What's Going On With Paris Hilton's Pivot to NFT Influencer?

Makes sense that legacy auction houses like Christie’s have taken to the NFT wave.

In an interview on @parishiltonnft earlier in the week with collector and “NFT sherpa” Whale Shark, Hilton said that she’s been a “student of the game, learning everything there is to learn, and speaking to leaders in the space” of crypto-art. She also echoed comments made to Coindesk about seeking “female empowerment” with her latest “drop” by collaborating with Kathryn. In a separate interview with W, Hilton elaborated on her entrance into the NFT “metaverse,” after she was approached by Cryptograph in March 2020, who commissioned a hand-drawn picture of her cat Munchkin, which later sold for $17,000 in a charity auction. She continued:

After my painting launched last year, I just realized the power of the technology and how it can empower and inspire people, especially creators. I became a student of the game, talking to industry leaders, joining Clubhouse chats, researching, listening to podcasts. People have been talking about NFTs since last year, but the mainstream media only picked it up a few months ago.

As for the future of her crypto-passions:

I really see them as the future of art. Before, art was all about, you know, if you could get to the Gagosian gallery or get into Art Basel. There wasn’t really a space for digital art. So they’ve really opened up this whole new world; even if you’re not a big name, no matter where you’re from, if you have an internet connection and you have talent, you can come through and do something.

If anything becomes clear after a brief scroll through her recent Instagram posts and media appearances, it’s that Hilton has made obvious strides in her ongoing brand rehabilitation, coming in the wake of her Youtube Original documentary This Is Paris in 2020. But like most other pivots in her career—whether it be author or fashion designer or DJ—I’d approach this new venture with a heaping amount of skepticism.

I don’t doubt that Hilton has done the work to listen and learn from people inside the world of NFTs, being so successful at the attempt as to even be considered a leader in the community, at least as far as buzzy headlines go. Much of the press around her NFT collaborations also emphasize her aspirations of “female empowerment” through art, embracing the glitzy, airbrushed aesthetic that’s come to define her visual offerings.

However, the only female NFT artist and “innovator” on the front page of the internet this week, as her auction racks up almost $1.5 million in sales, is Hilton. It’s a disparity that undermines the entire enterprise, and a recognizable ploy in her decades long-project of self-reinvention. As Jezebel critic Rich Juzwiak wrote at the time of her documentary’s premiere, “If, after spending two decades as a public figure whose job has often consisted of showing up and existing, Paris Hilton is still misunderstood and dismissed for being a caricature, much of the confusion is her own misleading.”

For Hilton, what’s self-reinvention without the opportunity to make a shitload of money in the process.