Lunch with Lydia

Lunch With Lydia | She's, like, so not like that

By LYDIA MARTIN

lmartin@MiamiHerald.com

Paris Hilton, willowy in a floor-length dress, speaks in a certain sing-song that comes and goes as she munches on fruit at the Shore Club's Ago.

She can so speak in that little girl high-pitched thing where everything ends, like, in a question mark? And she can speak straight, punctuating thoughts with periods, her voice a normal grown-up pitch.

The shifts are not so pronounced you notice them right away. But they're definitely there. The stuff about one of her Chihuahuas just having three puppies, all ``reaaally cute,'' named Dolce, Gabbana and Prada? High-pitched. The stuff about her new CD, Paris, produced by the super-hot Scott Storch and dropping Tuesday? Normal voice.

After lunch, you ask her to record a shoutout for MiamiHerald.com and she obliges: ``Hey, what's up Miami? It's Paris Hilton . . .''

Afterward she tells you, in a tone markedly less heliumy, that she has just used her TV voice. ``I think my real voice is too low. I use the higher-pitched voice because, I don't know, I think it's sexier.''

You assure her her regular voice is not too low at all, and sexier. And she thanks you. Because Paris may play at being a wild party girl, but she's also proper. She offers a firm handshake, looks you in the eye the whole time she's talking, answers questions thoughtfully.

Even questions about the infamous sex video - and this new thing about her staying celibate for a year.

``I decided to be single for a year. But I have never been the type of person who would just sleep with someone. I'm just not that way.''

Yes, it still bothers her that people thought of her ``that way'' after the sex video made the Internet rounds.

``I hate that people think a certain way about me because of one situation with someone I had been with for three years. It's not fair. It hurts my feelings that people think I'm like that. I want little girls to know I'm not like that. It was the most horrifying thing that has ever happened in my life. But I'm stronger now. I've learned not to trust everyone.''

You've clocked her at endless South Beach parties with her peeps. You were expecting the kind of disaffected that seems epidemic among The Young and The Somehow Famous.

But sitting here in a quiet corner at Ago, her hair a long mane of luminous blond, she seems far from her VIP room persona. She's easy enough to talk to. She may be a 25-year-old caught between girlhood and adulthood. She may still be searching for her voice, literally. But at least she's real enough to expose that about herself.

ON THE RECORD

And real enough to acknowledge what people say about her. She's in touch with all the disses, the stuff about her being famous for nothing. That's why this is a huge moment for her. She's excited about her work in the studio with Storch, who has produced everyone from Beyoncé and Christina Aguilera to Eminem, 50 Cent, Fat Joe, Snoop Dogg.

Paris, queen of the tabloids, doesn't have a problem telling you she hopes her musical debut will bring her some needed cred.

``People might be, `Oh, Paris Hilton is doing a record.' And I understand that. But at the same time people shouldn't prejudge me,'' she says gently. ``With this record, I really feel like I'm gonna show people that there's a lot more than they think and read about me. They're gonna see that I do have talent and I can do something.''

Early response to the CD has been favorable, and Paris is psyched about that. The tracks are cute enough, and deftly produced. Something the tweens and teens might just eat up. But more importantly, something Paris can be proud of.

IT'S AN ACT

``Some people only see me on The Simple Life where I'm playing this character who is vapid and not smart and talks in a baby voice. I think people assume that's how I really am. But that's just a character I'm playing and it's just for fun. Even on the record, I talk about boys fighting over me and all that. It's very tongue-in-cheek. I love to play with image. But I also took this record very seriously.''

Paris says she already had a deal with Warner Bros. Records before Storch joined the project.

``I was at Mansion in Miami and we were just hanging out and someone was like, `Scott Storch wants to meet you.' He came over and we hung out and went to the studio that night and he played me some beats and I was so excited. I had been in the clubs going, `Who produced this, and who produced that?' And every song that I liked was Scott Storch.''

Paris says she immediately moved to Miami for two months, working nightly with Storch at the storied Hit Factory studio in North Miami.

``There was a really great vibe there. Nelly Furtado and Timbaland were working next door so we would see them all the time and listen to their music. Or they would come and listen to mine. We'd be there till 5 in the morning. Once I'm in the studio, I just forget about everything else. I don't even bring my BlackBerry in.''

THE SOBE LIFE

Home is Los Angeles, but Paris has been a South Beach fixture for several years, sometimes clubbing for the simple fun of it, sometimes collecting hefty appearance fees. What people might not guess is that she's less about the nightlife and more about unplugged fun in the sun, she says.

``I'm staying at Scott's house and it's like a resort. There's a huge yacht outside and we go Jet Skiing. I love the ocean. I actually love the day life here much more than the nightlife.''

Not that she has anything against the nightlife.

``In New York and L.A., people just sit there and stare at each other. Nobody dances. But here everybody has fun. I was just at Pearl and we had so much fun.''

Paris figures she'll start spending even more time here now that her little sister Nicky is opening a boutique hotel on Ocean Drive called Nicky O.

``Have you seen the space? She really has great taste. I'm so excited,'' Paris says.

You tell her you've just hung out with Nicky and you want to know if it's true that they've never had any rivalry between them.

``We're really different but we're really close. But my two brothers are exact opposites of each other, too. The older one is more shy and the younger one is more like me. I mean, maybe Nicky and I fought about clothes or something when we were little kids. But we're adults now and we're best friends.''

In fact, Paris is sort of bummed because she planned to stay in Miami to attend a party launching Nicky's hotel venture, but instead she has to hop a jet to do a spot on some TV show promoting her new CD.

``I'm leaving tonight. I have to do Good Day L.A. or Good Day New York. Or maybe it's Good Morning New York. Whatever Matt Lauer is on,'' she says and laughs.

Perhaps she means it. Or perhaps she's just slipped back into her Simple Life persona.