Famous for being famous Kim Kardashian is… well, for the most part a mystery. Certainly her fame and celebrity is. The (often contradiction of terms) ‘television personality’ is a reality TV star who is the butt of many a joke (with an entire category on to herself on Perez Hilton.com) and yet, P.Ramakrishnan found himself entirely smitten by the saucy sex kitten. Here’s why.Full disclosure; I had no idea who she was 24 hours before I went in for an interview with Kim Kardashian. Until the invitation to attend a party thrown by the Comcast International Media Group (formerly known as the E! network) at The Venetian (in Macau), to welcome her to Asia landed on my table, my mind drew a blank on the name. With her show, Keeping up with the Kardashians unaired in Asia (at the time of the interview), the only questions on a loop were; why was she was famous? Does she sing? Act? Dance? Have a talk-show? Rap?
No to all the above.
Thank God for google! Photographed often for being a friend of yet another famous-for-being-famous bauble Paris Hilton, the LA socialite turned reality TV star, Kim has been arm candy to musicians, sports stars and sparkles in the celebrity circuit with her dangerous, oft-clicked curves. She’s done some modeling and catwalk shows for designer friends, has her own store ‘Dash’ (which she co-founded and co-runs with her sisters Khole and Kourtney, where they retail “affordable chic and just really cute clothes” she says) which is popular among the young guns. She loves fashion and to shop and loves her big, black… Bentley.
Oh and she appeared nude for Playboy and has an explicit sex tape out. Again, not unlike Hilton.
Less of an interview, more of a series of conversation excerpts, meeting this Playboy bunny as she hopped around the globe, promoting not only her show but her titillating magazine cover, there are only so many appropriate questions to ask and an endless series of inappropriate ones. Like the ones Playboy asked her; “Would you ever videotape yourself having sex again? (No!) How old were you when you lost your virginity and what were the circumstances? (15, then boyfriend.) You get a lot of attention for your backside. What's your favorite part of your body? (Toes.)”
Really, what’s left to ask after the enlightenment of knowing the above?
Our first meet and greet was at Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong. As the PR reps escort me up to her suite, I’m breathlessly told, ‘She will talk about her show and she’s happy to talk about the Playboy cover.” Right. “But please don’t mention the… the… tape!”
I could not resist and simply had to see what the reaction would be, so while the elevator chimed up, with as much insouciance as I could muster, I cock my eyebrow and ask, “Tape? What tape?”
Evil. Pure evil. My ticket to hell is reserved and confirmed.
Kim Kardashian landed in Asia on the heel of yet another celebrity sex tape scandal. With her then boyfriend Ray J (a R&B artist mostly known for being the sibling of singer Brandy), someone leaked their very private recording of doing the deed (to put it politely) online and it landed as a best seller on the adult video network. The offending film was the unkindest cut that emerged soon after the two broke up. Allegedly, her infidelity spurred Ray J to take revenge by publicly humiliating her by releasing the tape. More rumours about the ex-couple have circulated as often as the clip itself. Mind you, all this is conjectural and unmitigated tabloid gold.
The paparazzi darling often seen as a Hilton accessory, suddenly became a name on to herself.
“Oh nothing, nothing,” stutters the poor PR girl, as I make her blush on duty while inquiring about this so called ‘tape’. “We have a disc of ‘Keeping up…’ episodes for you. It’s very funny.”
Right. In fact, the show is oddly amusing. According to the press release, producer Ryan Seacrest’s constant run-ins with the Kardashian clan at events led him to offer the family a show. This unique hodgepodge family is the modern day Brady Bunch; with an array of step brothers and sisters with distinct personalities that are pure fodder for the idiot box. Kim’s biological father Robert Kardashian was often in the papers for being O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney, during the notorious ‘case of the century’ multiple murder trial. Kim’s mother went on to marry Olympian Bruce Jenner, with whom she has two daughters. There are Jenner’s children from his first marriage thrown into the mix too.
