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Dubai fans jeer Hilton

By Peter Harrison
Fans wait outside Wafi Mall for Paris Hilton. Photograph: Mehdi Shirazi/Maktoob Business

Crowds booed Paris Hilton after they were left waiting for hours at the Wafi Mall in Dubai on Wednesday hoping to catch a glimpse of the blond heiress at a carefully orchestrated VIP event.

Hilton had been expected to show up at Salam Stores in the mall at about 7.30 p.m., where she was to meet a select group of guests - but failed to show until three hours later.

When Hilton eventually made an appearance, the dwindling crowd of fans jeered her for making them wait in Dubai's humid summer evening heat.

“Paris was working to a very busy filming schedule during the day and the 7.30 p.m. appearance was always going to be difficult for her to make on time as it was rather early,” a Hilton spokeswoman told Maktoob Business on Thursday.

“She rushed to the mall, and was very apologetic to fans, signing autographs. She spent about 10 minutes with them, she handled it all very elegantly.”

The hotel heiress is in Dubai filming the third series of her show 'Paris Hilton My New BFF', in which she puts a group of women through their paces to see if they are compatible and can be her 'best friend forever'.

There was no mention of her delayed appearance on her Twitter posts, which she has used extensively while in Dubai.

Fans in were left disappointed last week when Hilton failed to attend a scheduled appearance at a club in Dubai's Intercontinental Hotel, where she is thought to be staying.

The club and Hilton’s people both apologised and fans were offered a refund for their tickets.


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User Comments
S.O. Meone
Jun 28, 2009 at 21:10
I was also there... I definitely noticed a dwindling of the crowd, and when she finally arrived there were a lot of people commenting reasonably quietly about the perfect demonstration of lack of professionalism you can expect from someone who hasn't really ever had to work for a living... I wouldn't quite have called it "jeering", but i certainly wouldn't have described the crowd reaction as positive.

I left almost immediately she'd made her completely insincere attempt at an apology for being more than 3 hours late, conveniently blaming anyone or anything possible, and taking no personal responsibility... Salam's manager had told the crowd an hour and a half before she'd turned up (saying that he'd spoken to her and she was 15 minutes away) in an attempt to stop everyone leaving, and my opinion is that the event was turned into a little PR nightmare...

I hope her show goes well, but I don't think she made any fans at the event...
John Doe
Jun 26, 2009 at 14:12
As one of the members of the media present at the event, I do not recall "the dwindling crowd of fans jeered her for making them wait in Dubai's humid summer evening heat."

What humid summer evening heat? It was inside an air conditioned shopping centre. It was quite comfortable and not at all humid.

Secondly, what jeering? I remember the surge forward as fans tried to get photographs and autographs. I was almost deafened by people screaming her name. I don't recall any jeering.

Thirdly, dwindling? The numbers present were not significant, but they did gradually increase as the hours passed by. Crowds attract crowds. There was more people inside the store than outside waiting for her.

She did quite a good job of presenting herself for autographs and a photo opportunity. Nice bit of PR work says this hard bitten journalist.
Jamal
Jun 26, 2009 at 08:20
Everyone waited to see her deserves the humiliation. What is all this fuss about her visit to Dubai? Certainly it is for business and nothing more. Just look at her scandals on the Internet.

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