Posted on 09/03/2006 9:36:14 AM PDT by finnman69
Hundreds of Paris Hilton albums have been tampered with in the latest stunt by "guerrilla artist" Banksy. Banksy has replaced Hilton's CD with his own remixes and given them titles such as Why am I Famous?, What Have I Done? and What Am I For?
He has also doctored pictures of her on the CD sleeve to show the US socialite topless and with a dog's head.
A spokeswoman for Banksy said he had doctored 500 copies of her debut album Paris in 48 record shops across the UK.
She told the BBC News website: "He switched the CDs in store, so he took the old ones out and put his version in."
It might be that there will be some people who agree with his views on the Paris Hilton album HMV spokesman
But he left the original barcode so people could buy the CD without realising it had been interfered with. Banksy is notorious for his secretive and subversive stunts such as sneaking doctored versions of classic paintings into major art galleries.
His spokeswoman said he had tampered with the CDs in branches of HMV and Virgin as well as independent record stores.
He visited cities including Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and London, she added.
A spokesman for HMV said the chain had recovered seven CDs from two Brighton shops but was unaware that other locations were affected.
Artistic leeway
No customers had complained or returned a doctored version, he said.
"It's not the type of behaviour you'd want to see happening very often," he said.
"I guess you can give an individual such as Banksy a little bit of leeway for his own particular brand of artistic engagement.
"Often people might have a view on something but feel they can't always express it, but it's down to the likes of Banksy to say often what people think about things.
"And it might be that there will be some people who agree with his views on the Paris Hilton album."
A spokesman for Virgin Megastores said staff were searching for affected CDs but it was proving hard to find them all.
"I have to take my hat off - it's a very good stunt," he added.
Greatest understatement since Hirohito said that "the war had not necessairly developed to Japan's advantage."
(chuckle...)
This publicity will put more zillions into her coffers.
Shrewd operators like Hilton and her handlers cash in big-time from the droolers and morons who make up the trashy element in our populace.
Leni
quite a cunning stunt
With her background and money she could have done so much better with her life. Instead she decides to behave like a wh*re.
I do believe some of them are in our midst! :)
I'm serious.
I do want to point out that I have never claimed to have good taste in music.
Leni
ping
The real fun would be if the doctored discs outsell the real ones. "Why am I Famous?" indeed!
"And it might be that there will be some people who agree with his views on the Paris Hilton album."
Interresting that no one's bothered to complain--maybe they like these ones, or even better, they cannot tell the difference! I love the fact that the store can't even find all the bogus music.
I have no love for Paris Hilton and would love to have one of the phony albums.
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