Remember last week when Paris Hilton was on the cover of Us Weekly, and they asked how she’s always been able to read the culture so well? Well, this week she’s failed utterly and completely in reading the room. One week into the devastating wildfires in the town of Lahaina on Maui, with 99 confirmed deaths so far, and Paris has been papped on a family vacay on the island. The Daily Mail bought the pictures that show Paris and her husband Carter Reum enjoying the beach with their 7-month-old son Phoenix over the weekend. From Page Six:
Paris Hilton and her husband, Carter Reum, are being slammed for vacationing in Maui—just 30 miles from the deadly wildfires that have ravaged the island.
The “Simple Life” alum and Reum were captured in photographs obtained by the Daily Mail kissing in the ocean without a care in the world as more than 95 people have been declared dead and about 1,000 are still missing.
In the photos, Hilton and Reum are carrying their son, Phoenix, while frolicking and walking along the shoreline.
The family was staying at a resort in Wailea, which is only about a 30-mile drive to the devastation in Lahaina, the outlet reported.
The care-free attitude of Hilton and Reum, both 42, set off a wave of anger on social media.
“Paris Hilton heard about the Maui wildfire devastation and said ‘That’s hot,’” quipped one person on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, poking fun at her famous catchphrase.
“Disgusting. They’ve asked all tourists to leave the island,” tweeted another.
“Is she an idiot,” asked another.
“Wow,” reacted another user. “Read the room.”
The photos of the hotel heiress and her family come just days after actor Jason Momoa warned tourists not to travel to Maui amid the raging wildfires.
“Maui is not the place to have your vacation right now,” the “Aquaman” star, 44, captioned a slideshow on Instagram Friday that featured video of the fires with the words “do not travel to Maui.”
“Do not convince yourself that your presence is needed on an island that is suffering this deeply. Mahalo to everyone who has donated and shown aloha to the community in this time of need.”
The “Fast X” star’s post, which was originally created by the nonprofit organization ʻĀina Momona, said tourists should steer clear because the devastation will have “a lasting island-wide impact on Maui’s resources.”
“Our community needs time to heal, grieve & restore,” the post continued. “That means the less visitors on the island taking up critical resources that have become extremely limited the better.”
That first tweet nailed it with the use of “that’s hot.” According to the story the Daily Mail ran with the photos, Paris & co were snapped at the beach on Saturday, with a “source close to Hilton” saying, “She has been absolutely helping. Maui has always held a special place in her heart. She has been gathering supplies and taking them to shelters and those who need. She already did and continues to do so.” Bear in mind, that quote runs alongside pap shots of her carrying her baby, a purse in the shape of a seashell, and a rubber ducky float.
Last Wednesday (3 days before the photos were taken), the Hawaii Tourism Authority issued a statement asking nonessential travelers (aka tourists) to leave Maui. Paris, honey, you are not essential right now. For anyone who wants to help from afar, I recommend the NY Time’s round up of organizations that includes groups working to help the animal survivors.
Paris Hilton spotted enjoying the sun with family on Hawaii beach just 30 miles from deadly Laharia fire https://t.co/gDIjWiWPlQ
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) August 14, 2023
Photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon, Getty and via Twitter
She does now, and has always, and will continue to suck.
This part. The way time has softened her reputation, she will always be a rude, trash racist to me. This does not surprise me at all.
Totally agree. She has always been racist trash.
So many people lost their lives, and thousands lost their homes. Hotels and supplies are needed for the people of Maui, not tourists.
My mom & all her side of our family are from Hawaii. We are so devastated for Maui. Still in complete shock. Some of the family was just in Lahaina last month. Shedding tears for Maui.
I’m so sorry to hear that your family is going through all of this. What a terrible thing for the people of Hawaii.
Thanks. Just to clarify, most of my family is not on Maui — just a few cousins who live inland and are safe. But the implications for the people of Maui most immediately (but ultimately all the Hawaiian islands) for years to come is clear — further scarcity of resources, scarcity of jobs, still higher property values, investors buying up property, further migration to the mainland because things are going to be even more unaffordable, etc. It’s just terrible.
