Paris Hilton filming a scene for her music album, 'Stars Are
Blind'.
Photo Credit: Cliff Malia Sobel/Splash News
Paris Hilton is not a very happy woman these days thanks to a prank
by"guerrilla artist"Banksy who has replaced hundreds of her debut music album
CDs with his own remixes.
And, to make matters worse, Banksy has not only replaced song names with his
own titles such as Why am I Famous?, What Have I Done? and What Am I For?, but
has also changed her picture on the CD sleeve, thanks to which Paris is now
topless, with a dog's head.
A spokeswoman for Banksy confirmed that the "artist" had doctored 500 copies
of Hilton's debut album 'Paris' in 48 record shops across the UK.
"He switched the CDs in store, so he took the old ones out and put his
version in," the BBC quoted her, as saying.
As to what helped Banksy get away with the prank, well it seems that he left
the original barcode so people could buy the CD without realising it had been
interfered with.
A spokesman for HMV said that the chain had recovered seven CDs from two
music shops in Brighton, and added that no customers had complained or returned
a doctored version.
"It's not the type of behavior you'd want to see happening very often. I
guess you can give an individual such as Banksy a little bit of leeway for his
own particular brand of artistic engagement," he said.
"Often people might have a view on something but feel they can't always
express it, but it's down to the likes of Banksy to say often what people think
about things. And it might be that there will be some people who agree with his
views on the Paris Hilton album," the spokesman added.
A spokesman for Virgin Megastores also confirmed the stunt, and said that its
staff was now scouring for the doctored CDs which were proving to be extremely
hard to locate.
"I have to take my hat off - it's a very good stunt," the spokesman said.
Music CDs are not the only things that Banksy is notorious for doctoring, for
he's also pulled similar stunts with classic paintings at major art galleries.
