Celebrity Payola: A Hollywood Quid Pro Quo Gets Dragged Into Court

Oct.. 16, 2006 — -- Hollywood's trendy Robertson Boulevard, where the stars go to shop, the paparazzi go to snap, and ordinary women spend their money to get a taste of fame.

Kitson is the store at the epicenter of Hollywood's secret money machine, where relationships of convenience between retailers, publishers and celebrities make everyone rich off the quest for Hollywood cool.

If you haven't heard of Kitson, chances are your teenage daughter has. After all, this is where Paris Hilton shopped in "The Simple Life."

And in real life, Paris, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Simpson have been seen lugging shopping bags filled with booty from the much-hyped boutique.

So how do these photos generate so much money? Celebrities are photographed shopping at stores like Kitson, and the photos are then published in magazines such as Us Weekly and In Style, which tell readers exactly where they can buy the designs.

"Every designer, every store owner wants to be affiliated with celebrity now," says Janice Min, editor in chief of Us Weekly. "When you're looking at woman in middle America, any woman in America, she is not turning to Kate Moss for her fashion cues; she's not turning to Christy Turlington for her fashion cues. Those days are long gone. She's looking to women she can relate to, and whether it's delusional or not, woman feel they can relate to celebrities."

Frasier Ross, a Toronto native, came to Los Angeles to open Kitson with the aim, he says, of providing celebrity style to everyday Americans.

"We want them to feel like a celebrity when they come through here and that's what we try and do," Ross says. "And they can stand over there where Nicole Ritchie bought that bracelet, or look at Jessica Simpson's shoes that she picked up. hey saw it in People magazine and they want this bracelet."

Stores reap financial benefits when a star is snapped wearing their products -- and the benefits are substantial.