Alright we admit it, they totally had us fooled. A few days ago we reported on an Egyptian TV show that staged a prank plane crash (a terrible phrase if there ever was one) with Paris Hilton on board. We told you all about how utterly terrified she was. Now, it turns out, she was in on the joke the whole time. Apparently Paris can act after all, who knew?
Gossip site TMZ has obtained documents from the production company behind Ramez in Control, the ironically named prank TV show on which Hilton was a guest. It turns out that the offer to pretend to be on a crashing plane was sent to multiple celebrities back in March, although, unfortunately, it’s not mentioned which ones. It looks like the show went down a list before getting to Paris, who was not the show's first choice. The powers that be apparently wanted a big name quite badly as they offered a pay day “in the million dollar range” to do the bit.
Amongst the other items of note in the production document is the fact that Dubai authorities were in on the prank, providing security. Here's the official statement:
Dubai official authorities are monitoring this show and providing us with security. If you want to make sure, you can contact the office of crown prince of Dubai, his majesty Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He himself will be supervising the progress of the project.
Whether this is a statement as to how seriously the nation of Dubai apparently took this stunt, or evidence that the crown prince has nothing better to do with his time is not clear. (My guess is the latter.) Dubai may be the Paris Hilton of countries.
In all seriousness though, here’s to Paris Hilton. We’ve never given her enough credit, because it turns out she can act like she’s having a complete freak out with the best of them. We’ll admit that part of the reason we bought the prank was that we wouldn’t have even considered Hilton to be acting. It makes one stop and reconsider everything one knows to be true. Maybe her entire public persona is just a massive performance art piece to compete with Shia Labeouf and Joaquin Phoenix. OK, probably not.
So, let this be a lesson to everybody who fell for this to always be a bit more skeptical when that viral video shows up in your social media feed. Even Paris Hilton can fool you if you assume she’s somebody who can’t. We’re more than a little embarrassed for ourselves on this one. But seriously, a prank plane crash, who does that?
