By BUCK WOLF

Aug. 22, 2006 —  Paris Hilton doesn't yet own the world, but you might believe otherwise, once you're sipping Paris Hilton champagne, playing Paris Hilton video games, and wearing the bathing suit, makeup, lingerie, wig and wrist watch that bear her heavily branded name.

Paris Hilton's CD — called, appropriately enough, "Paris" — hits stores today, and her reggae-tinged single — "Stars Are Blind" — is already a top-20 hit on Billboard's Hot 100. And critics are begrudgingly giving the disc lukewarm reviews.

"Paris haters may be disappointed," writes Randy Lewis in the Los Angeles Times. "With infectious beats and hooky sonic textures established by the hit-laden pros surrounding her, all Hilton has to bring to the party is, well, Paris."

Critics at AllMusic.com agree: "Paris makes no apologies for being mass-market pop, but everybody involved made sure that this was well-constructed mass-market pop."

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It can be debated whether "Paris" will be a success because of Paris or because she hired top producer Scott Storch and the best songwriters money can buy. And we still don't know whether her cover of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" will unleash a new wave of Paris sex videos on the Internet.

Hilton is just hoping her notoriety won't resign her album to the David Hasselhoff/Don Johnson/Eddie Murphy/Alyssa Milano section of your local music store, where you'll find all the failed vanity albums of stars who thought their celebrity could translate into CD success.

At this point, reality show stardom may be more a curse than a blessing. "It's kind of different, because most artists, before you hear their music, you've never really heard of them," she tells ABC News Radio.

"With me, people have already seen me on 'The Simple Life' and doing other things, so it's . . . I don't know. It's just different."