Hotel heiress, socialite, and star of the upcoming Fox comedy “The Simple Life,” Paris Hilton is having a rather complicated moment — again.

Earlier this week, a lawyer for the Hilton family issued an aggressive statement regarding a videotape that allegedly contains Ms. Hilton and her then-boyfriend Rick Solomon engaged in a highly spirited romp session.

The 3-year-old tape is said to have been shot when the hard-partying Ms. Hilton was 19 and dating Mr. Solomon, who went on to marry actress Shannen Doherty.

That the tape exists is just another episode in the lifestyle of the blonde, kinky, rich, and famous. Ms. Hilton’s antics have made her a permanent resident of Page Six. In the past year, her name has been mentioned 78 times in the New York Post — compared with 37 for the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist.

Ms. Hilton’s glittering life reads like a set of series: party after party,boyfriend after boyfriend,and one fabulous jet-set jaunt after another. Her penchant for dancing on tables got her name in gossip columns in the early days, but she’s long gone beyond such wholesome activities.

There was the nearly topless photo shoot for Vanity Fair, then the partying with porn stars from Vivid Video. This summer, she hung out in Ibiza with the producer of the video series “Girls Gone Wild”and has of late been reported cavorting scantily clad through Australia with Rob Mills, who lost on “Australian Idol.”

But her video-recorded frolics may just take the cake.

“It’s very adult,” US Weekly’s news director,Marc Malkin,said of the threeminute segment of the tape (filmed indoors, in a bed) he saw. “At one point, the woman who is believed to be Paris Hilton looks into the video camera and says, ‘Hi!’”

And there may turn out to be a few too many uninvited guests crashing this party.

Roger Vadocz, of the Internet porn company Marvad, reportedly gave a portion of the tape to Mr. Malkin and now plans to put it on the Internet.

And so, from their residential suite in the Waldorf Towers, Ms. Hilton, her sister, Nicky, and the rest of the Hiltons are circling the wagons.

The family’s lawdog issued a statement saying: “The Hilton family is greatly saddened at how low human beings will stoop to exploit their daughter Paris, who is sweet natured, for their own self promotion as well as profit motives. Anyone in any way involved in this video is guilty of criminal activity, and will be reported to the proper authorities and vigorously prosecuted.”

Friends of the family are equally outraged.

“It’s a terrible thing. This was her boyfriend when she was younger,” said publicist Lizzie Grubman, a friend of the Hilton sisters.

Sexually speaking, there’s nothing wrong with rolling a little tape.

“It’s not uncommon for people to make a tape of themselves having sex. Some people are just a little bit exhibitionist,” said a Manhattan sex therapist who wishes to remain anonymous.“The issue is if someone shows it publicly. That’s a real betrayal and is very damaging.”

But it is also illegal.

According to lawyer Carl Kaminsky, who has represented entertainment clients in America and abroad since 1970, the Hiltons will have a pretty decent case, especially given that the video was apparently shot in California.

“California has a right to privacy and a right to publicity,”Mr.Kaminsky said.

So not only is invading someone’s privacy illegal, making money off it, and thus preventing the subject from making money, is a crime, too.

“The sex act is not what’s objectionable. It’s the use of her picture,” Mr. Kaminsky said.

What’s a chagrined, angry family to do with its girl gone wild? It’s not an unusual situation for the super-wealthy, says a Long Island-based family wealth consultant and financial planner, Monroe Diefendorf.

Mr. Diefendorf encourages his clients to practice what he calls “threedimensional wealth,” which covers family’s financial, social, and personal wealth: “So that not only is their money passed down, but their values are as well.”

The Hiltons, he says, could create a “family manuscript” — on paper or, ironically, videotape — that articulates what they would like to see passed down to future generations.

“In our financial planning practice, we’ve seen money affect all parts of [a family’s] life,”he said.“You can destroy with too much. This may be a family that’s very wealthy, but is otherwise bankrupt.”

Morally, perhaps, but according to friend Brian Long, the Hilton girls are not above rolling up their sleeves and working.

“I’ve been on photo shoots in Japan with them where Paris was reading scripts, working on her voice, and juggling a lot,” said Mr. Long, who has known the girls for six years, promoted Nicky Hilton’s handbag line, and has been featured in several television documentaries about the sisters.

“It’d be easy for them to do nothing, but they both make respectable livings.”

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