New Hollywood 2011

Born into wealth and privilege, Olivia Palermo’s mother is an interior decorator and her father is a prominent New England real-estate developer. She has attended some of the finest private schools money can buy including St. Luke’s School in New Canaan, Connecticut, and the all-female Nightingale-Bamford School on New York’s Upper East Side (one of the nation’s elite university-preparatory schools). Currently Olivia Palermo takes classes at The New School, one of New York’s most distinguished private universities.

Prior to working in PR for Diane von Furstenberg, Olivia Palermo spent a year in France, a short time in Los Angeles, and she interned at the society magazine Quest.

Olivia Palermo’s life as a New York socialite began when she was photographed at a Sotheby’s auction in 2006. Thanks to her extraordinary beauty, her profile grew quickly. Then a mysterious website appeared entitled SocialiteRank.com that published a ruthless biweekly ranking of the young women who appeared at A-list parties and charity events. Palermo’s profile grew, along with a feeling that she was nothing more than a petty social climber who hadn’t paid her dues.

SocialiteRank.com then published an e-mail purportedly written by Olivia Palermo apologizing for her behavior and begging to be accepted by the scene’s elite. She became a laughingstock, ridiculed by the site and by her peers. However, she denied ever writing the e-mail and hired a top litigation firm with a view toward suing for libel and defamation of character.

Despite a number of early denials, in September 2008, Olivia Palermo joined MTV’s reality-based series The City. Some New York social insiders claim that her decision to join the MTV show is proof positive of her poseur status, since no “genuine” Upper East Side privileged child would expose her family name to the scrutiny.

Whatever the case, Olivia Palermo is getting more national publicity than the combined New York scene, reminding us of the old Mae West line: “It’s better to be looked over than overlooked.”