With the whole lot coming together on camera, some familiar (wardrobe wars as the sisters fight over who wore what blouse when) and some unfamiliar (how the family handled the release of the infamous tape and battled with the adult video chain to cease its release) terrain is covered.
With posters of her show littering her suite, the most photographed-in-a-bikini Kardashian comes in for a chat. With full-on makeup to make a drag queen hush, everything about Kim is over-the-topless. (Shots of her Playboy pictorial are indeed in the press release handed out as we sit on the couch!).
No doubt she’s beautiful, her exaggerated features, the full lips, the saucer eyes, the protruded curves of her 1960’s coke-bottle figure, it’s a phalanx of T&A before our Q&A.
As we settle in, while the cameraman (Ike) sets up, someone comments, “Oh Kim, you’re so beautiful, you could be a Bollywood superstar!”
“Bollywood?” her long lashes blink repeatedly, as the brown-eyed brunette puzzles. “I don’t know what that is.”
A sigh escapes and I rejoin, “It doesn’t matter. So tell me about your trip, is it your first time in Asia?”
“Yes, it is. Hong Kong is so exciting! I’ve always wanted to travel…” she trails off. “But I’m really tired. Can we please do this quickly? I really want to take a nap before tonight.”
Er, so much for premature interruptions. While locations are scouted for potential areas to shoot, we talk about the show – i.e. the chosen topics of conversation given the nod of approval by the entourage.
“Well, my immediate sisters, brother and I are very close and I think they’re amazing and funny so when Ryan [Seacrest] offered the show to our family, first I hesitated and then said yes. I really wanted to clear the misconceptions that are out there about me, my family,” she says, revealing how it all started. “We really love each other and are close and we may fight and we are away from each other for work and travel a lot but we’re always in touch. Like, mum checked up on everyone soon after we landed – she’s sleeping right now. That’s a long, long flight from LA to HK!”
She laughs. “You can’t see her now. She’s not media-make-up ready yet!”
As she yawns through the conversation, she apologises and lets me know it isn’t me, it’s the long hours of travel. My ego accepts the perfunctory assurances but clearly, she’s done the rigmarole of questions about her show all day with local papers.
Any regrets on what you’ve said or done on tape? Of course I meant the TV show!
“No. It’s really real. It’s the way a normal family is and when we look back on a particular show, we’re usually laughing,” she says with her Hollywood smile – perfect white chicklet teeth and her lip-liner encrusted mouth pouts perfectly. “I’m not as bad. Khloe swears like a sailor! But she’s so funny. I love her.”
’Keeping up with the Kardashians’ will never win an Emmy but it certainly found an audience for its bizarre fly on the wall view of this wealthy, spoilt, yet drama encased new-age family. Funnily enough, though the centerfold is at the epicenter of all the posters of the show, the true stars seem to be sister Khole and ‘momager’ (i.e. Kim’s mother and manager) Kris. Khole’s uncensored antics and Kris’s proclivity to say it as she sees it (“Honey, you’ve got a little extra junk in the trunk,” she tells Kim when she asks her to work out) makes for some great unscripted moments.
As we strut down to shoot in a limousine at the hotel entrance, we see Andres 3000 walk in the lobby. When told Fergie’s in town too, she says, “I love music. I’d go to all the shows and concerts. I heard Fergie’s skin’s really bad because of all the drugs she took in the early days – I’m not being mean, she herself has talked about it. Her music’s cool…”!
Hours later, our next chat is at the Venetian, where having recognised me from the earlier day’s shoot and chat, Kim invites me up to her massive suite. There, a few select media types mingle with some very powerful folks; Christine Fellowes, Managing Director, Asia, Comcast Entertainment Group), Mark Brown (President, Sands Macao & The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel) Kevin MacLellan (President, Comcast Entertainment Group, International). Says MacLellan, “Kim is one of the most recognisable faces on the E! channel and we’re thrilled to have her on board. She’s a lovely girl.”
On another show ‘The Soup’, its cheeky host sure takes a lot of potshots at Kim, and every other celebrity. “You know what, no one has ever complained,” says the President of the network. “Joel McHale (host of the show) is so funny that everyone has a good laugh and it’s not mean-spirited and everyone sees that.”
