Paris Hilton’s Welshpool lesson

When Paris Hilton asked her 18.1 million Twitter followers to “tell me something I don’t know”, the last thing she would have expected is a lesson on Welshpool.

But that’s what the great granddaughter of the Hilton founder got from local businessman, Paul Alexander, who received a wave of responses from across the world with almost 3,000 ‘likes’, and counting.

It has also been picked up by American celeb gossip web sites including BuzzFeed and 4entertainment.

Hilton, known more for her celebrity profile than her family’s business prowess, then had to endure hundreds of straight laced responses from followers, including introductions to the towns of ‘Muff’ and ‘Dildo’.

“It was just a bit of fun really, but then my phone was going crazy with all the notifications,” said Paul. “I just wish I had put a link to the shop with the tweet!”

In his response to Hilton’s ‘tweet for attention’, Paul wrote: “Welshpool is a town in Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire, but currently administered as part of the unitary authority of Powys. Its Welsh language name Y Trallwng literally means “the marshy or sinking land”. Welshpool is the fourth largest town in Powys.”

It led to a number of comments including one telling Hilton that “I love Welshpool, especially Ricki Lloyd’s butchers!”.

One told her to visit the town as “my grandparents have a chalet there”, and another pointed out that the Transport Festival was held last week.

Paul has a habit of enjoying online celebrity banter with Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump and Piers Morgan all being regular targets of his banter.

“But I’ve never had a response like this,” added Paul. “If Paris ever wants to visit Welshpool, she’d be welcome to visit the shop. I am sure we can do her a good deal on some bird seed and camping gear!”

You can follow Paul on Twitter @mulleralexander.