Kim Kardashian (Actor)

Kim Kardashian on Dancing With the Stars. (Photo: ABC)

About Kim Kardashian

At first blush, Kim Kardashian seemed indistinguishable from any of the 20-something actresses, models and socialites whose faces littered the pages of gossip magazines and web sites in the early millennium. Like so many of them, she had access to fabulous wealth, male companions of varying celebrity pedigrees, her own reality series and an uncanny ability to appear wherever the paparazzi were swarming at any given moment. But what separated Kardashian from that maddening crowd was not so much what she did but what she had – to wit, an inordinately bountiful posterior that demanded and received cult-like worship from celebrity chroniclers. Prior to Kardashian’s arrival on the scene, only Jennifer Lopez’s rump had received so much devotion from so many admirers. However, unlike La Lopez, Kardashian appeared to have no problem showing off her back end in all its glories in a purloined bedroom videotape with second string R&B star Ray J. Star power and idol worship trumped any bad feelings that may have resulted from the video’s leak, allowing Kardashian’s grip on media coverage to not only continue unabated, but expand to other venues like feature films and television competitions.

She was born Kimberly Noel Kardashian in the exclusive San Fernando Valley community of Calabasas, CA on October 21, 1980. Her father was attorney Robert Kardashian, who gained infamy as the man who sheltered O.J. Simpson after the double murders of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman; and later as a member of his colossal legal team. Her mother was socialite Kris Houghton, who divorced Kardashian in 1989 before marrying Olympic legend, Bruce Jenner. Prior to his involvement in the Simpson case, Kardashian’s father had been out of the legal profession for almost two decades and was operating a music marketing firm called Movie Tunes. Kardashian worked there while attending Catholic school, and decided to follow in her father’s footsteps after his death in 2003. She struck out on her own as a wardrobe stylist for music commercials and video shoots, but apparently found her calling as a “closet designer” – one who organizes closets, it was assumed – after helping Bernadette Leonard, her godmother and wife to boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard, bring some order to her own storage areas.

Kardashian’s connections to the celebrity scene helped to bring her front and center on various red carpets and events, but she remained far afield from the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan in terms of coverage in the gossip publications. Even a high profile marriage to producer and songwriter Damon Thomas from 2000-04 did little to improve her standing among the real tabloid champs. All of that changed in 2006 with the “accidental” release of a graphic sex tape featuring her in explicit scenes with singer Ray J, whose claim to fame up until that point was a series of modest record successes and kinship with singer Brandy Norwell.

Though both side vehemently denied releasing the tape to the public, the actions of both Kardashian and Ray J indicated otherwise. Kardashian was glimpsed donning makeup prior to filming, and the erstwhile male star/cameraman issues an explicit warning to viewers of the tape. Regardless of the details, the footage was snapped up by Vivid Entertainment, one of the leading producers and distributors of American pornographic material, and released to the public in 2006. Kardashian released a statement that expressed her intent to block the DVD by legal means, but later settled for a $5 million payout for her troubles. The DVD went on to become one of the top-selling titles of the year, and the press that both preceded and followed its street date helped to put Kardashian in sharp focus with the press.

After the usual round of mea culpa over the tape in interviews, Kardashian soon found herself the subject of serious coverage by tabloid and entertainment news sources. Surprisingly, many of the write-ups passed over the sex tape story in favor of bigger news – namely, her behind. Scores of articles and blogs were devoted to guessing the size of her rear end, how it got to such a prodigious circumference, and whether it was supplemented by artificial means or not. For her part, Kardashian was happy to stand in profile or be captured in as many over the shoulder photographs as possible, passing off her attributes as genetic – in that being half Armenian, she was predisposed to a larger backside.

The fact that reams of words and pictures were being expended over Kardashian did not go unnoticed by television producers, who fell over themselves to find a vehicle on which to hang her ascending star. She was soon making appearances alongside Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie in “The Simple Life” (Fox/E!, 2003-05, 2007), as well as other reality shows like “Sunset Tan” (E!, 2007- ). But clearly, audience demand for more Kardashian coverage demanded that she earn a show of her own, and in 2007, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” (E!, 2007- ) replaced “The Simple Life” as E!’s flagship reality series.

Though pitched as a depiction of life at home with Kardashian, her mother and stepfather, and their extended brood, “Keeping Up” operated from that grey zone known as “semi-scripted” reality television, which meant that some of the “wacky” situations aired for viewers were concocted by a crack team of writers and not the product of the Kardashian’s day-to-day existence. For her part, Kardashian seemed largely removed from the chaos of her home life, which counted her sisters Kourtney and Khloe, brother Robert Jr., half-sisters Kendall and Kylie, and stepbrothers Burton, Brandon and Brody among its daily visitors. Her participation seemed limited to working at Dash, the clothing store she co-owned with her sisters, and commenting on the hijinks her sisters and mother seemed to stir up in each episode while Jenner cast disapproving glances like a sitcom dad. However, in true Kardashian fashion, there were a few racy moments to maintain interest, such as a 2007 photo shoot for Playboy and a sexy calendar layout intended for boyfriend and New Orleans Saints pro Reggie Bush which somehow gets sold to the public by her mother. Critics dismissed the program as one of the more pointless exercises in reality television, but its ratings soared with each subsequent season.

The added exposure allowed Kardashian to expand her “brand” to other venues as well. In 2008, she released her own exercise DVD, “The Kim Kardashian Workout: For Your Mind, Body and Spirit,” which was produced through her production company, Kimsaprincess Productions, and a signature fragrance was also announced. Later that same year, she was announced as one of the celebrity contestants on the seventh season of “Dancing with the Stars,” on which she was paired with professional dancer, heartthrob and Season 6 winner Mark Ballas. Kardashian was top-billed alongside such other marginal actresses as Carmen Electra and Vanessa Minnillo in “Disaster Movie” (2008), a kitchen-sink pop culture comedy that featured her in scenes spoofing World Wrestling Entertainment divas, among other soft targets.

Notes

On May 2, 2008, Kardashian released a workout DVD, "Workout with Kim Kardashian" with the help of trainer Kathy Kaehler.

Website is http://www.kimkardashian.com