the acid-tongued critic and former fashion designer has been ailing in recent years, preventing him from reading his 44th annual list aloud to the press.
But in an exclusive interview, Blackwell told AP Radio in Washington: "Paris came up shining with a big spotlight saying, 'Pick me!' She was just the most natural contender to make No. 1 this year."
Hilton, star of the Fox reality show "The Simple Life," became an inadvertent Internet icon when a homemade sex video she shot with her then-boyfriend made the rounds online.
"She does everything she can to be outrageous, everything she can to be over the top, everything she can to be too much and she succeeded -- and what she got from it was a great TV show," Blackwell told AP Radio.
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