Paris Hilton and Vanessa Fontana

Best Friends Forever on Reality TV

I was in Washington State at the time, but just happened to be leaving on a cruise out of LA five days later, so before I hopped on the cruise ship, I did the live audition. They called me and 17 others out of a pack of 200,000 and the rest is history. I knew Paris from the tabloids and media re the sex tape, but otherwise I didn't know too much about my soon-to-be best friend.

I uploaded a picture of myself to the Paris BFF website. Casting called me the next day to come to a live audition in LA. As for the competition, the makeover was pretty dramatic, but it pushed me out of my comfort zone. The best part of the experience was getting to make new friends. I talk to almost all the girls weekly. The worst aspect of the show was the all-night challenge, staying up for 35 hours.

Reality television is “real," for the most part. Sometimes the producers came by and said, "Vanessa, I just wanted to let you know that Brittany was talking about you, so if you want to say anything about her, now’s your time.” You end up dissing her, even though she didn’t say anything. They have to make the show more interesting, but sometimes they take a line totally out of context.

The show made me out to be a bit of a stalker, but Paris didn't think so otherwise I wouldn't have been invited to her Christmas party. She has a dance club in her house, where we watched the finale.

Paris never sleeps: she’s promoting her shoe line, her hair product line, her perfume line, her purse line, her new movies. She’s a mogul, to say the least. It’s hard to find real people in LA. There’s a lot of plastic out here.

In the final episode, I walked into the hotel and had no idea whether I’d be meeting with Paris. The room was filled with flowers. I walked up to the letter, opened it and it said she wanted to be my friend, just not my best friend. Luckily I don’t need the "Paris BFF" title to feel like I’m one of Paris’ best friends.