New York Post columnist Liz Smith opened her column today with a rather damning accusation: "If you feel like blaming anyone for the rise of Paris Hilton," she writes, "I've got your man ... He is Richard Johnson, the handsomest, best-dressed gossip columnist in history."

Smith goes on to cite a flattering profile of Johnson in Avenue magazine, in which everyone's favorite "debonair yet testosterone-fueled Walter Winchell-type" takes credit for galvanizing the Age of Paris by writing about "a girl who does little else than go to parties and get her picture taken."

While Johnson and his troops undoubtedly deserve the lion's share of blame for pushing Paris to her breaking point, a little Nexis-ing reveals that Victoria Newton, showbiz editor of Brit tabloid the Sun, actually got to her first.

On March 18, 2000—a full two days before Paris' first appearance on the venerable Page—Newton published a story about "Titanic hunk" Leonardo DiCaprio's nightclub encounter with "an 18-year-old blonde named Paris Hilton."

Newton went on to recount how "super-rich Paris, named after the French hotel that is part of the famous Hilton chain founded by her great granddad ... saw Leo in [a] New York club and danced up to his table. Leo was immediately smitten."

Newton explained: "She is well-known on the LA club circuit, where she has been spotted partying with stars like actor Christian Slater and Rod Stewart's ex Rachel Hunter."

For the record, on March 20, our pals at The Six ran the following:

OUR favorite madcap heiress, Paris Hilton, is one impulsive teen. She accompanied her pal, Tara Reid of Body Shots fame, to Cancun, where Reid appeared on MTV's Spring Break. Paris was in the green room when she met the lead singer from Lit, and soon the two were engaged in full-blown passion. "It was in flagrante," said a source. Sad news for Leo DiCaprio, who was said to be seeing Paris before she went south.

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