Six Degrees of Paris Hilton: Inside the Sex Tapes, Scandals, and Shakedowns of the New Hollywood

by Mark Ebner

In the burgeoning Hollywood club scene, where ecstasy dealers dine alongside celebrities, and illicit money bubbles up from below like the La Brea Tar Pits, a handsome double-murderer and ex-con of refined wit and taste charmed his way into young Hollywood's most elite social circles. Serving as their hired muscle and arbiter of street justice, he ultimately went on to expose their scandalous, hard-kept secrets -- all the while waging a criminal campaign against the ill-deserving rich and famous. Filled with sex, drugs, and sudden violence, Six Degrees of Paris Inside the Sex Tapes, Scandals, and Shakedowns of the New Hollywood is the shocking true tale of Darnell Riley, a well-mannered middle-class kid from Los Angeles who reinvented himself as a stone-cold gangster in the boxing gyms and bruising streets of South Central, before serving seven years for a double homicide at fifteen. Released at age twenty-three, he infiltrated a far more decadent crowd whose privileged lifestyle is familiar to most only in weekly magazines. During his six-year stab at Hollywood, Darnell ran with its It girls and bully He befriended Paris Hilton; was associated with multiple sex tapes; held Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis at gunpoint and humiliated him on camera; dated models; ran numbers; trafficked in drugs; carried out contract beatings; and "possibly" staged a daring series of home-invasion robberies, many of which were attributed to the infamous Bel-Air Burglar. In a potent real-life mix of Entourage and The Wire , award-winning journalist Mark Ebner follows Darnell's riveting story, from exclusive interviews conducted inside Corcoran State Prison, through the mean streets of Los Angeles, employing a Rogues Gallery of characters unrivaled in modern crime. The ultimate exposé of the greed, hypocrisy, and vulgarity behind Hollywood's new breed of feral rich and illicitly famous, Six Degrees of Paris Hilton is a front-row seat to the best show in town.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime

304 pages, Hardcover

First published November 25, 2008

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually a really good crime drama. Dont let the title fool you.

[Trey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid book. It kind of by necessity is all over the place, bouncing between a range of varied celebrities, criminals, and hangers-on in the Hollywood scene, but it's a very interesting look at the ways the entertainment industry is intertwined with the underworld -- gambling, robbery, clubs, drugs, et cetera. More interesting as a source of information than as a focused story. Worth your time, if like me, you're interested in both the workings of the intertainment industry and of the criminal world.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite a horrendous title, this is actually a very interesting book. The author is a former drug addict, turned tabloid reported, turned decent journalist. He spent time in Hollywood and was appalled at what goes on. He chronicles the case of a young, talented athlete, turned drug dealer to the stars. Yet another example of looks, money, privilege wasted.

[Christago · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty juicy book that will give you crazy gossip that you will never read on TMZ! There are a lot of slow parts though (took 60 - 70 pages before anything happened) and the authors style of writing at times was confusing. But if you like Hollywood and crime, this is the book for you!

[Matt Champagne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goes beyond what tabloids tell you. Tabloids show the bad behavior and excess, but they don't show the scary-ass criminal element that these celebs hang out with. There are frightening crooks in this.

[Hopelessdawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually an interesting book, once you get into it. The author is a former drug addict and the book is obviously about the things that go on behind the scenes in hollywood.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read. Learned some interesting tidbits!

[anthony Bergeron · Rating 1 out of 5]

For whatever reason I thought this might be interesting, instead it just reaffirmed my distaste for much of Hollywood and that "lifestyle".

[Lisa]

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