Paris Hilton honored at Harvard? Now we've seen it all. The sandy-haired celebutante was at the World's Greatest University today, where she received the Woman of the Year award from the wags at the Harvard Lampoon.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine standing here," Hilton told a crowd of about 100 students. "It's really exciting and I've had such a great time."
What's to recommend Britney Spears's good buddy for such an accolade?
Here's a hint: It's not the salacious videotape she famously made with Rick Salomon. The "award" is an obvious jab at the high-minded Hasty Pudding Theatricals, who'll give its long-running Woman of the Year Award to actress Charlize Theron on Thursday and honor actor Christopher Walken next week.
"They're honoring me for being in business and my acting," Hilton explained to us.
Standing under a tent outside the Lampoon today, Hilton couldn't contain her enthusiasm: "You people are so hot! Harvard is so hot!"
Undergrads brought all sorts of things for the socialite to sign: students IDs, their Blackberrys, Harvard boxer shorts, the syllabus from a freshman sociology class, and Hilton's self-titled CD.
Said junior Norman Goode, who got Paris to sign his math project, "I guess that's the quintessential Harvard experience."
Not one to sit still, Hilton is expected to be out on the town tonight, hosting a party at Ed Kane's club, The Estate. "I'm having the time of my life," she said, talking about her busy schedule. "I'm having the best time ever." Hilton was in Boston to promote her movie, "The Hottie & the Nottie," which opens Friday.
Though her visit here is brief, Hilton has made the most of her time. The heiress arrived in town late Monday, and promptly hit the Back Bay club Rumor with a bunch of her Harvard hosts.
"She jumped on the mike and said, 'LA likes to party, but Boston is it,'" said club promoter Ace Gershfield.
With camera phones flashing, Paris also gave a post-mortem shout-out to the Patriots. (Pats Randall Gay and Eric Alexander happened to be in the house, as were NBA players Cuttino Mobley and Sam Cassell.) Paris and her posse stayed for a while and then returned to Harvard for a private party with students.
"We had a wild time," she told us. "They're such nice boys."
Originally booked to stay at the Four Seasons, Hilton and her entourage switched at the last minute to the Liberty Hotel, apparently because she was put up in the $5,500-a-night presidential suite at no charge. (We're told the staff also stocked her room with pink flowers, fancy bath balms, and her favorite soda: Coca-Cola.)
Hilton said she wasn't troubled that her mug shot is one of several celebrity booking photos hanging on the walls of the Liberty hotel bar
Alibi, the site of the former Charles Street jail. "I like my mug shot. I think I have a really great mug shot," Hilton told us, laughing. "It looks like a magazine shoot."
In fact, the pic was snapped after her 2006 drunk-driving arrest.
