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Six Degrees of Paris Hilton: Inside the Sex Tapes, Scandals, and Shakedowns of the New Hollywood | 
| Author: Mark Ebner
Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $13.47
You Save: $11.48 (46%)
New (27) Used (12) from $13.47
Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 167954
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Simon Spotlight Entertainment Hardcover Ed
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 1416959343
Dewey Decimal Number: 302.23086210979494
EAN: 9781416959342
ASIN: 1416959343
Publication Date: February 3, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In the burgeoning Hollywood club scene, where ecstasy dealers dine alongside celebrities, and illicit money bubbles up from below like the La Brea Tar Pits, a handsome double-murderer and ex-con of refined wit and taste charmed his way into young Hollywood's most elite social circles. Serving as their hired muscle and arbiter of street justice, he ultimately went on to expose their scandalous, hard-kept secrets -- all the while waging a criminal campaign against the ill-deserving rich and famous.Filled with sex, drugs, and sudden violence, Six Degrees of Paris Hilton: Inside the Sex Tapes, Scandals, and Shakedowns of the New Hollywood is the shocking true tale of Darnell Riley, a well-mannered middle-class kid from Los Angeles who reinvented himself as a stone-cold gangster in the boxing gyms and bruising streets of South Central, before serving seven years for a double homicide at fifteen. Released at age twenty-three, he infiltrated a far more decadent crowd whose privileged lifestyle is familiar to most only in weekly magazines. During his six-year stab at Hollywood, Darnell ran with its It girls and bully boys: He befriended Paris Hilton; was associated with multiple sex tapes; held Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis at gunpoint and humiliated him on camera; dated models; ran numbers; trafficked in drugs; carried out contract beatings; and "possibly" staged a daring series of home-invasion robberies, many of which were attributed to the infamous Bel-Air Burglar. In a potent real-life mix of Entourage and The Wire, award-winning journalist Mark Ebner follows Darnell's riveting story, from exclusive interviews conducted inside Corcoran State Prison, through the mean streets of Los Angeles, employing a Rogues Gallery of characters unrivaled in modern crime. The ultimate expose of the greed, hypocrisy, and vulgarity behind Hollywood's new breed of feral rich and illicitly famous, Six Degrees of Paris Hilton is a front-row seat to the best show in town.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 Yuck June 17, 2009
Orrin C. Judd (Hanover, NH USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A few years ago, Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner collaborated on a great guilty pleasure of a read, Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in BabylonThe Case Against Celebrity. There the prurient amusement of reading about things like Eddie Murphy's penchant for transsexual prostitutes was at least offset somewhat by the focus on major Hollywood players and the authors' polemic against how transgressive of American values the myth factory is. Still, after reading it you did have a feeling you ought to wash your hands.
Marc Ebner's solo effort focuses on the B or C list underbelly of Hollywood and the hangers-on who feed off of the heiresses and rich kids who themselves are just pursuing fame without any of the compensating talent of the genuine stars. In particular, it's the story of convicted murderer Darnell Riley, who attached himself to Paris Hilton and others, became central to the release of various notorious sex tapes, kidnapped and abused infamous Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis, dealt in drugs and extortion and may have been responsible for any number of home invasions. He's a fascinating, though repellent, character and Ebner mines his story for every bit it's worth. But the reader may wonder at the end just what that worth was. The "celebrities" are generally too minor for even the ugliest dirt about them to really capture our attention and, beyond reminding us of what a vile milieu the glitterati operate in, there isn't a whole lot for us to take away from the book. Mr. Ebner writes with real gusto and often delicious savagery. But after reading about his subjects you're likely to need a whole bottle of Purell.
 Time is too precious a commodity. May 28, 2009
K. Kasabian (Silicon Valley, CA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm a girl who loves her "trash" reads in between absorbing literature and non-fiction and here's why: it's instant gratification, it's wholly untaxing and it takes no time to absorb. But to spend several hours poring over the seediness of other people's lives is where I draw my boundry. If it is your wish to be mindlessly engrossed in the downward spirals of today's pop icons, you won't be disappointed. But after a couple of chapters, I had to ask myself why I was sitting on the couch wasting precious time reading about the downfall of Joe Francis when I could be writing my own chapters. There are those who will undoubtedly disagree, but there is a place (airplanes, bathrooms, doctor's office) and time (20 minutes, tops) to catch up on all the news that doesn't matter. Beyond that and I can hear the clock ticking. Not recommended.
Complicated Hollywood Gossip May 21, 2009
rareoopdvds (San Diego, CA United States)
I admit, I could not get into the book. I found the writing style unappealing and confusing. Yes, although there is a list of the cast of characters in the beginning of the book and what their role in this story is, but this did not lend itself well enough to any clarification of the story at hand. Basically, there are lots of personalities within the Hollywood landscape who all intersected in one form another to contribute the current trend of celebrity sex tapes. The title, "Six Degrees of Paris Hilton" refers to "status is determined by degrees of separation from Paris Hilton". Reading books like this tells me that very little has changed in Hollywood and this book can sit well enough next to others like Hollywood Babylon, however, I find Kenneth Angers book much more appealing for reading tabloid material. This book is great for those who love tabloid style gossip, but I dont rate it as good or entertaining reading.
A book with a misleading title among its many shortcomings May 21, 2009
Amanda Prior (Raleigh, NC)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'll keep this short and simple, since previous reviewers have repeatedly reiterated the numerous shortcomings of this title. If you are expecting to satiate your thirst for trashy Hollywood drama, go pick up OK! Magazine and save your time and money. This book, though it contains tidbits, will lead readers on a wild-goose chase for such drama inevitably ending in the story of Darnell Riley, a questionable figure whose tale is laced precariously among that of D-List Hollywooders. I should emphasize that this book does indeed read like a legal document. More than likely, you'll consider yourself duped by clever marketing after having read this one; for it is not an all-revealing window into the life and affairs of Paris Hilton. "C-"
 Sleazy May 17, 2009
J. Howard (NC, USA)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
In all fairness, I have to admit that I was unable to make myself read every page of this book. Those who enjoyed the book would probably find me totally dull and boring. I have absolutely no interest in titillating trivia and the "celebrity" lifestyle. That is the entirety of this book. I suspect you can judge from this whether you would enjoy it or not.
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