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And suddenly Paris Hilton’s Hello Kitty fixation makes perfect sense!

Hilton is all about the puss, so much so that Sanrio even created an HK character in her likeness! (Sorry kids, the plush version of the heirhead was only available in Japan. Although if you’re desperate to cuddle Paris at bedtime [insert joke to the effect of "You'd have to be desperate..." here], maybe try eBay? No luck at my end, though I did come across this hella fantastic two-slice, bagel-friendly toaster.)

But there’s more to the Kitty than a blank permasmile and a gung ho marketing team with an eye on commercial expansion (ummm… is anyone else seeing the eerie similarities between Hilton and her idol? What’s next? Will Paris move in on bad boy Badtz Maru? Oh man! There’s already a tape, isn’t there?

Hello Kitty is apparently also being used now to indicate shame. Wait. What? There was a great article in the New York Times last week about an initiative of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok, Thailand and how Hello Kitty is being used as almost a wearable punishment for bad behaviour.

Fed up with a wayward police force — who enforce anti-litter regs, but drop their own garbage on the street, and park in no park zones — who were hardly acting like pillars of the community, the division introduced a Hello Kitty armband. The armband (it’s pink, natch) is to be worn by misfit officers, wrapped prominently round the bicep. The logic behind the bands – ten of which had been prepared at the time the article went to print – is that they will humiliate police men enough to nudge them onto the straight and narrow.

The super cute uniform adornment is said to have “scared” the “macho” officers. Okay. Great for them, but what happens when vacant, point-missing, should-be embarrassed trendistas see the band and think, “That’s hot!”?

And yet I’d kinda want that toaster… I know, I know, I should be ashamed of myself.

Posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 at 5:44 pm by Liz and is filed under Celebrities & Pop Culture.

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