Winemakers say Paris Hilton unfit for Prosecco

MILAN (Reuters Life!) - Hotel heiress Paris Hilton dressed provocatively in a skimpy leopard print outfit and showing off her bare legs is not an image Italian winemakers feel is fitting for their Prosecco white sparkling wine.

Yet Hilton, in various high-heeled stages of undress, graces the ads of Rich Prosecco, an Austrian company selling the bubbly in 27 countries. What's worse, in the eyes of Prosecco producers, Rich Prosecco also comes in cans and in two fruit varieties.

"Hilton hotels are a sign of quality; Paris Hilton is not," said Fulvio Brunetta, president of the wine growers association of Treviso, the northern Italian city in the Veneto region where Prosecco is made.

Paris, a symbol of celebrity privilege in America, gained notoriety in 2003 when a home video of her having sex with a boyfriend was posted on the Internet.

She parlayed her notoriety, fueled by tabloid headlines about her partying lifestyle, into a celebrity career that has included reality television, a book and film roles.

Last year she spent more than three weeks in jail for violating probation in a drunk-driving case.

"Paris Hilton is sensationalism. It's not good. It's not adequate for Prosecco," Brunetta said.

The association is planning two meetings next week to decide on ways to protect the Prosecco name and insure that any company selling Prosecco is actually using wine made from the Treviso area.

"Without stricter rules, Rich Prosecco or another company could sell Prosecco made in Brazil or wherever," Brunetta said.

That's not going to stop Rich Prosecco, which says it sources its wine from the Treviso area.

"We follow exactly European laws, which are very strict, especially concerning wine," said Rich Prosecco Chief Executive and owner Gunther Aloys, who founded the company in 2006 in the Austrian ski resort of Ischgl.

To respect wine laws, Rich Prosecco's two fruit varieties, with a lower alcohol content and called Rich Passion and Rich Royal, are not labelled Prosecco.

Last year Rich Prosecco sold 10 million cans, primarily in Germany but also in China, India and South Korea, for about 2 euros (about $3) a can.

The company's rapid growth mirrors the rise of the Prosecco region, which last year produced 50 million bottles, up 14 percent from 2005, and is increasing exports to Canada and the United States, though Germans remain the top foreign buyers.

The winegrowers are concerned that Rich Prosecco may give their wine the image of a cheap fruit drink.

And then there's the cans, advertised by Paris, nude and painted in gold in one ad reminiscent of the James Bond film Goldfinger.

"In the U.S. and Australia they toast with beer bottles," Brunetta said. "That's their culture. The culture of Prosecco is one of friends meeting around a good bottle."

Rich Prosecco's Aloys says he is helping build the wine's world renown and does not understand the fuss.

"It's as if someone from Champagne would oppose us selling champagne cans with Kate Moss for example. It's just marketing and Paris Hilton is the most famous girl in the world."

Last year Paris's grandfather Barron Hilton said he would donate 97 percent of his $2.3 billion fortune to charity.

Jerry Oppenheimer, who profiled the Hilton family in his 2006 book "House of Hilton," has said Barron Hilton is embarrassed by the behavior of his socialite granddaughter Paris and believes it has sullied the family name.

Barron Hilton has not commented on the book.

(Reporting by Mathias Wildt)

Scandals of Hilton

Barron Hilton






By David Edwards 29/12/2007
http://www.mirror.co.uk

If the gossip in Los Angeles' most exclusive haunts is to be believed, Barron Hilton is giving his huge fortune to charity for one reason - his disgust at the antics of his granddaughter Paris.

But if 80-year-old Barron believes Paris has dragged the Hilton name through the mud, he's plainly lost sight of his family's scandalous history.

While the blonde heirhead may have appeared in an internet sex video and done jail time, compared to the sins of some of her relatives, Paris is a vestal virgin...

The rise of the Hilton clan could have come straight from the pages of a Harold Robbins blockbuster.

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In the 137 years since Paris's great-great grandfather emigrated to America, the Hilton family has been plagued by drug abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence and even alleged Mob connections.

The House of Hilton really found its feet in 1870 when young Gus Hilton sailed to the US from his native Norway. After marrying a local girl he ran a grocery store, and the couple had eight children.

But it was their second child, Conrad, who was to have such an impact on 20th Century America.



Born in New Mexico in 1887, the budding tycoon bought his first hotel in 1919, shortly after serving in France during the First World War. The Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas, was a run-down two-storey building in the middle of nowhere, but Conrad realised there was big money in the state's oil boom.

He bought the 120-room establishment for Û40,000 cash - and by cannily renting rooms in rotating eight-hour shifts to riggers, was soon on his way to his first million.

His personal life was less successful. His first marriage, in 1925 to Mary Barron, lasted just nine years thanks to his constant philandering but produced two children, Nicky and Barron, Paris's grandad.

In 1942 he married his second wife, a Hungarian starlet called Zsa Zsa Gabor who, at 25, was just eight years older than his eldest son Nicky.

