# Name That Heiress

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-heiress/549859>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [August 10, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-heiress/549859 "2010-08-10T18:50:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![KennerTheGreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a8b319/32.png) [@KennerTheGreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KennerTheGreat)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-heiress/549859/1 "2010-08-10T18:50:52Z")

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This person will get two pots of gold at the end of the rainbow: one from her family, and the other through her own talent and hard work. Guess who.

Some hints:

1. She was born in New York; her father was born in Paris.

2. Her grandfather was a hero in the French Resistance during WW II

3. Her father’s name is Gerard, but goes by “William” in the U.S., because he thought his real name sounded too French

4. He is worth around $3.4 billion

5. She moved to Washington, DC, when she was two, after her parents divorced.

6. She studied acting at Northwestern University, class of 1982, but she never graduated.

7. She stands to inherit around $500 million from her father, who is 78.

8. She doesn’t really need the money though; she made millions of dollars a year from a TV show in which she co-starred.

9. One of her cousins was the CEO of the Adidas shoe company

10. After two bombs, she landed a successful TV show all her own.

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**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-heiress/549859/2 "2010-08-10T23:19:48Z")

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Julia Louis-Dreyfus?

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**Author:** ![willthekittensurvive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@willthekittensurvive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willthekittensurvive)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-heiress/549859/3 "2010-08-11T06:03:50Z")

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Paris Hilton?

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**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-heiress/549859/4 "2010-08-11T13:49:40Z")

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> [@willthekittensurvive](#):
>
> Paris Hilton?

I really hope you’re joking here. There are so many ways that it can’t be her. (Northwestern University? 1982?? Hard work??? Talent???)

I think BrotherCadfael is right. Not that I ever would have guessed the person myself, but from what little I know of her (including the fact that she did go Northwestern at one point) it all seems to fit.

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**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-heiress/549859/5 "2010-08-11T22:21:39Z")

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I checked Wikipedia after I posted. Yep, her father is indeed Gerard, and he goes by “William”. Q.E.D.

I really don’t know why I knew that. I’m not a fan of either her or the Seinfeld show.