Yep. I feel like there’s been a lot of white washing of her past recently, but I still remember…
Leave her alone. She has done nothing wrong..she arrived before the fires began. I live in Maui and we are all devastated. Luckily I don’t live in one of the many areas that we not physically affected. And like it out not, our economy depends on tourism especially for someone with pockets as deep as hers. She has donated and been to the shelters to drop off goods without cameras unlike Oprah.
And honestly, do you really think they are going to house a displaced family in the $20k night suite her family is likely staying in. No, they won’t.
We have to continue on and need tourism to survive.
Why did she stay after the advisory was made and why didn’t the resort she’s staying at tell her that she had to leave Maui?
Presumably it’s the resort owned by her family—which has a notice that they’re fully open for business on their website. Without any info about how to help victims.
Keep it classy, Hiltons.
I imagine she’s lived all her life in a mega-rich person bubble of entitlement where you can totally choose to ignore what’s happening in the wider world if you choose to. Rules are for regular folk.
Hawaii has only “strongly discouraged” visitors from coming to West Maui for the rest of August. There’s no guidance beyond that. She is/was in South Maui, which is still open for business. She’s a gross person who doesn’t care about anything happening to anyone else, but there are no mandates for any tourists to leave now.
She’s staying at the Grand Wailea (a Hilton/Waldorf Astoria) property. She said she loves the water slides and that’s a dead giveaway.
We were supposed to head to Maui (and stay at the Grand Wailea) on the 21st. We cancelled our trip because they DO NOT need us there. The whole island is mourning.
For the tourists that are already there are there available flights to leave? Does it cost extra to change your original flight? If the hotels aren’t telling their guests to leave and they are able to take care of them then why do they have to leave? I wouldn’t want to pay extra and leave the resort I already payed for.
Its nonsense like this that makes folks want to eat the rich.
OMG so tone deaf and so is that beach outfit! 1990’s, early aughts wants its outfit back! It’s not even a cute one!
Why didn’t they close the resort and kick her ass out?
Why doesn’t the resort stay open ànd house/help islanders who need it, for free?
100% this
Kinda what I meant. Close it to wealthy tourists, then reopen for displaced.
The resort is a for profit not a non profit organization. If they are able to stay open and keep getting business they will.
Being shoved down our throats ad naseum is different from “reading the culture”…this just continues her LONG list of deplorables acts😬
Wildfires in terms of lasting effects are no joke…apart from the horrific disregard to what locals are going through, the actual environment cannot be healthy. All resorts have no business operating right now for everyone’s safety, and if she really wanted to help, stay the eff away and write some big fat checks to go directly to on the ground orgs.
Awful. She’s the same selfish person she always was.
I’m no Paris fan, but apparently she arrived the day of the fire and has been taking supplies to shelters. There are way more important issues that celeb visits.
These islands are small, their populations are small. Everyone knows everyone, and a lot of folks are related to each other. Those people working at the resort will have lost family, friends, acquaintances. This is completely & utterly tone deaf.
Not you actually believing a “source close to Paris Hilton”…
Lol like she would take supplies to shelters but not take advantage of the photo op? No effing way.
I’m going with “pics or it didn’t happen” for that one.
But if there were pics that would be considered tacky too. And as shown in the Oprah story cameras are not allowed in most areas like shelters, etc.
I live in the Santa Cruz mountains. When they burned three years ago, my family was evacuated to a friend’s house at the beach. I will never forget how angry I felt at tourists who were taking space with their rvs and chatting about how the smoke annoyed them on their beach vacation. I didn’t post them or shame them, because I kind of thought of them as regular families and it wasn’t their fault I was evacuated. But after so much death!? And when Paris is so rich she could go anywhere, any time? Ugh. It just looks really bad.
