Paris Hilton is having a hard time convincing her socialite mother that her feelings for boyfriend-of-the-moment Benji Madden are genuine. Kathy Hilton believes her oldest daughter is only dating the musician to rattle the cage of frenemy Nicole Richie, who is dating Benji’s twin brother, Joel Madden.

According to report from The National Enquirer: Kathy – who’s grown very fond of the poor little Richie girl over the years, cheering on her uphill fight to get straight – “had a talk with Paris about it, questioning her motives for dating Benji,” says a family friend. “Kathy flat-out asked her, ‘Are you doing this just to rile Nicole?’ Kathy loves her daughter, but knows the girl doesn’t have an earnest bone in her body – she’s always up to something, and it would be like her to date the brother of Nicole’s future husband just to get her goat!”

Despite mother’s skepticism Paris spoke out about her relationship with the Good Charlotte rocker on her official Myspace blog on Tuesday:

“I’ve never felt so happy and in love. [Benji] is such an amazing guy and life has never been better.”