Shut Up and Cat Fight!: an Analysis of the Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan Controversy

Since it has become acceptable for women to be famous and in the public eye, American society has had a fascination with the feuds between them. Often, we even tend to egg them on to further our own entertainment, and when these women’s careers are over, they are remembered simply for their “freakouts”, not for their talent or their work. With cases like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, Hallie Bieber and Selena Gomez, and even dating back to Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, we can see connections like them being friends first, their feuds starting over a man, and the American public acting as a catalyst to these dumpster fires of unnecessary hatred. 

Many of these relationships start with the women being good friends, which are often the most detrimental to the lives of those women and the public’s view of the gender as a whole. This dynamic is so heartbreaking because it takes an alliance of two women who have fought tooth and nail to be recognized as  serious actors, singers, etc., and destroys their career, leaving them with nothing to be remembered by except what they did while going through one of the hardest situations of their lives. For example, let’s take Lindsay and Paris. They became friends around 2003, earning wealth and recognition for their work on various television shows and movies. They were regarded as the “It Girls” of Hollywood at the time, and were being associated with other big names, such as Britney Spears. However, when a rumor began circulating in May of 2006 about Lindsay having a relationship with Paris’s recent ex-boyfriend, Stavros Niarchos, their feud began. From then on, they took turns taking stabs at each other, with a video of Paris laughing while one of their mutual friends made fun of Lindsay surfaced. Paris was shamed for  humiliating Lindsay, which is interesting because  it was their mutual male friend, Brandon Davis, who was talking the entire time while Paris hung back and was talking and laughing with another woman. We are unable to tell what happened in their exchange. Furthermore, this video was taken by the paparazzi, even after some in the group had expressed their wish for the cameras to be turned off. This video is a prime example of the American public meddling in the lives of famous women with the sole purpose of provoking them into doing things that they would normally not, hoping to garner a reaction for their own entertainment no matter how detrimental it may be to those involved. Later after this clip was released, in November of 2006, Lindsay was caught on camera by the paparazzi insulting Paris, and then later retracting the statement and saying that Paris is her friend when she realizes she is still on camera. This event is another example of the cameras intentionally making the situation worse so that more people will turn to them for the “Scoop” on the situation. This moment of anger that Lindsay had was obviously supposed to be for her private group only, and it is normal to possibly say things you don’t truly mean to people you trust when you’re angry. Moreover, although there is no evidence for this, we know that Lindsay would later be arrested numerous times between 2007 and 2012 for alcohol related crimes, which means it is quite possible that she could’ve been under the influence in this situation, given her confused and slow-to-react demeanor. If she had, in fact, been drinking, then it is even more of an invasion of privacy for the public to attack her for making such a comment about Paris. It is human nature to be overcome by your emotions in the moment as we’ve seen happen to both Paris and Lindsay, and if we hadn’t pried our way into their personal lives for our own pleasure, maybe they would still be friends, maybe they wouldn’t have made a lot of the choices they regret, and maybe they would be remembered for their talent, not their emotions.