Paris Hilton Honored With Harvard Lampoon’s ‘Woman Of The Year’

On Wednesday, former hotel heiress Paris Hilton was officially honored with the "Woman of the Year" award by Harvard University’s satirical Lampoon magazine.

The Hollywood socialite, whose movie "The Hottie & the Nottie" premiered Monday night, arrived an hour late to accept her prize in person, a large, oversized trophy, from the staff of Harvard’s humor magazine, on the steps of the "Lampoon Castle" in Cambridge, Mass., Reuters reported.

"Thank you all for coming. An international icon meets countless people every day." Paris jokingly began her acceptance speech.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine standing here," she then told a crowd of about 100 students. "It's really exciting and I've had such a great time."

"You guys are so hot," Paris, who is the first to receive the honor, added. "Harvard's hot."

The Lampoon award is a spoof of the annual honors given by Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals, but "better than or equal to Woman of the Year," Lampoon member Hayes Davenport said.

"The sporadically given honor is much like the Harvard Hasty Pudding award, but better than or equal to Woman of the Year. The choice was pretty easy when you think of who's had the most profound effect on our lives."

Harvard sophomore Rafael Quintanar said his love for Hilton goes beyond her ditzy image.

"She deserves a lot more credit than she gets and is a lot more intelligent then people give her credit for," he said. "The smart people play up their media image, and that's what Paris does."

"Someone just accosted me and said, 'Why would you stand in the rain for Paris Hilton?'" Matthew Sussman, 26, an English major, was quoted by Reuters as saying. "But I think that she is an icon and we see her image multiplied numerous times and numerous ways."

"It's also a dubious distinction. We don't know if she is in on the joke or not," he added.

The Hasty Pudding Theatricals will present its Woman of the Year award to Charlize Theron on Thursday. Man of the Year will go to Christopher Walken on Feb.15.

News entry number 19 added on Feb 7, 2008 in the Celebrity News category.