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.

The film got a credible start after release in late 2006 with a limited run in theaters, followed by the DVD release on December 19, 2006 that investors hoped would generate significant revenue. A big payoff would require heavy marketing from December into January and February. But Hilton was vacationing with her family in Hawaii that Christmas, then traveled to Japan and Austria to promote products for other clients. The film crew sent her dozens of e-mails during that time to set up promotional interviews. They cited opportunities not only in Austria and Japan, but valued slots in the United States on “The Late Show” with David Letterman, “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, and an MTV satellite radio tour.