At a nightclub party in Las Vegas last weekend, Paris Hilton, a woman famous for being famous, ignored Kim Kardashian, another woman famous for being famous. In a definite sign that the apocalypse is drawing ever nearer, this was treated as news in America. This, then, is how I know that one celebutard arrived at a soirée where the other celebutard thought she was the headline guest. Her arrival caused tension and culminated in the two of them sitting around a (presumably) very large table without ever acknowledging each other.

That I am aware of all this is sad. It's also an inevitable consequence of being alive and paying attention to the media in in the 21 st century. This pair (whose only real claim to fame is a shared tendency to badly videotape their bedroom activities) is impossible to escape. They are regarded as so important by TV networks, newspaper editors and website moderators that everything they do (or in this case don't do) is somehow regarded as worthy of national attention.

They are treated with the deference once afforded Hollywood icons (who at least, you know, had some modicum of talent that had earned them notoriety) and the more coverage they get the more famous/insidious they become. The taste-makers will argue that the public have an insatiable appetite for this kind of guff. After all, Hilton has something like two-and-a-half million followers on Twitter who hang on her every stunning update like: "Had so much fun in Vegas last weekend."

Two-and-a-half million followers. That's a helluva lot of villages that are missing their idiots.