The Misadventures of Celebrity Impersonators

Feb. 21, 2006 — -- As long as Natalie Reid is around, you can't call Paris Hilton the biggest phony in the celebrity world. Reid gets choice tables at five-star restaurants, upgrades on airlines, and all sorts of freebies just by letting people mistake her for the "Simple Life" star.

Reid took New York Fashion Week by storm earlier this month when she showed up in a short dress with dark sunglasses and a bejeweled cell phone, fooling paparazzi and scoring a front row seat at the Nicole Miller fashion show next to David Lee Roth. The 21-year-old aspiring actress receives as much as $2,000 to appear at events as a celebrity impersonator.

And while Reid says she never misrepresents herself, she's quite happy to be treated -- and spoiled -- like the hotel heiress.

"I just put on something really cute and put on some makeup. It's so easy," Reid told The Associated Press after the event, clutching her pet Chihuahua. "I don't study her at all. I just feed off other peoples vibes."

Covered in faux fur and bogus bling-bling, this ersatz heiress works for Screaming Queens Entertainment, a company that books look-alikes for Cher, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Prince and Lucille Ball, among others, for corporate events and parties, with costs ranging from $750 to $2,000 an appearance.

The market for Elvis impersonators might still be bigger, with more than 200 men who would be king swiveling their hips and snarling their lips on stages large and small across the country. But Reid's instant success certainly proves the main advantage of being a Hilton clone -- you don't have to even pretend to sing or dance.

If you're skinny, blond and flaunting a lot of flesh, you, too, might be able to approximate the "Simple Life."

Reid says she even met up with Hilton at New York's Marquee nightclub. "She was right in front of me with her new boyfriend," Reid says. "She turned around, and she giggled, and she was like, 'Oh, you look so much like me. That's so hot.'"

Nevertheless, in this age of celebrity, there's a doppelganger for nearly every star, and some of them have proved to be more like evil twins. Hilton might be happy to have Reid as an impersonator, if her biggest transgression is accepting some free tickets and stealing a few seconds in the spotlight.