But the relationship was not to last. Conrad's Catholicism and guilt over his earlier divorce had rendered him virtually impotent - the couple had separate bedrooms - and he was too busy building his hotel empire to pay attention to his young bride.

Zsa Zsa found solace in the arms of her husband's son...

After he saw his father kissing his young bride, Nicky had quipped, "Dad, what must a fellow do to get a kiss like that from Zsa Zsa?" When the couple separated in 1944 he had a chance to find out by beginning a secret affair with his stepmother. As Zsa Zsa later recalled: "It lasted through my divorce from his father... and beyond Nicky's betrothal to Elizabeth."

The Elizabeth in question was Elizabeth Taylor. A romance between the hotel heir and Hollywood's brightest star was manna for gossip columnists and as rumours of an engagement spread, she wittily told one journalist, "Nothing comes off until the ring goes on."

Those who knew the rugged Hilton heir were less excited by the romance.

One of her friends, Doris Lilly, knew of a model who'd been unfortunate enough to date him and had "got used to hearing hair-raising tales about how he drank too much and then beat her up, how he kept a loaded revolver by his bed and would shoot the lights out while high on drugs".

Despite the omens, the wedding went ahead in May 1950, at Beverly Hills' Church of the Good Shepherd - or Our Lady of the Cadillacs as it was waggishly known. It was attended by stars including Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds while 200 police held back 10,000 cheering fans.

Yet the dazzling spectacle was in complete contrast to their honeymoon. Journalist Art Buchwald, who was staying at the same venue, said Hilton spent his wedding night drinking at a bar until 4am.

"Rumour had it he didn't consummate his marriage until their third night together," he says. "She found him extremely appealing, but I'm not certain he found her so irresistible."

Carole Doheny, a former MGM starlet, says: "Nicky was spoiled silly, while she exuded the air of a pampered prima donna. He resented her fame and she envied his wealth."

Later, the antagonism exploded during a trip aboard the Queen Mary. After blowing Û100,000 at the luxury liner's casino, Nicky punched Elizabeth in the stomach.

The Duchess of Windsor, who was aboard the ship, later remarked: "You'd have thought they were at the end of a marriage, rather than the beginning."

The inevitable end came in late 1950 when he kicked his pregnant wife in the stomach and Taylor later revealed how she lost their baby.

"He was drunk. I didn't know I was pregnant, so it wasn't a malicious act... I had terrible pains. This is not why I was put on earth. God did not put me here to have a baby kicked out of my stomach." Nicky died, ravaged and booze-sodden from a heart attack in 1969 at the age of just 42 and it was left to Nicky's brother, Barron, to continue the lineage, eventually having no less than eight children.



The sixth, born in 1955, was Rick who now runs a real estate company and is father to four children, including Paris, 26, and her 24-year-old sister Nicky.

It will never be an ordinary family. Although Rick was smitten when he met his future wife Kathy Richards in the late 70s, the wedding almost never happened

Author Jerry Oppenheimer claims Kathy's mother was married to a man with Mafia connections and she was so worried it might scupper her daughter's wedding to the fabulously wealthy Hilton heir she divorced him, clearing the way for the 1979 marriage.

In the same year, Conrad Hilton died, leaving his entire fortune to charity. Barron challenged the will, eventually winning a 10-year legal battle to get his hands on most of it.

Ironically it is that same Barron who is now planning to leave the Hilton fortune to charity. And while Paris is no longer in line for a share of his billions, she has parlayed her own notoriety into millions of dollars.

In fact, given her remarkable ability to turn any situation into an earning opportunity, perhaps Barron would have been well advised to leave her the entire Hilton family fortune.

Paris Hilton's inheritance goes to charity

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Friday December 28, 2007
The Guardian


Barron Hilton, the son of the man who founded the hotel chain and made the family fortune, is to give all but a fraction of his $2.3bn to charity, in the latest philanthropic gesture by the dynasty.
His son, Steven Hilton, announced that his father would give 97% of his $2.3bn net worth to the Conrad N Hilton Foundation, the charitable organisation named after the dynasty's founder.

"Speaking for the family as well as the foundation, we are all exceedingly proud and grateful for this extraordinary commitment," said Steven Hilton, the foundation's head as well as one of Barron's six sons and an uncle to Paris Hilton.

Barron Hilton, 80, who is known to be unamused by his granddaughter Paris's tabloid antics, follows in the footsteps of his father, who left his entire estate, including his 27% controlling stake in the hotel group, to the foundation on his death in 1979.
Barron Hilton's wealth has grown in recent months thanks both to the sale of Hilton hotels to the Blackstone Group, and the pending acquisition of the casino and hotel corporation Harrah's Entertainment, in which Hilton owns a stake, for $17bn.

He pledged an immediate $1.2bn donation to the foundation, with the balance to follow after his death.