Maui is beautiful and truly a magical place. I had the fortune of going last year and it was truly one of the most beautiful place on earth. As a tourist there, I was very aware of the tensions of local Hawaiian and tourists and how over-tourism has changed the landscape of daily living and tried to be as respectful as possible. I cannot fathom how completely tone deaf and ridiculous you have to be to vacation after a deadly disaster. She’s getting well deserved criticism.
Think she saw that video clip from the BBC yesterday where the Hawaiian lady was talking about how tourists were so awful to be swimming and snorkeling in the Hawaiian waters her people hd just died in?
🙁
Additional ways to help, from the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology:
https://hawaiifoodbank.org/maui-relief/
https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong
Aina Momona through Act Blue https://secure.actblue.com/donate/kokuamaui?fbclid=PAAaYNX8VUQ56GJGXqx0xq2GW3g3IBOQd1XgtNqVhx7DgXQke8Mvd71uOzFoQ_aem_AUER9Q4Mdu7v4B4iwjT9bXgcWACYn9weovdDAXILopdxb4ki8KnYSbnG_5BiBNSp2-A
Kakoʻo Maui
https://www.memberplanet.com/campaign/cnhamembers/kakoomaui?fbclid=PAAaYIMz0NDRLjdCw1RF04GTai8DRUQM_PTxUb-93l9P7z08lHoX2VWDOtCI8_aem_AUEPZcEHtOgRpnwKwzHfHxy0a563Nb0Pvn41_OiEDF_4guStpPEm8W5bgbGgU6f33Lc
Also, after the Paradise Fire in California, archaeologists donated screens to homeowners to help them sift through the ashes for personal items.
‘Aina Archaeology has kindly offered to serve as a collection point for anyone wanting to donate screens for this cause on Maui. Please send to 1305 North Holopono Street, Suite 6 Kihei, HI 96753.
The scenes out of Hawaii are positively apocalyptic. I thought we’d have at least another decade before we started seeing fires in places like Hawaii. I guess the last 10 years of incremental measures to solve the climate crisis that is knocking on our door didn’t do much after all. Shocked I tell ya.
And Hilton is absolute scum. So sick of The Rich acting like entitled assholes in the face of an impossible tragedy.
A friend and I were just talking the other day (before the fires) about what the future holds in the various places our friends and family have made their homes – we both know people that have recently relocated to Las Vegas, Florida, Arizona, and Hawai’i. One of them even said before they left they’d have a good ten years before they needed to worry about it. I was floored. Ten years is not that far away, and I doubt they even have that long. At this point, I’m guessing three to five years before things get really bad (as in beyond recovery) in a lot of places.
I used to say that I’ll be dead before the worst of it but as you said, Dara, I think we’ll start to see the beginning of the worst effects in 5 years or so. Terrifying to think of what the future holds for young people….
At least it was a pap shot and it’s not like she’s posting it herself on Instagram or something.
I’m not a huge Paris Hilton fan, but according to her Instagram, she’s been in Greece for the past few weeks, well before the fires even started.
We were in Maui in June for a family reunion and what happened in Maui last week really broke my heart. All the places we went around Lahaina are all gone . We’re glad though that the roots of the old historic banyan tree in Lahaina survived. We’re doing everything we can to donate and support Maui. It’s just ironic , I remembered when we landed in Maui everything on the west side was dry and the locals mentioned they were in a drought(the rainforests through Hana though was still very green). But I remembered thinking to myself it’s so dry I hope a wildfire doesn’t break here , esp knowing our own experiences here in CA. Unfortunately it did happen 😢.
Sometimes I can’t get over the degree of unwarranted image rehab she’s enjoyed, and I don’t get why. She needs to catch flak for this, though people will forget about it, just as they’ve forgotten other crap from her. But this is who she is, like so many rich people, living in her bubble of self-entitlement and cluelessness.
I know she’s been through some tough things in her life. But some privileged people move through adulthood developing their capacity to be more aware, more discerning, and far less self-centered. And many like Paris and the rest of her overprivileged clan don’t.
