“Does being Paris’ spirituality chihuahua mean the guy was especially horrible in a past life,” my friend asked me when confronted with the recent story of Paris Hilton’s new Buddhist monk sidekick.
According to the Daily Mail, the celebutante’s newest guru had her reading “The Path to the Painted Shaman” and also persuaded her “to give away a piece of diamond jewellery [sic] as they wandered the streets together.”
Paris has tied one on– red string, that is–with Kabbalah, was seen toting around the Bible, and the quasi-spiritual best-seller “The Secret” during and post prison sentence, but perhaps the heiress has finally found a faith that fits as well as shoes from her new collection. You see, many schools of Buddhism hold that this existence is like a dream, a grand illusion known as Maya.
And that’s perfectly fitting not only with Paris’ entire oeuvre, but with her latest choice of religious prop; you see, this guru is actually actor Maxie Santillan. TMZ.com reports that Santillan has “starred in tons of films and TV shows including ‘My Name is Earl’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.'”

So, we can take this as yet another publicity stunt by the star of “The Hottie and The Nottie,” or we can try to find a deeper meaning to it. Could we ascribe to Paris, a personality best know for her artifice, the savvy necessary to create such a spiritual statement of world as illusion? How meta would that be?
But, I’m going with my friend’s assertion that, in fact, this “fauxru” is nothing more than the latest accessory, like her dogs, kitties, and confiscated monkey. Santillan should be worried about his new status. After all, we all know about her last flavor of the month, the little black kitten Prada.
I can’t even be offended by this latest farce of faith. Like Madonna, Hilton is always trying to reinvent herself, but unlike Madonna, Hilton’s personality would not seem to lend itself to the pondering of life’s eternal questions. It should probably upset me that Hilton seems to take matters of the spirit so flippantly, but I must admit that, in this age of superstars turning into super zealots, I actually find these publicity stunts somewhat refreshing.