Paris Hilton's recession: Even the BFF feels her pain

While details of the lifestyles of the formerly rich and famous have started to leak into the news, it has, in many ways, been easy to pretend that the recession was only happening to middle class people. Recently, however, in what is either the most desperate moment of the recession or a sign of the coming apocalypse, the news recently broke that Paris Hilton has been forced to economize.

Just last year, $1,000 omelets, paellas, pizzas and bagels were the order of the day, and New York was reeling in a lifestyle that was disturbingly reminiscent of the end of the Roman empire or the final days of Louis XVI. In time, however, the inevitable end came, along with revelations about outrageous AIG retreats, obscenely expensive office remodelings, ridiculously luxe apartments, and other excesses.

Where investors once fought for Bernie Madoff's financial advice, they now giggle bitterly over his current digs in a jail cell. When his wife ventured meekly into her neighborhood supermarket, photographers were there to immortalize her doe-in-the-headlights moment; the next day, the New York Daily News ran the pics on its front page. Meanwhile, the media has breathlessly captured every detail of Bernie and Ruth's attempts to hold onto the trappings of their previous lives, from their acres in France to their Mets seats in Flushing.