The Life You’re Not Living: Socialites Change Their Name, Are Still Dumb

Why is this in the Reuters business section? It’s a story about socialites not wanting to go by the name “socialite” anymore because people like Paris Hilton have given the term a negative connotation. We’re sorry, did anyone ever take rich girls who shop and go to parties all day seriously? Apparently.

Before Paris Hilton, being a socialite was a mark of prestige.

The word was coined in the 1930s by Maury Paul, the author of the Cholly Knickerbocker [Ed: Now that's a serious name.] society column for the Hearst newspapers, who used it to describe socially connected people who attended exclusive parties.

Prestigious! But they did more than snort coke off their own asses. Old school socialites partied for serious causes. Like literacy and the poors.

Brooke Astor and Nan Kempner, each for a time the reigning queen of New York City society, were beloved as serious philanthropists. In the 1980s, Astor made it glamorous to support the troubled New York Public Library, and she often visited poorer neighborhoods like Harlem.

What do you think she did there? Buy crack? Eat soul food? The mind reels.

Most high-profile socialites — men are almost never called socialites — now have an alternative title. Patricia Duff is a political fund-raiser, Fabiola Beracasa a jewelry executive.

And we still have no idea who these people are. Which, we suppose, makes us trash. Vive le differénce.

In New York, a socialite goes by any other name [Reuters]