Paris Hilton Engaged to Shipping Heir

LOS ANGELES – Hotel heiress Paris Hilton, star of “The Simple Life” reality show, is engaged to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis, her spokesman said Monday.

“They are happy and excited,” said Rob Shuter, confirming the story first reported on People magazine’s Web site.

Latsis, 27, proposed to Hilton, 24, on Wednesday after she returned from a three-week publicity tour in Europe to promote her horror flick, “House of Wax,” and her new fragrance.

No wedding date has been set. It would be the first marriage for both.

Latsis is a grandson of John Latsis, the last of Greece’s shipping billionaires from the postwar boom years, who died in 2003 at 93. In March, Forbes magazine’s ranking of the world’s richest people listed the Latsis family at No. 54 with a combined wealth of $7.5 billion.

“I’m so in love and grateful to have found such an honest and loyal person,” Hilton told Us Weekly. “I feel like we were meant to be, and I’m happy to have found someone to spend the rest of my life with.”

The magazine quoted Latsis as calling Hilton “the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. I feel like the luckiest man in the world.”

The couple, who have been dating for about eight months, marked the engagement Saturday with a barbecue for 75 friends and family at their Hollywood Hills home, Shuter said.