by HMKGrey » Sun Sep 03, 2006 8:24 pm
<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Paris Hilton targeted in CD prank</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Hundreds of Paris Hilton albums have been tampered with in the latest stunt by "guerrilla artist" Banksy.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>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?<br><br>He has also changed pictures of her on the CD sleeve to show the US socialite topless and with a dog's head.<br><br>A spokeswoman for Banksy said he had doctored 500 copies of her debut album Paris in 48 record shops across the UK.<br><br>She told the BBC News website: "He switched the CDs in store, so he took the old ones out and put his version in."<br><br> It might be that there will be some people who agree with his views on the Paris Hilton album<br>HMV spokesman<br>But he left the original barcode so people could buy the CD without realising it had been interfered with.<br><br>Banksy is notorious for his secretive and subversive stunts such as sneaking doctored versions of classic paintings into major art galleries.<br><br>His spokeswoman said he had tampered with the CDs in branches of HMV and Virgin as well as independent record stores.<br><br>He visited cities including Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and London, she added.<br><br>A spokesman for HMV said the chain had recovered seven CDs from two Brighton shops but was unaware that other locations were affected.<br><br>Artistic leeway<br><br>No customers had complained or returned a doctored version, he said.<br><br>"It's not the type of behaviour you'd want to see happening very often," he said.<br><br>"I guess you can give an individual such as Banksy a little bit of leeway for his own particular brand of artistic engagement.<br><br>"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.<br><br>"And it might be that there will be some people who agree with his views on the Paris Hilton album."<br><br>A spokesman for Virgin Megastores said staff were searching for affected CDs but it was proving hard to find them all.<br><br>"I have to take my hat off - it's a very good stunt," he added.<br>Story from BBC NEWS:<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/5310416.stm">news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-...310416.stm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br><br>Pure genius. <br> <p></p><i></i>
