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Test Your KnowledgeBut is it all in the "family"? Heiresses and socialites, the iconic Paris Hilton, low-profile Athina Roussel, Casey Johnson, real estate brain Ivanka Trump and the wild child table dancers from Bijou Phillips to Megan Simmons. I'm not talking exclusive billions, but millionaires to billionaires. Not many people have heard of the Clares but I'm sure they have heard of the Trumps.
Fortune has long conferred fame. But recently, our obsession with the fabulously wealthy has spawned a new breed of celebrity: the beautiful and stylish billionaire heiresses. Sometimes called "celebutantes," these much-photographed trendsetters sit front row at fashion shows, take the most spectacular vacations, frequent the hippest nightclubs like Bungalow 8 (where a few rowdy ones have been known to get into cat fights) and regularly land in the tabloids.
The best-known celebutante is Paris Hilton, who ranked number 56 on our annual ranking of the world's 100 most powerful celebrities. Paris is the gold standard, flaunting her Hilton dollars with aplomb on her Simple Life reality show. Great-granddaughter of the hotel chain's founder, Conrad Hilton, she has managed to upstage the family's hotels with her regular appearances in the celebrity gossip rags and occasional stints as an actress and singer.
Other heiresses are creating their own stirs, including...
courtesy of Kroll and Vorasarun at Forbes.com
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Mary Kate Olsen
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Paris Hilton
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