Soon, I’m introduced to Kris, Kim’s mother who’s much taller than the 5’2 starlet. As we chat innocuously about shopping (loved Lane Crawford and shopping in HK!), champagne (Veuve Clicquot) and “the fabulosity of the Venetian”, it’s hard not to like the chatty ‘momager’.
“You know what, I’m happy the world gets to see how amazing my family is, so I’m not at all bothered if people think they’re the stars of the show,” says Kim.
But when it comes to media coverage, it’s Kim all the way. Why did you do Playboy? “Well, when Hugh Hefner asked me to pose for Playboy, I didn’t think I’d do it. But Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson. Farah Fawcett - they’ve all done it and they were big stars, so I thought, why not?” Indeed, there’s no such thing as bad exposure in the la la land of Los Angeles. “They were very tasteful pictures, beautifully photographed. Only the best team worked on the shoot.”
But not all press is kind to Kardashian. Various online sites, often devoted to her derriere, take the mickey of her, led by Perez Hilton, who she’s encountered often. “Oh God, Perez is crazy, but he’s fun,” she says of the bitchiest tabloid site online. “I don’t really care what he or any of the other gossip sites and tabloids say about me. It hurts when they make up stuff but, it’s not part of my reality. My show helps clear up the stupid stuff. I just continue on with my life.”
But, at an unguarded moment, a little hurt slips out. “Sometimes, they can be really mean… but whatever.”
Kim makes it a point to greet everyone and asks them to hit the copious buffet table and happily poses with everyone who asks. “You know Beyoncé stayed in this same room too!” she says in glee of her massive suite.
It’s hard not to like her, she’s cute, she’s done neither harm nor evil yet taking her down seems so easy. A comedienne stated about Paris Hilton and her reality TV ilk, “They’re spoilt, they’re entitled, they do no work, they shop and dress for a living. They are easy targets.”
And Kim’s target seems to be below the belt. In a land that encourages pencil thin stick figures to go with cigarette slim cut jeans, Kim’s ‘50s pin up body type doesn’t fit the mold of Hollywood – a film career has yet to take off and she is, pun intended, the butt of many a joke. “I eat healthy and I work out. I’m not ashamed of my body. I’ll never be crazy thin and you know what, that’s OK by me.”
Well, OK then.
Images courtesy of E! and MOXIE
(PR company in Hong Kong).
Thank God for google! Photographed often for being a friend of yet another famous-for-being-famous bauble Paris Hilton, the LA socialite turned reality TV star, Kim has been arm candy to musicians, sports stars and sparkles in the celebrity circuit with her dangerous, oft-clicked curves. She’s done some modeling and catwalk shows for designer friends, has her own store ‘Dash’ (which she co-founded and co-runs with her sisters Khole and Kourtney, where they retail “affordable chic and just really cute clothes” she says) which is popular among the young guns. She loves fashion and to shop and loves her big, black… Bentley.
Oh and she appeared nude for Playboy and has an explicit sex tape out. Again, not unlike Hilton.
Less of an interview, more of a series of conversation excerpts, meeting this Playboy bunny as she hopped around the globe, promoting not only her show but her titillating magazine cover, there are only so many appropriate questions to ask and an endless series of inappropriate ones. Like the ones Playboy asked her; “Would you ever videotape yourself having sex again? (No!) How old were you when you lost your virginity and what were the circumstances? (15, then boyfriend.) You get a lot of attention for your backside. What's your favorite part of your body? (Toes.)”
Really, what’s left to ask after the enlightenment of knowing the above?
Our first meet and greet was at Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong. As the PR reps escort me up to her suite, I’m breathlessly told, ‘She will talk about her show and she’s happy to talk about the Playboy cover.” Right. “But please don’t mention the… the… tape!”
I could not resist and simply had to see what the reaction would be, so while the elevator chimed up, with as much insouciance as I could muster, I cock my eyebrow and ask, “Tape? What tape?”
