Red Carpet Underworld

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Chris Polk, FilmMagic / Getty Images Six Degrees of Paris Hilton takes readers on a wild ride through the life of Darnell Riley—murderer, extortionist and debt collector who worked his way into the social circle of the Hollywood heiress. An interview with author and TruTV host Mark Ebner.

Most journalists would rather interview A-list celebrities than dour economists, but the Hollywood beat is not always so glamorous. Mark Ebner, bestselling author and TruTV host, has made a career of dredging up stories from Hollywood’s shadows. Yesterday saw the release of Six Degrees of Paris Hilton: Inside the Sex Tapes, Scandals, and Shakedowns of the New Hollywood (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, $24.95), which connects the titular heiress to various denizens of the blood- and drug-soaked underworld.

The story centers around Darnell Riley, an extortionist, debt collector and double-murderer who is currently incarcerated for holding Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis at gunpoint for six hours, sexually humiliating him on camera, and demanding more than $500,000 to keep the video offline. Riley inexplicably worked his way into Paris Hilton’s social circle. (When Hilton learned that he had killed two people, she supposedly replied, “That’s hot,” according to one of Ebner’s sources.)

I have been on the story for a stressful three years now—but, as I always say, “Suicide by media can take a lifetime.” I only hope that I don’t see the bullet coming.

Riley claims he had sex with Hilton and fellow Simple Life star Nicole Richie—who denies knowing him—and facilitated the deal for the infamous 1 Night in Paris home video. The New York Post reported that he blackmailed Hilton for $20,000 per month over a tape of her using the N-word, and Hilton was subsequently responsible for Riley’s arrest over the Francis tape, according to Ebner. (Hilton threatened to sue over the book, but “scotched that idea out of concern that Darnell Riley would kill her,” Ebner told BigHollywood.com.)

The book follows Riley’s rise from teenaged jewel thief to Hollywood high-lifer who cavorted—or supposedly cavorted—with the likes of Mickey Rourke, Denzel Washington, Robert Downey, Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio, Fergie, Naomi Campbell, Christina Ricci, Pauly Shore, Donatella Versace and Pamela Anderson. It’s an incredible story, and Ebner takes the reader on a whirlwind tour from the red carpet to the federal penitentiary.

You exchanged more than 70 letters with Riley and conducted numerous jailhouse interviews with him. He even gave you access to his cellphone, which contains text messages from Hilton’s former number. Why did he trust you with his story?

Darnell Riley had actually been reading my stuff from behind bars—unlike most of the characters in the book, he actually reads—and I think we came together out of respect for and curiosity about each other’s “work.” Darnell is smart enough to know that, by participating, he could literally tell his story. The others who wouldn’t speak to me missed the opportunity to explain themselves as “lovable rogues.”

Darnell emerges as a fascinating and complex character. He volunteers for charities—such as after-school reading programs—and can quote from memory To Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn, The Art of War, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Great Gatsby (a childhood favorite), and Plato’s Republic… yet he has robbed, blackmailed and killed people. Does he strike you as the “literary hero” he apparently considers himself?

I see him as a literary anti-hero in the same way Jimmy McNulty [of The Wire] and Vic Mackey [The Shield] are written as such for television.

Judging from your book, it seems as if the grass is always greener: The Hollywood crowd idolizes criminals—and craves proximity to their dangerous “authenticity” and “credibility”—while the criminals long for fame, desperately pitching their life stories to movie studios and paying the paparazzi to take their photos.

There’s the cliché about bank robbers going where the money is. The sociopaths featured in my book go to Hollywood, and their validation is the same: money. … The rich and famous people consorting with these dangerous interlopers don’t necessarily deserve what they get, but they do set themselves up for it—repeatedly.