Axehole

The BBC reports that hundreds of Paris Hilton’s debut CD have been tampered with in the latest stunt by UK “guerrilla artist” Banksy.

Banksy replaced Hilton’s CD, which is tanking, with his own remixes and given them titles such as Why am I Famous?, What Have I Done? and What Am I For? He also changed pictures of her on the CD sleeve to show the US socialite topless and with a dog’s head.

Banksy switched the CDs in 48 record stores across the UK, leaving the original bar code, though, so people could buy the remixed version without realizing it.

A spokesman for HMV said the chain had found seven remixed CDs in two Brighton shops but was unaware that other locations were affected. No customers had complained or returned a doctored version, he said.

“It’s not the type of behaviour you’d want to see happening very often,” he said. “I guess you can give an individual such as Banksy a little bit of leeway for his own particular brand of artistic engagement.”

“Often people might have a view on something but feel they can’t always express it, but it’s down to the likes of Banksy to say often what people think about things,” added HMV’s spokesman. “And it might be that there will be some people who agree with his views on the Paris Hilton album.”