A Little of Paris in Boston

Last week, Paris Hilton accepted the Lampoon's Woman of the Year award from Harvard University. Boston.com reports:

What's to recommend Britney Spears's ex-buddy for such an accolade? Here's a hint: It's not the videotape she famously made with Rick Salomon.

"They're honoring me for being in business and my acting," Hilton explained to us. (The Lampoon "award" is also a not-so-subtle jab at the high-minded Hasty Pudding Theatricals, which is giving its Woman of the Year Award to Oscar-winner Charlize Theron today and honoring actor Christopher Walken next week.)

Hilton's visit touched off something of a bidding war among local hotels. Originally booked to stay two nights at the Four Seasons, Hilton and her entourage switched at the last minute to the Liberty Hotel, where she was put up in its $5,500-a-night presidential suite at no charge. (We're told the staff stocked her room with pink flowers, fancy bath balms, and her favorite soda: Coca-Cola.) And Hilton seemed pleased that her mug shot is one of several celebrity booking photos hanging on the wall of the Liberty bar, Alibi, site of the former Charles Street Jail. Yesterday afternoon, she signed her mug shot and posed for a photo with Lindsey Lohan's."

The Liberty Hotel may be a celeb magnet now, but it has also been used as a filming location for works such as the Boondock Saints and The Boston Strangler.