Paris Hilton says Pete Doherty is her greatest influence. Be warned, the press leading up to her upcoming album is going to be frequent and ferocious. But as with many things in pop music, America will criticise, chatise and bemoan while being completely unable to look away. We're a bunch of rubberneckers, which explains why highbrow music snobs watch "American Idol." Pop criticism, ostensibly. That same love for pop criticism will keep Paris Hilton's music in headlines. Bloggers will eat it up, from the gossip blogs to the pop culture blogs to the music blogs.

And with that out of the way, here's some more info on the album (which doesn't have a public release date yet but May and June have been mentioned in the press). In The Observer Blog at The Guardian, Caspar Llewellyn Smith insists "there really are a couple of decent tunes" on the album, which is always possible when one "has been able to hire some of the biggest guns in the business." Sounds like Paris could replace Kelly Clarkson as the hipster's guilty pleasure of choice.

Those big guns include super-producer Scott Storch (pictured above, who said "the stuff is surprising" and "totally amazing"), ex-Go Go Jane Wiedlin (who said Paris "takes direction well and has no attitude whatsoever") and Le Tigre.