All this week, the confines of an unprepossessing building in North Hollywood have echoed to the sounds of what on first hearing might be taken for the muffled strains of some frightening act of domestic violence.In fact, this nondescript studio in a quiet suburban neighbourhood has been playing host to Paris Hilton as she prepares her latest assault on an unsuspecting public.
For the past two weeks the 'celebutante' has submitted herself to the intensive ministrations of a singing coach as she prepares to 'relaunch' her pop career.
If the evidence of an impromptu performance at a karaoke night in a Los Angeles club on Tuesday night is anything to go by, however, the ambitious Miss Hilton might be well advised to book some more lessons.
Displaying an unerring knack for mauling the classics, she warbled her way tunelessly through a series of hits including Bette Davis Eyes before launching into her own 'smash' - Stars Are Blind.
It's fair to assume on the basis of this display that any stars in the audience at the trendy Guy's nightclub might have wished themselves deaf, but such incidentals as talent have, of course, never put off the thrusting Paris.
This week the 26-year-old heiress - she of the ever- so- slightly bovine Barbie doll look - has been boasting about how she will earn £100 million this year from putting her famous name to everything from hair extensions to a stuffed version of her 'handbag dog' Tinkerbell.
"I'm developing my own hotels, casinos and clubs and getting into real estate. It's crazy at such a young age. I'm doing so much," she trilled.
They are claims that raise a quizzical eyebrow from those close to the blonde party girl. But, far from being ostracised in America over her drinkdrive jailing last month, business is booming for the socialite.
After her well-publicised histrionics as she was driven to jail, it now appears that a spell behind bars could be the best career move she ever made.
U.S. sources confidently predict she will quadruple the £3.5 million the business bible Forbes estimates she earned last year. Which is just as well because her behaviour has so appalled her grandfather and head of the Hilton clan, Barron Hilton, that he has cut off her £25 million inheritance.
