In a Nov. 13 story, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that Paris Hilton was praised by conservationists for highlighting the problem of binge-drinking elephants in northeastern India. Lori Berk, a publicist for Hilton, said she never made any comments about helping drunken elephants in India. Link
From the original article:
GAUHATI, India (AP) — With Rwanda off her charity calendar, Paris Hilton has turned her attention to the plight of … drunken elephants in India.
“The elephants get drunk all the time. It is becoming really dangerous. We need to stop making alcohol available to them,” the 26-year-old socialite was quoted as saying by the World Entertainment News Network’s Web site.
In the wake of her jail term for an alcohol-related reckless driving case, Hilton is seeking to remake her image from club-hopping party girl to world-traveling do-gooder. She announced plans to do charity work in Rwanda, but the trip was postponed until next year.
Then opportunity for Hilton’s “global elephant campaign” knocked last month when six parched pachyderms broke into a farm in the state of Meghalaya and guzzled farmers’ homemade rice beer. The elephants went on a rampage, then uprooted an electricity pole and were jolted to death…
WENN is not exactly a reliable outlet when it comes to celebrity scoops. We’ve published two previous posts about salacious WENN stories that were later retracted. See here and here. AP and other media outlets should not be publishing “scoops” from WENN without doing some independent verification.
