead and the rest for these other services.