Kardashian, it seems, is almost wired for fame. A preschool classmate of Paris Hilton, she grew up under the glare and privilege of Beverly Hills, getting an up-close view of Hollywood's pleasures and pitfalls. Her father, the founder of Movie Tunes, Inc., a music and marketing company, was a prominent attorney. A close friend for many years of O.J. Simpson, Robert was one of the football star's defense lawyers during his murder trial. In fact, it was the attorney's home that Simpson left during the famous Ford Bronco police chase shortly before his arrest. Robert Kardashian died from cancer of the esophagus in October 2003.
Kardashian's mother, Kris, a children's boutique shop owner and TV personality, travels in celebrity circles herself. In 1991, two years after divorcing Robert, she married 1976 Olympic star, Bruce Jenner. The couple has two children together.
According to Kardashian, her childhood was hardly the stuff of stardom. Sunday church was regular part of family life. So was the expectation among the Kardashian children that, once they each reached the age of 18, living off the family dime was no longer an option. While attending an exclusive Catholic girls' high school, Kim Kardashian worked for her father's company. When he died, the corporation was left to her and her siblings. They've since sold it. "We grew up with privilege so we knew our standards were high...[and] if we wanted to keep it, we had to work hard," she has said.
For Kim Kardashian, that has translated into a number of different things, from wardrobe stylist to actress. She's even stepped into the business world herself, forming Kimsaprincess Productions, LLC., which has seen the release of three successful workout videos starring—you guessed it—Kim Kardashian.
In 2006, Kardashian went back into business with her family when she and her two sisters opened the boutique shop D-A-S-H (derived from the family's last name) in Calabasas, California. A showcase of the owners' own personal styles, the store features some of the sisters' favorite American designers.
In early 2007, a video of Kardashian and the rapper in bed made it into the hands of Vivid Entertainment, a large adult film company. Vivid, which paid $1 million for rights to the 30-minute tape, widely promoted the release of the video, which it called Kim Kardashian Superstar. Kardashian quickly countered with legal action, suing for invasion of privacy. But in May 2007, three months after the video's debut,
she agreed to a $5 million settlement.
"It definitely puts you in a category that I would wish upon no one," Kim Kardashian later said on The Tyra Banks Show. "Your reputation is all that you have, and if people prejudge you over something that you did, than that kind of sticks with you a long time."
Around the time of the video's release, Kardashian started making her way onto the television screen for something completely different, when the E! Network debuted a new reality TV series called Keeping up with the Kardashians.
Produced by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, the show follows the lives of Kim, her sisters, her brother Robert Jr., Bruce and Kris Jenner, and the couple's two young daughters, Kendall and Kylie. In one memorable episode from the first season, Kim discusses with her family an offer from Playboy to appear nude in the magazine. Kardashian eventually agreed to do it, and bared it all for the publication in the December 2007 issue.
Which, in a way, represents just how far Kardashian has come in terms of confidence about her own body. A big part of the Kardashian brand is her curves, something she wasn't always so enamored with, she admits. "I used to say my prayers before bed and pray I would stop developing," she told Playboy. That's apparently changed. "You always see the typical skinny models and I'm not that and I'm proud not to be that," she said following the shoot..................
............TO BE CONTINUED
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