So Respectable: Paris Hilton Eager to Shed Party-Girl Image

At LAT, "Paris Hilton's higher aims":

When you're sitting in Paris Hilton's living room, plenty of things catch your attention. The half-dozen dogs, three Munchkin cats (bred to have absurdly miniature legs), and one 150-pound pot-bellied pig sashaying around the backyard pool. The Pepto-Bismol-pink Maserati in the driveway, next to the powder-blue Maserati. The throw pillows emblazoned with pictures of her famous face. The two gigantic nudes of herself on opposing walls, displayed above gold-trimmed couches.

But it's the voice — that's the thing that stands out most when you sit down for a talk with Paris Hilton. It's mature. Deep, even. "Yeah, I have a normal voice," Hilton said. "That's the one thing people say when they meet me. That I don't speak like I do on TV. I don't speak like a baby."

Poised and perfectly coiffed, with long, white-blond extensions tumbling below thin shoulders, the hotel heiress is promoting her latest reality series (her third, for those keeping track). "The World According to Paris" airs Wednesday on Oxygen, a basic-cable channel that targets women and is owned by NBC. It's pitched as being different from anything else she's done because this is, as Hilton puts it, "the real" her.

"I wanted to get at this whole spoiled-heiress perception," said the great-granddaughter of hotelier Conrad Hilton. "There are a lot of heirs out there that don't work because they don't have to. That's not me. I've had success on my own. I bought this house myself, I've bought every car I own. It's all me and my hard work."

More at the link above.

'Law and Order'

Before I started full-time at LBCC, I was fanatical about "Law and Order." Basically, all through the 1990s. I'd watch on NBC and TNT, and some of the other franchises were on USA. But I couldn't stay up until 11:00pm on most Wednesdays in the early 2000s, so I lost my mojo. Anyway, this Los Angeles Times piece argues that the entire Dick Wolf enterprise could be on the way out soon, "Critic's Notebook: A new order in 'Law & Order: L.A.'":

"Law & Order" itself may be running out of juice: the original was axed on the verge of its becoming television's longest-running drama (it tied but did not surpass "Gunsmoke"); "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," which NBC shares with USA to split costs, is in its final season, and though "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" is the fourth-place network's highest-rated drama, that is not saying much these days. (It finished 44th last year.)

Still, looking again over his episodes, it's clear that there are some actors who can live in creator Dick Wolf's universe more comfortably than others — sincere Sam Waterston and wry Jerry Orbach are the prime examples — and that much of what makes for success there is the ability to distract the viewer from the fact that, underneath its veneer of naturalism, the franchise is heavily stylized, with a tendency toward corn and cliché. The short scenes that are its building blocks leave little room for casual talk, and the series runs on speeches, sermons and tough-guy quips. "If the STDs don't get you, the blunt-force trauma will."