EOnline Explains Everything From Jail Time To Simple Life 5

“I’m very sorry, and from now on I’m going to pay complete attention to everything. I’m sorry, and I did not do it on purpose at all.”

Hilton also told Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer she was trying to take more responsibility for her life. This, after Hilton essentially laid the blame for her troubles on longtime publicist Elliot Mintz, whom she said told her the license was only suspended for 30 days, through last December, while it had actually been suspended into March.

Mintz himself took the stand during the hearing—his testimony largely consisting of variations of “I don’t know” and “I don’t remember.” Afterward, he declined to comment.

Clad in somber black and gray, her long blond locks prim and proper under the steadying influence of a hairband, Hilton showed up about 15 minutes late to her 1:30 p.m. court hearing in Los Angeles.

The red carpet fixture made the no-carpet scene via a black Cadillac Escalade, which, notably, considering her legal situation, she did not drive. She was accompanied by a posse befitting a judgment day: her parents, Rick and Kathy Hilton.

Inside the courtroom, Kathy Hilton, once a reality star like her daughter, couldn’t help but show her displeasure. She derisively laughed when a prosecutor called for jail time for her eldest child, according to E! News, and she appeared to mouth “This is a joke” when the sentence was handed down.

After the hearing, Paris Hilton departed without speaking to reporters. Hilton attorney Howard Weitzman vowed an appeal. And Kathy Hilton popped off.

“What do you think?” Kathy Hilton asked an inquiring reporter. “This is pathetic and disgusting, a waste of taxpayer money with all this nonsense. This is a joke.”

Weitzman didn’t disagree. “To sentence Paris Hilton to 45 days in jail to me was uncalled for, inappropriate, and bordered on the ludicrous,” the attorney said. “It was clear that she’s been selectively targeted in my opinion to be prosecuted because of who she is.”

But a spokesperson for the city attorney quickly shot down that allegation, saying the sentence “sends a clear message that in the city of Los Angeles, no one is above the law.”

If Hilton was in no apparent hurry to get to court, she had good reason: L.A. city prosecutors were waiting for her. In court papers filed earlier this week, they cited repeated missteps on Hilton’s part, dating back to a driving-under-the-influence arrest last September, and called for jail time. (Hilton shrugged off that original DUI arrest, telling E! News’ Ryan Seacrest the whole thing amounted to “nothing.” “I was just really hungry, and I wanted to have an In-N-Out burger,” she said at the time.)

The incident that apparently spurred on prosecutors occurred Jan. 22, when Hilton was cited for speeding in her Bentley, a violation of her no-contest plea deal to a reduced charge of alcohol-related reckless driving, and for driving with a suspended license. Hilton’s claim that she didn’t know the license was suspended—by the California Department of Motor Vehicles last November—was countered by prosecutors who said California Highway Patrol officers personally informed Hilton of the error of her ways during a previous traffic stop on Jan. 15 and had Hilton sign a statement acknowedging as much. Sauer called the document the prosecution’s “smoking gun.”

Hilton’s résumé of miscues also included, per prosecutors, driving at night without her Bentley’s headlights on, driving during the day without her Bentley’s plates on, and failing to enroll in a court-mandated alcohol-education program.

In court, Hilton’s camp said the heiress was taking care of the education requirement, having begun taking classes last month. (Prosecutors said she was supposed to have enrolled by mid-February.) Per Hilton’s side, the TV star had trouble finding a program that would take her because of her fame.

At Century Regional Detention Facility, Hilton will follow in the footsteps of ex-Lost star Michelle Rodriguez, who served about 27 minutes there in 2006 for probation violations stemming from a DUI conviction. (Rodriguez was released early due to jail overcrowding.) Daryl Hannah was also briefly detained after being arrested during a protest last year.

General visiting hours are 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., and 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Dinners are said to be hot, temperature-wise; breakfasts are said to be early (before 8 a.m.); cells are said to be small (12 feet by 8 feet); late-night clubbing is not recommended, nor allowed, actually.

Hilton’s summertime jail run will not interfere with the upcoming season of her and Nicole Richie’s prime-time vehicle, The Simple Life, which has aired on E! since 2006. (E! Online and E! Entertainment are divisions of E! Networks.) Production on the show’s fifth season wrapped in April. Hilton will even be free to catch the premiere, scheduled for May 28.Since its 2003 debut, The Simple Life has exposed Hilton and Richie to a variety of life and work experiences, including jail. In a second-season episode from 2004, the friends took jobs at a sheriff’s station in Texas.

While Hilton prepares to move into a jail, Richie has her own court calendar to mind. She’s facing a misdemeanor driving-under-the-influence charge. A court hearing in the Richie case is scheduled for next Friday.

Eonline