Paris Hilton's been carded—and she's not pleased about it.
The 26-year-old heiress has filed a lawsuit against Hallmark, alleging that the company used her image without permission and invaded her privacy by including her mug and signature phrase, "That's hot," on a greeting card. (View the complaint.)
The card in question purports to show "Paris' first day as a waitress," and has Hilton's face superimposed on a cartoon body, as she hands a plate to a customer and warns, "Don't touch that, it's hot." The customer asks, "What's hot?" to which Hilton-as-waitress replies, "That's hot."
(Look for it in the "not funny at all" card section of your local store.)
According to Hilton's complaint, the card went on sale earlier this year and can still be purchased for the bargain price of $2.49.
It is one of three recent Hallmark designs featuring Hilton. Another shows a cartoon of the former Simple Life star behind bars and clutching a small dog, with copy reading, "The really, really, really, really simple life." On the inside, the card wishes its recipient a "really, really, really, really happy birthday."
Hilton is seeking at least $500,000 in damages and a permanent injunction barring Hallmark from any further use of her name and image.
In happier Hilton news, the hotel namesake recently traded her 3,000-square-foot West Hollywood pad for an almost 7,000-square-foot mansion in the gated Mulholland Estates section of Beverly Hills.
Hilton shelled out a reported $5.9 million for the home, which features five bedrooms, five and a half baths and a fitness room that the fashion fanatic plans to convert to a shoe closet, per the Wall Street Journal.
The extra space will come in handy if Hilton follows through on her stated goal of starting a family in the near future.
"I want kids next year, so I've got to get my body ready," the heiress told British Elle in a recent interview, explaining her new devotion to an exercise regime that includes Pilates and horseback riding on the beach.
Hilton is currently in Toronto, where she's shooting the film Repo! The Genetic Opera and making the rounds of the 32nd annual Toronto International Film Festival.
The festival should give her the opportunity to rub shoulders with plenty of her Hollywood ilk, including Brad Pitt, who recently dissed her "quest for fame," calling it "blissfully oblivious."
In a new interview with Details, the actor recalled returning to the United States after not having seen television for a month and switching on CNN to catch up on the news.
"And on comes Paris Hilton, going to jail," he remembered. "And so we just turned it off again."
If only it were always so easy.