Charity Begins at Home

Is there no justice? While the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation trudges along in obscurity despite awarding $1 million every year to a humanitarian organization, the media can’t get enough of the hotel dynasty’s wayward heiress, Paris Hilton. Rich girl, party girl, naughty girl and fixture of countless tabloid stories and Internet postings, Hilton became a household name after co-starring in a raunchy home video as well as the reality TV show “The Simple Life.” We took a closer look and found uncanny convergences between Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize recipients and the world’s most under-clothed trust fund baby.

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Hilton Humanitarian (2004): Heifer International, whose self-reliance program for families in developing countries furnishes training and more than 30 types of animals, including goats, guinea pigs, bees and elephants.

Paris Hilton: The heiress worked briefly with cows in an episode of “The Simple Life,” a reality TV show in which she roughed it on an Arkansas farm.

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Hilton Humanitarian (2003): The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, a group of health professionals devoted to rehabilitation and prevention work.

Paris Hilton: “The entire show makes me cringe. It’s just torture,” said Lionel Richie in the Calgary Sun in August, of the antics of Hilton and his daughter, Nicole, her co-star on “The Simple Life.”

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Hilton Humanitarian (2001): St. Christopher’s Hospice in London, founded by Dame Cicely Saunders, a nurse who became a doctor to challenge attitudes about the care of terminal patients.

Paris Hilton: “Paris Hilton and the rest of a frequently blond supporting cast are on their way to terminal rot in the Hamptons,” said a USA Today review of the film “White Chicks” in June.

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Hilton Humanitarian (2000): Casa Alianza, a private agency based in Costa Rica that ministers to children who are victims of poverty, war, natural disaster, political repression or community disintegration.

Paris Hilton: “The decapitation of Nick Berg and the Iraq war have knocked Paris Hilton and Britney Spears off the top of the list of the most-searched items on the Internet,” noted UPI in May.

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Hilton Humanitarian (1998): Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres delivers emergency medical relief to victims of armed conflict, epidemics and disasters.

Paris Hilton: “It turns out reality TV can have real-life dangers,” noted CBS news after Hilton was thrown from a horse on the Tampa, Fla., set of “The Simple Life II.” Hilton reported, “They said if it would have been one inch higher, I would have broke my ribs.”