Hello! Privet! I’ve been learning Russian for five years and I sometimes happen to watch some Russian TV channels thru a sattelite. Once I saw a program with a VERY unintelligible name - “Прожекторпэрисхилтон”... Phew, I just hope I wrote it correctly;) It looked like a humoros show but I still can’t see why it’s called this way and has it got any relation to Paris Hilton?

You know, I dont know. Never thought about its name… I guess it just soubds funny and unusual - that’s all. And of course it’s not connected to Paris Hilton personally in no way!

Shame on you, Masha
However, just might be too young to remember a programme named “ПРОЖЕКТОР ПЕРЕСТРОЙКИ”. It was quite a popular project on the Soviet TV back in 1980s. The creators of “Прожекторперисхилтон” borrowed its name and made it sound stupidly funny.

”Прожекторперисхилтон” (Paris Hilton’s searchlight) is a changed name of an informationally analytical TV-programme ”Прожектор перестройки” (Perestroyka’s searchlight). At the end of ‘80s it was made during the Gorbachov’s era of ‘perestroyka’ and ‘glasnost’.

As for the name, the real Paris Hilyon doesn’t have anything to do with the program. Rumor had it that Paris’s representative was willing to bring an action against the program as no one had informed him about the existence of such a Russian project which uses Paris Hilton’s name free of charge. But this information was denied by Ivan Urgant, one of the hosts. He claims that since there are no gaps in the name (Прожекторперисхилтон instead of Прожектор Перис Хилтон), no action can be brought.

The first part “прожектор” came from “Прожектор перестройки”, and the second part “перисхилтон” is something associated with scandals, rumours, plots and money. Here’s what Sergey Svetlakov (the blond guy in the program) said about it:

«Знаете, у нас крутилось в голове название „Прожектор перестройки“, но уж какая тут перестройка… ну и скрестили слово „прожектор“ с именем, олицетворяющим нынешнее безвкусие. А что без пробелов — так это клавиша запала».

(“You know, we had the “Прожектор перестройки” name in minds, but there is no perestroyka anymore… so we mixed the word “прожектор” with the name which personifies today’s tastelessness and inelegance. And regarding the lack of spaces - that’s just that the key dropped.”