Is Paris as dumb as she seems?

It’s a conundrum, right? That blank bovine look. The endless stream of airhead quotes in US Weekly. The reality show about being stupid. And yet with little to no discernible talent besides dressing extremely expensively, Paris Hilton has managed to do what should be impossible: She’s become famous for no reason at all. Sure, the family’s millions and the emaciated body help, but there are plenty of skinny heiresses lunching on the streets of New York and LA. And so we begin to ponder the great question of our age: Is it possible to be super dumb and super successful, or are those vacant eyes just a facade? Is Paris Hilton a secret smarty?

“I don’t think she’s even a secret smarty,” says Perez Hilton, founder of the gossip site perezhilton.com that chronicles the lives of the rich and beautiful. But to be fair, he may not be the most objective source: he quickly informs us that he has been an official Friend of Paris (FOP?) for nine months and running. “We talk everyday and see each other about once a week,” he says. “We have a genuine friendship.”

Perez thinks the socialite knows exactly what she’s doing. “She is very media savvy,” he says. “She has a baby doll voice that she puts on camera and TV a lot of time, but the smart, different, real Paris doesn’t talk like that. It’s all a bag of tricks.”

That’s not how David Hausleib, editor and writer of Jossip.com sees things. He is a straight up Paris detractor. “Yes. Paris Hilton is an idiot is what it comes down to,” he says.

According to Hausleib it is the heiress’s army of lawyers, flacks, stylists and advisors who are responsible for taking a dumb rich girl and turning her into a worldwide phenomenon. “Paris has an army of very talented handlers surrounding her when it comes to spinning her quotes on her music career and her fragrance and shaping her public image,” he says. “Some will argue it is not executed too successfully because we have endless paparazzi shots of her crashing her car and doing stupid things, but she’s on the cover of every magazine so they are doing something right. “

But Mark Lisanti, the secretly nice guy behind Defamer.com, thinks that Paris is somewhat responsible for her dizzying success. He also thinks she’s dumb. “You know what? This is probably the answer, she’s an idiot savant,” he says after mulling the question for a while. “I have heard anecdotally that what you see is what you get, which destroyed my theory that she was a super genius that was playing the public for laughs.

Lisanti acknowledges it is probable that Paris has somebody working for her that is pulling the strings, but says her gift for keeping her name in the press is undeniable and hers alone. “I think idiot savant,” he reiterates. “The talent being publicity whoring, and that is certainly worth something. She has a good income based on that. Better than mine certainly.”