oh yeah

I forgot - the main reason for the schadenfreude post of yesterday. Paris. Hilton.

I must admit a frisson of pleasure when I read that she had been sentenced to 45 days' jail for violating her suspended license - which she had originally gotten for drink driving, and then was caught driving at night without a license and without her headlights on. I thought, finally, a judge has actually given a sensible sentence to a rich, famous person who wasn't able to buy her way out of it. I mean, we were terrified when my brother got his license suspended for drink driving, thinking there was a fair chance he could end up in jail. But famous people apparently don't worry about these things; in fact, apparently Paris is "too busy" to talk to her attorneys about such piddling matters as whether she's going to jail or not.

I know I should just ignore her in the hope that she'll go away, but she seems to live on due to the encouragement of fans who do the modern equivalent of clapping their hands and shrieking "I do believe in fairies!" - to wit, a message on her myspace page.

Hilton's fans began sending messages of support as news of the jail term spread. One fan, Joshua Capone, wrote to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asking him to intervene and keep Hilton out of jail.

"She provides hope for young people all over the US and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives," Capone wrote in a letter to Schwarzenegger posted online on Hilton's myspace page.

I must say, if Paris Hilton is what is providing beauty and excitement to your life, it must have been very mundane indeed. And if Arnold Schwarzenegger reads Paris Hilton's myspace page as a matter of course then, well... I'm glad I don't live in California.