Evil. Pure evil. My ticket to hell is reserved and confirmed.
Kim Kardashian landed in Asia on the heel of yet another celebrity sex tape scandal. With her then boyfriend Ray J (a R&B artist mostly known for being the sibling of singer Brandy), someone leaked their very private recording of doing the deed (to put it politely) online and it landed as a best seller on the adult video network. The offending film was the unkindest cut that emerged soon after the two broke up. Allegedly, her infidelity spurred Ray J to take revenge by publicly humiliating her by releasing the tape. More rumours about the ex-couple have circulated as often as the clip itself. Mind you, all this is conjectural and unmitigated tabloid gold.
The paparazzi darling often seen as a Hilton accessory, suddenly became a name on to herself.
“Oh nothing, nothing,” stutters the poor PR girl, as I make her blush on duty while inquiring about this so called ‘tape’. “We have a disc of ‘Keeping up…’ episodes for you. It’s very funny.”
Right. In fact, the show is oddly amusing. According to the press release, producer Ryan Seacrest’s constant run-ins with the Kardashian clan at events led him to offer the family a show. This unique hodgepodge family is the modern day Brady Bunch; with an array of step brothers and sisters with distinct personalities that are pure fodder for the idiot box. Kim’s biological father Robert Kardashian was often in the papers for being O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney, during the notorious ‘case of the century’ multiple murder trial. Kim’s mother went on to marry Olympian Bruce Jenner, with whom she has two daughters. There are Jenner’s children from his first marriage thrown into the mix too.
With the whole lot coming together on camera, some familiar (wardrobe wars as the sisters fight over who wore what blouse when) and some unfamiliar (how the family handled the release of the infamous tape and battled with the adult video chain to cease its release) terrain is covered.
With posters of her show littering her suite, the most photographed-in-a-bikini Kardashian comes in for a chat. With full-on makeup to make a drag queen hush, everything about Kim is over-the-topless. (Shots of her Playboy pictorial are indeed in the press release handed out as we sit on the couch!).
No doubt she’s beautiful, her exaggerated features, the full lips, the saucer eyes, the protruded curves of her 1960’s coke-bottle figure, it’s a phalanx of T&A before our Q&A. As we settle in, while the cameraman (Ike) sets up, someone comments, “Oh Kim, you’re so beautiful, you could be a Bollywood superstar!”
“Bollywood?” her long lashes blink repeatedly, as the brown-eyed brunette puzzles. “I don’t know what that is.”
A sigh escapes and I rejoin, “It doesn’t matter. So tell me about your trip, is it your first time in Asia?”
“Yes, it is. Hong Kong is so exciting! I’ve always wanted to travel…” she trails off. “But I’m really tired. Can we please do this quickly? I really want to take a nap before tonight.”
Er, so much for premature interruptions. While locations are scouted for potential areas to shoot, we talk about the show – i.e. the chosen topics of conversation given the nod of approval by the entourage.
“Well, my immediate sisters, brother and I are very close and I think they’re amazing and funny so when Ryan [Seacrest] offered the show to our family, first I hesitated and then said yes. I really wanted to clear the misconceptions that are out there about me, my family,” she says, revealing how it all started. “We really love each other and are close and we may fight and we are away from each other for work and travel a lot but we’re always in touch. Like, mum checked up on everyone soon after we landed – she’s sleeping right now. That’s a long, long flight from LA to HK!”
She laughs. “You can’t see her now. She’s not media-make-up ready yet!”
As she yawns through the conversation, she apologises and lets me know it isn’t me, it’s the long hours of travel. My ego accepts the perfunctory assurances but clearly, she’s done the rigmarole of questions about her show all day with local papers.
Any regrets on what you’ve said or done on tape? Of course I meant the TV show!
“No. It’s really real. It’s the way a normal family is and when we look back on a particular show, we’re usually laughing,” she says with her Hollywood smile – perfect white chicklet teeth and her lip-liner encrusted mouth pouts perfectly. “I’m not as bad. Khloe swears like a sailor! But she’s so funny. I love her.”
