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She’s loved, and she’s hated, but Paris Hilton’s biographer says that he feels sorry for her.

Biographer Jerry Oppenheimer, author of “House of Hilton – From Conrad to Paris: A Drama of Wealth, Power, and Privilege,” said he ended up feeling sorry for Hilton as he came to believe that her mother and maternal grandmother pushed her into using the family name and an exhibitionist streak to become a celebrity.

“Her mother, Kathy, put her in make-up and allowed her (into) nightclubs from a very young age,” Oppenheimer, a biographer of Martha Stewart and Rock Hudson, said in a telephone interview.

“I feel sorry for her because in a way she had no chance to do anything else but live the dreams that her grandmother and her mother had for themselves.”

More on the story and more photos of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie at Domino Magazine’s Party Honoring Lara Shriftman and Elizabeth Harrison’s New Book “Party Confidential” after the jump.

Celebrity Paris Hilton stirs love, hate – and pity [Reuters]

Legal warnings from Hilton’s mother failed to stop the book and prompted family and friends to come out of the woodwork with their stories, Oppenheimer said.

“It is a bizarre family,” said Oppenheimer. “Behind the scenes her parents were not opposed to (the sex video) because that totally launched her.”

Oppenheimer said it was hard to tell if Hilton was real or the invention of a clever marketing team that was aware her “heiress tag” is untrue. She stands to inherit little from the Hilton empire and needs to work for a living.

“Paris will say whatever comes into her head. She tends to make up stories and scenarios. I do wonder if she doesn’t live in a fantasy world herself,” Oppenheimer said.

Paris is not a stupid girl. She’s cleverly created a persona that has made her one of the most talked about and photographed people in the world. It seems like Nicole Richie just followed Paris’ lead, but is having more of a difficult time handling the pressure of being so “out there” in the public eye.