This is a shame!! Are we even human? Where is the compassion or empathy? She is disgusting, the people still insisting upon having their Maui paradise right now all deserve to go to hell. There is no such thing as respect anymore.
For someone who sought so much sympathy for when she was sent to a cruel boarding school, it amazes me that she fails to show the smallest amount of empathy for others and she remains the poster child of privilege , selfishness and just being an asshole!
I am not a fan of cops by any means. That said, I watched the press conference held by the Maui chief of police today and my heart broke. This is an island; thus, the local community of people who actually live there is small, insular, often generational. To lose 99 residents is a huge loss for them. This man had to explain to clueless reporters that they can’t easily/quickly identify the bodies because they’re little more than ash. He had to ask them to stay out of the rubble (!) because they are likely stepping on human remains. Paris Hilton has always been self absorbed but this is just beyond. I won’t hold my breath hoping she’s ashamed. We know she isn’t. But she should be.
A great way for her to show support would be using one (or more) of the 8 Hilton Hotels in Hawaii (3 in Maui) to house displaced locals. It would be great publicity to reimburse current guests, get them out of islands, and give back to the communities whose land & labor her family has profited from for years. Paris has a net worth of $300 million, with Hilton family worth approx $15.2 billion. This would be a nominal expense for her, not to mention tax deductible and of course the invaluable boost to the company’s reputation. I’d be sure to use the services of any corporation who went over & above with humanitarian efforts.
I know she doesn’t have to, & it’s not my money to spend. But she seems so desperate to be in the public eye and have positive press- she could withdraw against this good will for years.
She was ALMOST successful at white washing what garbage she is. She has been caught ON VIDEO saying racial homophobic slurs which she hasn’t addressed. Google Paris Hilton storage locker… I know people grow and change…. But that kinda hate doesn’t leave
This is such an odd story. Of all the places one can visit when having access to private jets, etc, why Maui now?
Has anyone in these comments been in the vicinity of wildfires? They are completely intolerable, especially one of this magnitude. Imagine. Burning metal, plastic, and every material known to man. The island of Maui must be hell on earth right now. Even if you’re “30 miles” from the worst of it.
It makes zero sense that Paris Hilton went on a casual vacation there.
A different perspective:
Initially contradicting the information provided earlier, this perspective arises from the insights of close friends who are residents of Maui. (It’s important to note that circumstances have evolved since the onset of the disaster, prompting a fresh outlook on the situation.) While West Maui remains closed, the rest of the island has opened its doors, urgently requiring visitors to help revive the local community. The economic stability of residents is in jeopardy as they grapple with supporting their families, covering essential expenses like rent, mortgages, and bills.
For those planning a trip near Lahaina, it is advisable to confirm the status of your lodging arrangements before your arrival. Notably, the majority of the island, excluding West Maui, is operational and well-equipped (fully stocked shelves/food/supplies/everything) to cater to the needs of EVERYONE on Maui. Your presence will not deplete vital resources.
In light of these circumstances, please travel there and supports local business. Explore the offerings of food trucks, restaurants, and shops, and actively contribute to revitalizing the local economy. Hire a photographer to capture your family. If you’re inclined to offer assistance, consider providing financial support to individual families via platforms like Venmo, which can significantly alleviate their challenges during this testing period.
Visiting Maui holds significant importance, as the island’s economy is intricately intertwined with tourism. A decline in this sector would have far-reaching consequences for the entire community. Here are just two examples from close friends to shed some light on what is happening now. A friend who manages Maui’s most renowned restaurant (usually requiring a wait of over six months for a reservation) is compelled to send employees home due to insufficient business to sustain an entire workforce. Employees are crying/begging him to continue working to support their families. Photographers on Maui are experiencing a barrage of cancellations, causing significant financial strain on their families and threatening their livelihood.
This perspective originates from Maui locals and is something for everyone to consider. But regardless, please help out as much as you can! Find the local Venmo accounts and send money directly to the families. There are verified accounts helping locals that need it the most.