Hollywood actress Paris Hilton will be getting a little something in the mail from Hallmark this year.The socialite has settled a lawsuit against the company over a greeting card that featured a scene seemingly ripped from her old reality show "The Simple Life."
The caption read "Paris's First Day as a Waitress" and made a pun on her trademarked catch phrase, "That's Hot." In 2007, Hilton sued, claiming her publicity rights had been violated.Last week, attorneys for Hilton and Hallmark advised a California judge that they had reached a settlement. A confidentiality provision limits the release of exact terms.The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which handed Hilton a huge legal victory last year. The appeals court rejected Hallmark's protected-speech argument and raised doubts that the greeting card was "transformative" expression.
The two sides have been preparing for a December trial. Evidence was being collected to ascertain the commercial value of Hilton's endorsement.Hilton's name will be stamped in law review articles discussing the tricky balance between publicity rights and the First Amendment-but we may never know exactly.