’Keeping up with the Kardashians’ will never win an Emmy but it certainly found an audience for its bizarre fly on the wall view of this wealthy, spoilt, yet drama encased new-age family. Funnily enough, though the centerfold is at the epicenter of all the posters of the show, the true stars seem to be sister Khole and ‘momager’ (i.e. Kim’s mother and manager) Kris. Khole’s uncensored antics and Kris’s proclivity to say it as she sees it (“Honey, you’ve got a little extra junk in the trunk,” she tells Kim when she asks her to work out) makes for some great unscripted moments. As we strut down to shoot in a limousine at the hotel entrance, we see Andres 3000 walk in the lobby. When told Fergie’s in town too, she says, “I love music. I’d go to all the shows and concerts. I heard Fergie’s skin’s really bad because of all the drugs she took in the early days – I’m not being mean, she herself has talked about it. Her music’s cool…”!
Hours later, our next chat is at the Venetian, where having recognised me from the earlier day’s shoot and chat, Kim invites me up to her massive suite. There, a few select media types mingle with some very powerful folks; Christine Fellowes, Managing Director, Asia, Comcast Entertainment Group), Mark Brown (President, Sands Macao & The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel) Kevin MacLellan (President, Comcast Entertainment Group, International). Says MacLellan, “Kim is one of the most recognisable faces on the E! channel and we’re thrilled to have her on board. She’s a lovely girl.”
On another show ‘The Soup’, its cheeky host sure takes a lot of potshots at Kim, and every other celebrity. “You know what, no one has ever complained,” says the President of the network. “Joel McHale (host of the show) is so funny that everyone has a good laugh and it’s not mean-spirited and everyone sees that.”
Soon, I’m introduced to Kris, Kim’s mother who’s much taller than the 5’2 starlet. As we chat innocuously about shopping (loved Lane Crawford and shopping in HK!), champagne (Veuve Clicquot) and “the fabulosity of the Venetian”, it’s hard not to like the chatty ‘momager’.
“You know what, I’m happy the world gets to see how amazing my family is, so I’m not at all bothered if people think they’re the stars of the show,” says Kim.
But when it comes to media coverage, it’s Kim all the way. Why did you do Playboy? “Well, when Hugh Hefner asked me to pose for Playboy, I didn’t think I’d do it. But Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson. Farah Fawcett - they’ve all done it and they were big stars, so I thought, why not?” Indeed, there’s no such thing as bad exposure in the la la land of Los Angeles. “They were very tasteful pictures, beautifully photographed. Only the best team worked on the shoot.”
But not all press is kind to Kardashian. Various online sites, often devoted to her derriere, take the mickey of her, led by Perez Hilton, who she’s encountered often. “Oh God, Perez is crazy, but he’s fun,” she says of the bitchiest tabloid site online. “I don’t really care what he or any of the other gossip sites and tabloids say about me. It hurts when they make up stuff but, it’s not part of my reality. My show helps clear up the stupid stuff. I just continue on with my life.”
But, at an unguarded moment, a little hurt slips out. “Sometimes, they can be really mean… but whatever.”
Kim makes it a point to greet everyone and asks them to hit the copious buffet table and happily poses with everyone who asks. “You know Beyoncé stayed in this same room too!” she says in glee of her massive suite.
It’s hard not to like her, she’s cute, she’s done neither harm nor evil yet taking her down seems so easy. A comedienne stated about Paris Hilton and her reality TV ilk, “They’re spoilt, they’re entitled, they do no work, they shop and dress for a living. They are easy targets.”
And Kim’s target seems to be below the belt. In a land that encourages pencil thin stick figures to go with cigarette slim cut jeans, Kim’s ‘50s pin up body type doesn’t fit the mold of Hollywood – a film career has yet to take off and she is, pun intended, the butt of many a joke. “I eat healthy and I work out. I’m not ashamed of my body. I’ll never be crazy thin and you know what, that’s OK by me.”
Well, OK then.
Images courtesy of E! and MOXIE
(PR company in Hong Kong).
