Hightower Lowdown

Stop the presses! There's been a stunning breakthrough in news coverage by America's establishment media.

The Associated Press, which feeds stories 24/7 to thousands of media outlets, recently imposed a one-week ban on any stories about Paris Hilton! Yes, the person who's famous for being famous, the celebritys' celebrity who gets pandering media coverage for--well, for just being there--was to be ignored. For a week!

Could AP stick with it? Would the earth wobble on its axis if this party-going heiress to the Hilton hotel fortune did not get her daily dose of glamour coverage? Would anyone care? Or even notice?

During Paris Blackout Week, AP courageously let Hilton's 26th birthday pass with nary a mention. She had a fab birthday bash in Las Vegas, ignored. Then, she had a second birthday blowout at a Beverly Hills restaurant, where one of her friends got ejected for insulting Paula Abdul and Courtney Love--yet AP stoically refused to rise to this delicious morsel of gossip bait.

Interestingly, AP's editors report that during their Paris-free week, not one of its worldwide media customers begged for a Hilton story or inquired about the lack of same. Not that this "celebutante," as she's called, got zero coverage that week, since other media outlets maintained their all-Paris/all-the time focus. For example, US Weekly has an item and/or photo of Hilton in practically every issue. "People now come to expect to see pictures of her," says an editor of this celeb magazine. "People are fascinated by [her]."

People? I'm not. Are you? Okay, AP's ban was only for a week, but it does offer hope that if the media coverage went away... maybe she would, too.