Barron Hilton is said to have been increasingly dismayed by the recent behaviour of his granddaughter Paris, who initially achieved fame thanks to an internet sex tape and has since used that notoriety to advance a career that thrives on public exposure, whether as a pop star, a reality TV star or simply someone who likes to go to nightclubs.




Her incarceration earlier this year on a drink-driving charge, and the subsequent media ballyhoo that surrounded her premature release and ensuing re-imprisonment, are thought to have strained already fraught relations within the Hilton dynasty.

Jerry Oppenheimer, author of House of Hilton, said that Barron Hilton "was, and is, extremely embarrassed by how the Hilton name has been sullied by Paris. He now doesn't want to leave unearned wealth to his family."

The gift, which will initially be given to a charitable trust before eventually benefiting the foundation, will increase the wealth of the Hilton foundation to $4.3bn and turn it into one of the top philanthropic bodies in the US.

The foundation, which describes its mission as "to relieve the suffering, the distressed and the destitute", provides funding for clean water, education, housing and drug projects. It also funds a project for Roman Catholic nuns in Los Angeles.

Barron Hilton is a noted society host, welcoming guests to his lavish Flying M Ranch in Nevada, a million-acre property near Reno renowned for its hunting and fishing. Guests arrive on a private landing strip using one of the hotel magnate's collection of aircraft.

Earlier this year the ranch was in the news when the businessman and adventurer Steve Fossett went missing after leaving the property in a small plane. He was never found, despite an extensive search of the surrounding desert.

Conrad Hilton was born in a small adobe house on Christmas Day, 1887, in what would later become the state of New Mexico. He was one of seven children born to a Norwegian immigrant father and a German-American mother. He began working in his father's general store and bought his first hotel, the 40-room Mobley hotel in Cisco, Texas, in 1919, before going on to create the largest and most profitable international hotel chain in the world.





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By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 1:07pm GMT 28/12/2007

Barron Hilton, 80, whose father Conrad founded the Hilton Hotel chain in 1919, will donate most of his fortune to the Conrad N Hilton Foundation. Only three per cent - $69 million - will be left to his heirs.

He has eight children and 23 grandchildren.

The future fortune of Paris Hilton, the hotel heiress, has taken a hit after her grandfather said that he would give 97 per cent of his $2.3 billion (£1.15 billion) wealth to charity.

Barron Hilton, 80, whose father Conrad founded the Hilton Hotel chain in 1919, will donate most of his fortune to the Conrad N Hilton Foundation. Only three per cent - $69 million - will be left to his heirs.

He has eight children and 23 grandchildren.


Paris, who had stood to inherit an estimated $100 million, will now receive about $5 million after tax.



Mr Hilton, the chairman of the foundation, said he was "proud to follow my father's example". On his death, in 1979, Conrad Hilton left 97 per cent of his money to the foundation he had founded in 1944. But his son challenged the will and reached an accord dividing ownership of the shares with the foundation.

Paris had no immediate comment. According to Forbes magazine, the socialite earned $6.5 million last year.

There have been conflicting reports about her relationship with her grandfather, who is said to be embarrassed by Paris, who gained notoriety for an internet sex tape and was jailed for probation violation in a drink-driving case.

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Seems Paris Hilton's inheritance has been reduced a tad.

Why?


Well, reports say her grandfather, Barron Hilton, has decided to give 97 per cent of his fortune, estimated to be nearly $2.3bn (around £1.15bn), to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

His fortune will aid the foundation in helping the homeless, finding safe water in developing countries and helping with other causes around the globe.

So, how does this all relate to dear Paris?




Well, she's one of his heirs, and it's thought the remaining three per cent of his fortune, a meagre $69m (£34.5m), will go to said heirs.

The New York Daily News says that Paris, who apparently once stood to inherit $100m (£50m), could now inherit just $5m (£2.5m).

That's gotta hurt... only a couple of million squid?

A statement released by Barron mentioned he was proud to follow his father, Conrad, who also donated 97 per cent of his money to the foundation.

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Hilton 'pledges fortune to charity'
9 hours ago

Paris Hilton's grandfather Barron Hilton has apparently said he will give about 1.2 billion dollars to charity.

According to the Associated Press, the hotel heir said in an announcement he will donate the money to the Conrad N Hilton Foundation, a charity founded by his father six decades ago.

Any such move would mean Paris Hilton losing a considerable part of her expected inheritance.

The funds will reportedly come from this year's sale of the Hilton Hotels Corp. and the pending sale of Harrah's Entertainment.

It seems the money will go into a trust but eventually will find its way to the foundation.

The charity apparently said Paris' grandfather also intends to leave the bulk of his net worth to the foundation when he dies.

At present, he is worth an estimated 2.3 billion dollars.

Jerry Oppenheimer, author of a 2006 book about the Hiltons, has said the hotel magnate is embarrassed by the behaviour of his socialite granddaughter.

The 80-year-old Hilton has never publicly commented on Oppenheimer's remarks.