The real story behind Paris Hilton’s most bitter feud

This picture was at the centre of one of the noughties’ most bitter celebrity feuds. But there’s more to the nasty saga than you think.

This was the famous 2006 picture that hinted at an end to the feud.

Like many so-called institutions in Los Angeles, Guy’s nightclub is now permanently closed.

But in 2006 you could barely blag your way in, that’s how popular it was.

The place was crawling with celebrities, who came to the nondescript location for its playlists, exclusivity and paparazzi moments wrangled outside its front and back entrance.

That’s what happened in November 27, 2006, when Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan — “the holy trinity”, as Hilton called them — visited Guy’s for a night out.

11 years anniversary today since the first coming of The Holy Trinity! pic.twitter.com/dxGwTLnFDv

— Paris Hilton (@ParisHilton) November 27, 2017

Nothing says 2006 more than these photos. The skinny jeans with a ”going out top”, the low-slung slouchy hobo designer bags, the assortment of women on display. In 2006, Hilton, Lohan and Spears’ stars were ascendant. And only a few short years later their celebrity waned.

2006 was a big year for Paris.

None more so than Lohan and Hilton, who soon became embroiled in a feud so bitter it rages to this day, 13 years after their friendship began. But how did it go from partying at Guy’s to nasty cat fights? Where did it all go so wrong?

FRENEMIES FIRST

The friendship between Lohan and Hilton began like two colliding supernovas. At first, Lohan seemed to be a replacement for Hilton’s former best friend Nicole Richie, with whom her relationship had noticeably cooled. But after a while, Hilton and Lohan became inseparable, popping up at party spots all over Hollywood. Lohan, with her perma-tan and bleached hair, and Hilton were two blondes tearing up the town.

But barely had their friendship begun when it turned sour. It happened on a night out in May 2006 when Brandon Davis, son of an oil tycoon and another very 2006 person, went on a rant about Lohan. Hilton was with him and on the phone the whole time, but her smirk was enough to send the paparazzi flashbulbs flashing.

Socialite Brandon Davis mouths off about actress Lindsay Lohan while socialite Paris Hilton laughs in the background.

At the time, Lohan was rumoured to be dating Stavros Niarchos, the Greek shipping magnate who was Hilton’s ex-boyfriend. (Again, if you read any tabloid magazines back in 2006, these names will be all too familiar.) Davis railed against Lohan in a video, calling her “firecrotch” and that she “sh*ts freckles”.

“I think she’s worth about $7 million, which mean she’s really poor,” Davis added. “It’s disgusting. She lives in a motel.”

And thus begins the Hilton-Lohan feud. After that video hit TMZ, Lohan left an angry voicemail for Hilton. “I would never fight with a girl over a guy,” Lohan told Elle. “It’s bad karma.”

She also told Elle she hadn’t watched the TMZ video, which also featured racist insults against Lohan’s ex-boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama, and that she would “never see it”. But Lohan couldn’t help herself, and lobbed a vicious clapback to Hilton over her sex tape in the same interview. “Obviously, she’s very comfortable making videos,” Lohan said.

A widely publicised feud between Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton kicked off in 2006.

The feud, which lasted several months, kicked off after Brandon Davis mouthed off against Lohan, while Hilton appeared to be laughing in the background.

Both began using the paparazzi against the other, telling photographers of the insults each had hurled at the other. Lohan accused Hilton of throwing a drink at her, while Hilton said Lohan called her a c**t. “I never said that,” Lohan hit back. “I love Paris. Paris is my friend.”

THE TRUTH ABOUT THAT 2006 PICTURE

Then came November 27. After months of feuding, Lohan turned up in paparazzi images alongside Hilton and Spears. It seemed to hint at a reunion between the two and an end to the bitterness.

This was the famous 2006 picture that hinted at an end to the feud.

But according to Hilton, Lohan wasn’t even supposed to be there. All three of them had attended a party at the Beverly Hills Hotel before moving to Guy’s for an after-party.

When Hilton and Spears decided to leave, Lohan “started chasing us … and squeezed into the car,” Hilton told Andy Cohen’s radio show.

“I didn’t want to humiliate her in front of all the paparazzi and be like ‘get out of my car’, so I was like, ‘whatever’,” Hilton said.

It might go some way to explaining why Spears and Hilton didn’t turn up to Lohan’s 2017 birthday party, even though she invited them (and, um, Beyonce) on Twitter. “#nicegirls @britneyspears @parishilton come to #mykonos for my birthday this weekend @Beyonce you too,” Lohan wrote. The tweet has since been deleted.

This tweet has since been deleted.

BITTERNESS AND BARS

In 2007, both Lohan and Hilton served time out of the public eye, Hilton in prison for violating probation and Lohan in rehab. By early 2009, something had shifted in the Lohan-Hilton relationship. The heiress told Glamour they were back on as friends.

“I saw her a month ago and she was really sweet and seemed really happy and we’re all adults now,” she said.

The next year, grainy images of Hilton and Lohan kissing made headlines, not for the smooch but for the syringes that were seen in the picture.

By 2011, the feud was back on. On Hilton’s reality show The World According to Paris, the socialite called Lohan a thief, after a woman accepting donations from Hilton confused her with Lohan. “If I was Lindsay, I’d be stealing the earrings, not giving them away,” Hilton fired off.

Hilton’s feud continued into the 2010s, after she accused Lohan of being a thief.

At a 2012 masked ball hosted by Lady Gaga, Lohan “freaked out” when she saw Hilton at the party. “Neither knew the other would be there,” the New York Post ’s Page Six reported. “And when Lindsay first saw Paris, she just stepped back with these big eyes. She was shaking her head and kept repeating ‘No, no I can’t.’”

All was quiet on the Western Hollywood front until 2013 when Hilton’s younger brother Barron, then 24, was assaulted at a party in Miami. According to TMZ, Lohan screamed at Barron: “You talk sh*t about me to my boyfriend, this is what you get.” Then, writer Ray Lemoine hit Barron. Others sources, though, told Page Six that Barron threw the first punch and that Lemoine was acting in self-defence. No charges were laid.

Not in the court of Hilton opinion, though. The heiress blasted her former confidante on social media. “They both will pay for what they did,” Hilton wrote on Instagram. “No one f**ks with my family and gets away with it.”

THE FUTURE LOOKS BLEAK

Since then, the bad blood between the pair has soured further.

Last year, Hilton called Lohan a “pathological liar”. She added: “Just saying a fact. Fact of life. Good luck to her. I wish her the best.”

Later that year, Hilton revealed that simply didn’t want to have a relationship with Lohan anymore. “Back in the day we were friends, but she’s just one of those people I don’t really trust,” Hilton said. “I only like to be around positive energy and good people.”

It appears the feud between Lohan and Hilton shows no sign of abating.

Hannah-Rose Yee is a freelance writer. Continue the conversation @hannahroserose