Monkeys will pay for Paris Hilton smut

Celeb-hungry macaques in pay-per-view revelation

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Science, 20th September 2006 09:49 GMT

Watch Now : Virtual Machine Movement with Hyper-V

It's official: monkeys are as obsessed with celebrity and pay-per-view porn as the next man.

A team from Duke University Medical Centre, led by neurobiologist Dr Michael Platt, offered 12 thirsty adult male rhesus macaque monkeys a choice between their favourite drink (Juicy Juice cherry juice, ABC News notes), and the chance to view pictures of their pack's dominant, "celebrity" monkey.

Surprisingly, the monkeys eschewed the juice in favour of a bit of celeb-watching, but had to bribed with extra refreshment to look at ordinary "rhesus riffraff". They were also willing to "pay" juice to cop an eyeful of female monkeys' hind quarters, something the team dubbed "Monkey Pay-Per-View".

And on the question of whether Paris Hilton would give up her Juicy Juice for a shufti at Angelina Jolie's hind quarters, the Duke University scientists confirmed that "celebrity" monkeys were just as interested in fellow celebs as the hoi polloi. ®