Smiling and waving before an army of cameras, a clearly relieved Paris Hilton returned to her celebrity limelight on Tuesday after completing a three week jail term for drink-driving violations. And with Paris’ liberation, I once again feel empowered to author my blog.
Sporting a pony tail and short-sleeved drab-green blouse, the somewhat less-blonde heiress smiled for the pack of photographers waiting outside the jail and ran to hug her mother Kathy Hilton, who was waiting in a 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.
Her departure today was a much more jubilaint affair. She served just 23 days of a 45-day sentence at the spartan Century Regional Detention Facility in the Los Angeles suburb of Lynwood.
Television helicopters pursued the cavalcade accompanying her as the car took to the highway shortly after the midnight release. It was unclear where she would spend her first night of freedom. Hilton’s parents were reported to have planned a lavish coming-out party in Las Vegas, Fox News said. But reports Monday quoted family and friends as saying that a “quiet gathering” was planned.
The Los Angeles Times reported that neighbours at Hilton’s parental home in the Hollywood Hills had distributed leaflets protesting the party girl’s presence in their midst.
She is now due to complete her probation in March 2009 if she stays out of trouble.
During her time in jail 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.
“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 spokeswoman 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.”
Her first post-prison interview will be held with veteran CNN anchor Larry King on Wednesday. The network and a spokesman 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.
More from the Paris Hilton Liberation Collection (click for larger images):
