Paris` Pathetic Prank; Lisa Marie Forced to Reveal Her Pregnancy
A.J. HAMMER, CO-HOST: Will there be a "Sopranos" movie or should we just say, "Hey, forget about it?" And what about a new Seinfeld sitcom? We are setting the record straight. I`m A.J. Hammer in New York.</s>BROOKE ANDERSON, CO-HOST: And big developments in two of the nastiest divorce battles in Hollywood, including Britney Spears. And shocking news about Britney on a sitcom. I`m Brooke Anderson in Hollywood. TV`s most provocative entertainment news show starts right now. On SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, Paris` pathetic prank. Paris Hilton gloating that she punked the paparazzi with a fake guru. But wait just a spiritual minute. Tonight, why Paris` shaman sham was not that hard to buy after her sex tape, her jail time, her burlesque act and all those empty promises to work for charity and stop going out. Would you put anything past Paris?</s>BEN WIDDECOMBE, "NEW YORK DAILY NEWS": It turns out that she`s having to resort to even more wild stunts to keep herself in the public eye.</s>HAMMER: Tonight, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT calls</s>ANDERSON: Hi there. I`m Brooke Anderson coming you from Hollywood. And big news breaking today about two of Hollywood`s nastiest splits. Britney Spears and Kevin Federline and Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards. The late-breaking details coming up.</s>HAMMER: But first, Paris Hilton`s pathetic prank. Yes, leave it to Paris to hook up with a long bearded so-called spiritual guru and try to make us all believe she was finally getting in touch with her inner self. Well, it turns out that this was all for a TV show trying to punk the paparazzi. But here`s the thing. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT can tell you that the sad part is this, the way Paris normally behaves, not even this seemed out of the ordinary.</s>PARIS HILTON, ACTRESS: That`s hot.</s>HAMMER: Is that learning that revenge is a dish best served cold and on</s>TV. HILTON: I feel like they make up so many stories on their own. I think it is a funny idea to actually spoof them into believing all the silly things.</s>HAMMER: On a news show, "Pop Fiction," executive produced by former "Punked" star, Ashton Kutcher, we see how Paris punked the paparazzi by parading in front of cameras with a fake spiritual guru.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE PAPARAZZO: Who`s the guy you`re with, Paris?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE PAPARAZZO: You`re a little embarrassed. What`s going on?</s>WIDDECOMBE: He was complete with the long, flowing gray beard. He had a saffron robe. He was even holding a spiritual book.</s>KIM SERAFIN, SENIOR EDITOR, "IN TOUCH WEEKLY": People were kind of talking about this, wondering what is Paris up to. Is this a new spiritual awakening for her? Turns out the guru is not actually a guru. He was an actor. They were putting on a show to see how far they could get the story to go. It seems like the story kind of got around.</s>HAMMER: Yes. Paris and her new friend even ended up on this show.</s>ANDERSON (on camera): First, Paris and the yogi.</s>HAMMER: And after turning the tables on the media, Paris couldn`t have been happier.</s>HILTON: Next time you read the tabloids, you have to wonder, is it real or is it "Pop Fiction?"</s>HAMMER: OK, Paris. Maybe you got us, but we must take exception to something you said on the show.</s>HILTON: I`ve been linked to people I`ve never met, places I`ve never been, things I`ve never done. So I`d tell you, 90 percent of the time, they`re just making stories up.</s>HAMMER: Paris, this story may have been bogus but by our count most, if not 90 percent of the most outlandish stories told about you, actually did turn out to be true. The one about the sex tape.</s>RICK SALOMON, PARIS HILTON`S EX-BOYFRIEND: You`re so</s>HAMMER: That one was true. And Paris, the one about you being caught on tape hurling racial slurs.</s>HILTON: We`re like two</s>HAMMER: True, too. Or doing a strip show in Vegas for her own birthday party, that one was true, too, unfortunately.</s>WIDDECOMBE: Paris Hilton seems to be doing something crazy every week.</s>HILTON: The greatest gift is to give. And when you think about it, at least Paris being friends with a spiritual guru seemed a bit plausible. After all, on "LARRY KING LIVE," she talked about how her jail experience made her more spiritual.</s>LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Did you read the Bible in jail?</s>HILTON: Yes.</s>HAMMER: Just don`t ask her to name any verses.</s>KING: What is your favorite Bible passage?</s>HILTON: Hmm. I don`t have a favorite.</s>HAMMER: Hmm. And avid Bible reader who can`t name a single verse. Paris must have been punking us then, too. On "Pop Fiction," after their hoax caused a paparazzi panic, we see Paris confiding in her yogi about how hard her life is.</s>HILTON: Welcome to my world. Would you take this every day?</s>MAXIE SANTILLAN, ACTOR HIRED BY PARIS HILTON TO PLAY HER GURU: No.</s>HAMMER: Not to interrupt the Paris pity party but the same hyperactive media that Paris is punking is also the media that made her a household name.</s>SERAFIN: Without the paparazzi, it`s harder for her to have a career. I mean they really are the ones that made her who she is.</s>HAMMER: So, in a way, Paris is biting the hand that created her. And that is the funniest joke of all.</s>ANDERSON: Tonight, Lisa Marie Presley is livid and on a tirade and for good reason. Elvis` daughter was forced to reveal her pregnancy to the world after tabloids published pictures of her saying she had gotten fat. Joining me now from Hollywood, Ashlan Gorse, host of "E! News Now." Also in Hollywood, Jessica Weiner, self esteem expert and author of this book, "Do I Look Fat in This?" OK. Ashlan, Jessica, great to see you both.</s>JESSICA WEINER, SELF ESTEEM EXPERT: Hi.