Hilton makes red carpet exit from jail

A beaming Paris Hilton made a red carpet exit from jail here Tuesday, emerging through a scrum of cameras and cheering fans after completing a three-week prison term for probation violation.

Her hair tied back in a braid and wearing a short-sleeved jacket and jeans, the 26 year-old hotel heiress smiled to photographers and well-wishers before running to hug her mother Kathy, who was waiting in a black car with father Rick Hilton.

The last time she had been seen in public, on June 8, Hilton was weeping and wailing as she was dragged back to jail after a judge over-ruled a sheriff's decision to free her for unspecified medical reasons after just three days.

But the reality television star's liberation just after midnight (0700 GMT Tuesday) could not have been more different, a blizzard of camera flashes greeting her as she trotted out of the Century Regional Detention Facility.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Hilton had thanked guards, nurses and other staff before leaving, describing her as friendly.

"She has fulfilled her obligation. It's now completed," Whitmore said, admitting that the frenzy surrounding the case was almost unprecedented.

"We've had high profile cases before, people like Mr (O.J.) Simpson, and going back to the 1960s there was Charles Manson, so we're not strangers to these sorts of cases," he said. "But this is at a different level. The attention on this case has been remarkable."

Television helicopters pursued Hilton's cavalcade as the car took to the highway shortly after the midnight release.

After stopping at a red light, chasing photographers leapt out to grab shots before Hilton's car pulled away and returned to her parents' home in the exclusive enclave of Bel Air.

A steady stream of visitors arrived at the house throughout Tuesday, media reports said, including one woman delivering full-length, 20-inch, blonde hair extensions, according to the Entertainment Tonight television show.

Hilton's manager Jason Moore told the channel his client would take several weeks rest after media interviews later this week before resuming an "incredible work schedule" later this year.

Hilton was jailed for violating probation over a conviction for alcohol-related reckless driving, drawing frenzied media attention.

The pop-culture icon was sentenced to jail in May. She had been handed 36 months' probation after driving her Mercedes with an alcohol level equal to the legal limit, but was then twice caught driving on her suspended license.

On the first occasion, Hilton signed a statement acknowledging that she was not supposed to drive, and was let off with a warning. But the next month police pulled her over in her 190,000-dollar Bentley Continental GTC when they spotted her driving at night with the headlights off.

Hilton's release from jail after a few days behind bars this month saw accusations of "celebrity justice" leveled at the Los Angeles sheriff's office 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.

"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."

Hilton is mainly well-known for being rich and famous, and shot to international fame thanks largely to a sex tape of her and an-ex boyfriend which appeared on the Internet.

She has also released a music album and appeared in films such as "House of Wax," "Pledge This," and the forthcoming "The Hottie and the Nottie."

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."