We haven’t touched this story yet because it seemed all colors of really stupid. It’s a publicity stunt, and when we sniff out publicity stunts, we try to stay away. We give out enough free tips of the hats and wags of the fingers around here.

But this publicity stunt just got Hollyweird.

This Saturday, Paris Hilton staged a photo op where this shaggy monk-looking guy blessed her and claimed to be teaching her our of a book called “The Way of the Painted Shaman.”

Hilton’s camp started circulating a made-up gossip item alleging that Paris gave away a diamond necklace to a stranger on the street while she was walking with the Shaman.

Well, the joke it on us, because we found the Shaman’s MySpace page:

Yeah, we agree, screw Burbank!

The guy’s name is Maxie Santillan and you might have seen him in Pirates of the Caribbean as one of the many dirty bearded guys:

He even has an IMDB profile. One of his upcoming films is titled Life Is Hot In Cracktown, which we can only hope is some sort of remake of New Jack City.

Paris has done this kind of crap before. Right when she got out of jail, she started carrying around the Bible, but never reading it and never speaking about it. It was the most obvious prop in the history of props, barring the 1930s classic cream pie.

This is one tiny step up from hiring someone who just got their certificate from the Universal Life Church to follow you around and make sure you don’t step in any gum while the media is watching.