</s>ANDERSON: I want to read to you some of what Lisa Marie Presley wrote on blog and she titled it "Confirmation Under The Gun." Here it is, quote, "After being the target all week of slanderous and degrading stories, horribly manipulated pictures and articles in the media, I have had to show my cards and announce under the gun and under vicious personal attack that I am, in fact, pregnant. Once they got a glimpse of my expanding physique a few days ago, they have been like a pack of coyotes circling their prey whilst eerily howling with delight." Ashlan, can you blame her for being so furious?</s>ASHLAN GORSE, HOST, "E! NEWS NOW": Not at all. When you think of celebrities, you have to realize a lot of celebrities make money off of their bodies. And so, then if they`re held to a higher esteem than the rest of us, mere mortals, that`s fine. Lisa Marie Presley, on the other hand, she doesn`t make money off of her body. So when they`re kind of making fun of her body and they`re stalking what size she is, that`s bad and I feel like that`s something she shouldn`t be held up to par for.</s>ANDERSON: You know, I can imagine I would want to react this strongly or even stronger if I were in the same situation. Jessica, what do you think of her response?</s>WEINER: Well, I think there are two things going on here. I think, once again, we`re seeing this deliberate attack on women in Hollywood who happen to gain some amount of weight. It`s like being fat in Hollywood is like a mortal sin. You can go to jail or you can go to rehab but god forbid you`re a woman with an expanding waistline. And I think that`s sending a really incredulous story. But I think what Lisa Marie is responding to is that her pregnancy is her business. It is her private business with her husband and I think, right now, this is a big invasion of privacy. And I don`t care whether she is celebrity or not. She was born into a famous family. I think these are things - illness, pregnancy - those are things that should be kept private and really are none of our business until they choose to announce them.</s>ANDERSON: Exactly. A line that should not be crossed and it didn`t stop with what I just read. Listen to what else she wrote, quote, "They couldn`t wait to find out if my weight gain was because I was just overeating, in which case it would be open season and they can do the old following in her father`s sad and unfortunate demise story again, or less interesting for them and probably much to their dismay, I could just be pregnant, and therefore have a legitimate reason for weight gain at which point they should probably wipe the saliva off their fangs and put them back in their mouths or they may expose the black little souls that they are."</s>ANDERSON: Jessica -</s>WEINER: You have to give her credit. She is creative in how she is responding. You`ve got to give her that.</s>ANDERSON: She certainly is. And Ashlan, you know, as angry as she is and as horrible as the tabloid criticism has been, some do say, "Hey, this comes with the territory. She is a celebrity." Others say, "Nothing can justify this."</s>GORSE: Well, it`s really hard. When you look at some of the tabloid headlines, they called her unhealthy, bloated, twice the side of her dad Elvis at his heaviest. I mean these were not nice tabloids. They took a big, hard hit to her. And yes, she is a celebrity and when you are a celebrity, you do kind of give up some sort of yourself, when you put yourself out there. But in this case with her pregnancy, you know, it was really just a shame for her personally to not be able to enjoy her announcement and to be able to enjoy being pregnant. She felt like she was under the gun and she had to forced to come out with her pregnancy and that is a shame.</s>ANDERSON: It certainly is. There are reports the pictures are extremely unflattering, very unkind. And Jessica, she is not, of course, the first celebrity to have come under fire, her response, almost unheard of. Why do you think she took it so personally and felt compelled to strike back in this way?</s>WEINER: Well, I think it is personal and I personally applaud her for striking back in that way. This reminds me of Jennifer Love Hewitt, remember?</s>ANDERSON: Right.</s>WEINER: She was on the beach enjoying, just getting engaged. And here we are having to pick apart her cellulite or what the photographers thought was cellulite. And I think her response also is indicative of the outrage. I mean, listen. We are definitely blurring the line between truth and fiction, reality and paparazzi here. And I think this is something - again, it`s private. And I`m more concerned as a self esteem expert with the message that it sends that we have to be monitoring all of our celebrities` weight as though their lives depend upon it. I think Ashlan referred to the fact that Lisa Marie`s big meal ticket is not her weight or her body and if this is about her performing and her appearance on stage and in events, maybe that`s one thing. But this is her personal life and we need to butt out.</s>ANDERSON: Yes. She is irate, understandably so. I applaud her, as well, for speaking out. Ashlan Gorse, Jessica Weiner, thank you both for joining us. And we want you to know that you can now watch video reports from SHOWBIZ TONIGHT any time on our Web site. You`ll find it at CNN.com/ShowbizTonight. All right. Is the world ready for another show about nothing? You probably heard the rumors that Jerry Seinfeld is thinking about doing a new sitcom. I know; I`d watch it. But is it true? That`s coming up. Also this -</s>DR. JUDY KURIANSKY, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Tom Cruise picked very attractive, very strong women. And Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes have similar kinds of personalities.</s>HAMMER: I want you to think about this. There`s one thing both Nicole and Katie got when they married Tom Cruise - a free pass to the top of the A-list. That`s right. But, you know, there`s so much more to say about Katie`s massive journey from "Dawson`s Creek" cutie to A-list wife and mom. That`s ahead in the showbiz special report, "The Transformation of Katie Holmes."</s>ANDERSON: And remember Sanjaya? I know you do. He`s the "American Idol" finalist with the hair. Well, he`s still making the 13-year-old girls swoon but now instead of on TV, he is on the bat mitzvah circuit. Are you kidding me? That`s coming up. You don`t want to miss it.