Xavier G. Campos

Paris Hilton was 19 when her boyfriend Rick Salomon filmed them having sex. He was 13 years older and kept pushing until she gave in. Two years later the tape leaked online, right before her show The Simple Life premiered on Fox. Then Salomon sold the full version to a porn studio. It opened with a dedication to the victims of 9/11. It became the best-selling porn title of the year. Paris says she never made a dollar from it. And later the same man married Pamela Anderson. Twice. Paris met Rick Salomon at 18. He was a poker player in his thirties. In her 2023 memoir she writes that he kept asking to film them in bed. He told her that if she wouldn't do it, "he could easily find someone who would." "I got hammered, and I did it." He shot it on a night-vision camera on a tripod. He promised it was just for them. In 2003 Paris was in Australia when her manager called. A 37-second clip of her having sex was all over the internet. The Simple Life premiered days later to 13 million viewers. In 2004 Salomon sold the full 45-minute tape to Red Light District Video. It came out on June 15 as "1 Night in Paris." The first frame read: "In memory of 9/11/01... We will never forget." Paris sued for $30 million for invasion of privacy. The court threw the case out. In 2005 she settled for $400,000 plus a cut of sales and said she'd give it to charity. "I never received a dime from the video." Salomon reportedly made around $10 million from it. At the 2005 AVN Awards "1 Night in Paris" won Best Selling Title of the Year and Best Renting Title of the Year. Salomon married Shannen Doherty in 2002. The marriage lasted nine months. In 2007 he married Pamela Anderson, whose own sex tape had been stolen and sold a decade earlier. That marriage was annulled within months. In 2014 they married again. In the divorce he paid Pamela $1 million. Paris Hilton never writes his name in her memoir. She calls him "Scum." In 2021 she said the tape is "something that will hurt me for the rest of my life." He made millions off one night and married Pamela Anderson. She got a tape she can never erase. Some lessons are written in other people's mistakes. Watch it once. Remember it forever.