Paris Hilton is preparing for an Oscar!

There are very few people in the movie industry who think that tabloid favourite Paris Hilton can act. However, she's determined to prove them wrong, and is taking acting classes for her new film.

The Hilton hotel babe has been spotted taking classes for her flick 'The Hottie and the Nottie' – in which she plays the role of a 'hot' chick who refuses to marry her boyfriend until he finds the perfect match for her ugly pal.

"Paris has been going to acting classes in Beverly Hills. She arrived looking very serious with a script clamped under her arm," the New York Post quoted a source, as saying.

The movie, to be directed by Tom Putnam, is set to hit theatres in 2008.

However the road to being taken seriously in Hollywood might not be an easy one for Paris, especially since her critics delight in taking pot-shots at her, with the latest one being shard-comedienne Joan Rivers.

Rivers in a recent letter to her university Barnard alumni appealing for donations to her old sorority used Paris and Jessica Simpson as examples of the quintessential dumb blondes.

"We must support women who have a sense of confidence and self-worth. Where have all the smart girls gone? That is a hard question to answer in an age where Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton pass as intellectuals," Rivers reportedly wrote.