Red carpet affair for Paris
2007-06-26 15:54
Los Angeles - Celebutante Paris Hilton's departure from jail resembled a red-carpet affair, with a blizzard of camera flashes greeting her as she stepped out of the spartan Century Regional Detention Facility in the Los Angeles district of Lynwood.
Smiling and waving for a scrum of cameras, Paris Hilton returned to the celebrity limelight on Tuesday after completing a three-week jail term for drunk-driving violations.
Wearing a ponytail and short-sleeved blouse, the blonde hotel heiress and reality television star flashed a grin to the pack of photographers waiting outside the jail and ran to hug her mother Kathy Hilton, who was waiting in a black car with her father Rick.
The last time she had been seen on June 8, Hilton was weeping and wailing as she was dragged back to jail after a judge overruled a sheriff's decision to free her for unspecified medical reasons after just three days.
Sheriff's spokesperson Steve Whitmore said Hilton had thanked guards, nurses and other staff before leaving, describing her as demure and friendly and happy to be free again.
"She has fulfilled her obligation. It's now completed," Whitmore said.
Lavish coming-out party
Television helicopters pursued the cavalcade accompanying her as the car took to the highway shortly after the midnight release.
After stopping at a red light, chasing photographers behind the car leapt out to grab shots before Hilton's car pulled away and returned to her parents home in the exclusive enclave of Bel Air.
Hilton's parents were reported to have planned a lavish coming-out party in Las Vegas, Fox News said. But reports on Monday quoted family and friends as saying that a "quiet gathering" was planned.
Hilton's release from jail after a few days behind bars earlier in June saw accusations of "celebrity justice" levelled at Los Angeles sheriff's before Hilton was returned to jail.
However an exhaustive study of similar cases conducted by The Los Angeles Times indicated that Hilton was being treated unusually severely, receiving a much longer jail sentence than normal.
During her time behind bars Hilton said in a telephone interview with a television journalist that the sentence was a message from God to change her party-loving lifestyle and become a positive role model for women.
Interview with Larry King
"I have been thinking that I want to do different things when I am out of here," she said. "I have become much more spiritual. God has given me this new chance."
She said she was considering pursuing work to raise awareness about breast cancer or multiple sclerosis.
"Paris is doing really well, she is really looking forward to going home, and she thanks you in the press who supported her," a spokesperson for the Hilton family said ahead of her release.
"She wants to be with the family and she can't wait to take that orange suit off."
Hilton's first post-prison interview will be held with veteran CNN anchor Larry King on Wednesday.
The network and a spokesperson for Hilton said the celebrity would not receive payment for the interview.
In a statement released through her publicist, Hilton said she was pleased to go on the show, "to discuss my experience in jail, what I have learned, how I have grown."