"She's running a little late," comes the inevitable announcement from one of the swarm of attendants buzzing around the sleek, second-floor lounge of the W Hotel. "She" in this instance refers to Paris Hilton, who is in town on a publicity tour promoting her new movie, The Hottie and the Nottie, which comes out Friday.

EVANS CAGLAGE/DMN

Paris Hilton in Dallas promoting her movie, and Paris

Waiting for Paris is a game the world and, in particular, the media have been playing since the hotel-family heiress became one of the most famous and photographed women on the planet.

She's a party girl turned branding baroness whose every public appearance or private indiscretion is big business for the tabloid industrial complex.

As someone who makes his living writing about pop culture, the chance to meet with and interview Ms. Hilton, 26, is a daunting prospect.

On the one hand, it is the opportunity to journey into the heart of Parisness. She is the quintessential icon of this moment in pop culture – the most extreme experiment yet on the theory of fame based on being famous.

On the other hand, what do you talk to Paris Hilton about? If she were in a beauty pageant, she would be Miss NoThereThere, a status reflected in what was for a time her signature catchphrase, the almost expressionless expression, "That's hot."

It had become my riddle-of-the-Sphinx in the last couple of weeks since learning of my interview opportunity. And now, as the elevator whisks me up to the 14th-floor suite where Paris is just finishing her midday makeup touch-up session, the answer still eludes me.

It all turns out to have been needless worrying. Just outside the suite's door, I'm surrounded by various intermediaries, eager to tell me what I can talk to Paris Hilton about, mostly in the form of what I can't talk to Paris Hilton about.

"No questions about her private life. You're only allowed to ask her questions related to the movie," decrees Jonathon Aubrey, the regional rep for Regent Entertainment, the company releasing The Hottie and the Nottie. His anxiety, it is subsequently revealed, stems from the first interview of the day in which the interviewer concluded with a "gotcha" question about her inheritance. (Several Web sites and news outlets recently reported that Paris' billionaire grandfather opted to donate the bulk of his estate to charity.)

Of course, this sort of paranoid protectionism is silly. Paris' popularity is the sum of her scandals – the sex video, the celebrity feuds, the 23-day jail sentence, the post-prison pledge to reinvent herself, the announcement of a charity trip to Africa, the announcement of that trip's cancellation, on and on – it all boosts the Paris brand.

With it agreed that at the first sound of an unacceptable utterance, there will be an interview intervention, I am seated at what will be the left hand of Paris. Finally, the door to the adjacent room opens and, led by her assistant, she appears.

Whatever your opinion of Paris Hilton's hotness on-screen, in person she is indisputably striking. From her perfectly coiffed blond hair to her shiny red patent-leather shoes, she looks, for lack of a more precise term, perfect. She extends a flawlessly manicured hand while briefly flashing a display of cutting-edge teeth-whitening technology. She doesn't shake hands. She merely places her hand briefly in yours, allowing you to feel the inexpressible softness of skin that will never know calluses.

We begin by talking about – what else? – the movie that is her reason for being here, a comedy in which she plays a woman named Cristabel but who may as well be named Paris. She is rich and beautiful. She lives in Los Angeles and is pursued by countless men, all of whom are obsessed with her, but none of whom really know the "real" Paris, I mean, Cristabel.

"I think there are a lot of similarities with me and Cristabel. She's a very sweet character. I think that's a side people don't really see in me. I'm sweet. I have a big heart. I see people for who they really are, not for what they are on the outside, and that's a big message in the movie."

And so on. This is a recurrent theme in Paris' story about Paris, that people confuse Paris, the character she plays in the media, and Paris, the person she really is.

"People don't understand, that kind of ditzy-blonde stereotype, that's just a character I'm playing. That's not how I am. When I'm private with my family and friends, it's completely different than how I am in public.

"I am very sweet, though. That's not an act."

After a little more movie-related talk, with her describing how she felt she was "kind of channeling Marilyn Monroe in some of the scenes," I bring up the one question that would seem to hold any promise of an interesting answer.

"Why did you want to be famous?"

It's a serious question. We live in a culture obsessed with fame, in which everyone seems to walk around thinking of themselves as pre-celebrities, stars who just haven't become famous yet. Isn't that that the basis of American Idol and the reality-TV industry it has spawned? But for most people, fame is just a means to an end, a way to achieve that celebrity lifestyle of wealth and access and indulgence and privilege.

To listen to stars complain in interviews, fame is the endless hassle blighting their otherwise perfect lives – the private-life intrusions, the paparazzi. But that's the very aspect of celebrity to which Paris has devoted much of her life. So, when you already have the rich part of the lifestyle, why did you want the famous part?

"It wasn't really like I thought about it," she says. "We moved to New York City when I was 16. And me and my sister would go out, to clubs or whatever, and all of a sudden paparazzi are chasing me and writing about me. I was in high school.

"Look, I didn't want to be famous. I wanted to be a veterinarian. But when we moved to New York, it just happened. And from there, I decided that's what I did want to do. I love entertaining people. You know, everything I do pushes my brand. When I do movies, when I do music, it's all to push my business.

"So, basically I'm, I don't know, it's hard to explain. I'm a businesswoman. Everything I do is that."

OK, fine. But the follow-up is this: Are you famous enough yet? Paris Hilton is one of the most famous people on the planet. When you try to think of anyone who has moved farther out into the celebrity stratosphere, it's a short list of stories with mostly sad endings – Elvis, Marilyn, Princess Di, Michael Jackson. Have you reached the point, is there a point, where you want to say stop, this is far enough?

"I don't think about it at all. I don't know. I don't really see myself as that. When people say that to me, I just really don't even think about it. It's a weird thing."

Yes, it is. There's only one thing I can think to say in response to such utter, ineffable blankness.

"That's hot."