Sunday, June 11, 2006

Paris Hilton breaks promise to Australian kids' charity

Like many Hollywood celebrities, Paris Hilton talks a good game when the cameras are focused on her, but her follow-through stinks.

For evidence, there's the sad story of Queensland Australia's Paradise Kids.

The skinny blonde was in Australia in 2004 for the filming of the motion picture House of Wax. During that trip, she visited the sick children at Paradise Kids.

From News.com Australia:

"I'll get a few friends together. I know the Backstreet Boys will help out for sure and I talked to Blu Cantrell last night," Hilton claimed at the time. Missy Elliott was another big-name act mentioned.

"I definitely want to do this," Hilton told gathered media. "My grandmother died of cancer and I almost lost my cousin to leukemia. It's just something very important to me.

I love kids and I just feel it's the right thing to do. It makes me feel good about myself and it helps other people."

To date, no benefit concert has taken place and efforts by Paradise Kids to contact Hilton have been unsuccessful.

It gets worse. Paradise Kids co-founder Reverend Dr. Ian Mavor called Hilton "a lovely person and I think she was well-intentioned at the time," but added, "The promise hasn't amounted to anything – nothing, not a penny," Rev Mavor said. "We really needed the funds."

Three months after the Hilton's pledge, an Australian newspaper reported that the attention given to Paradise Kids resulting from her visit led to $500,000 in donations to the charity.

Mavor told News.com Australia that not only is that report false, but it has hurt the group's fundraising efforts, giving Australians the impression that Paradise Kids doesn't need the money.

But I'm sure that promise made Paris feel good about herself.

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