Celebutante-turned-jailbird Paris Hilton walked out of prison and into the arms of her waiting mother Tuesday, having served her sentence for driving while under suspension.
She left the Century Regional Detention Centre in Lynwood, Ca. shortly after midnight.
Hilton, with her blond hair pulled back in a braided ponytail, strutted past throngs of media and fans wearing a sage jacket, white shirt and skinny jeans.
"Inmates, prior to their release, are given a chance to go into the restroom to change their clothes, to put on make-up and fix their hair if they want to -- and clearly Paris did," CNN's Brooke Anderson told CTV Newsnet on Tuesday from outside the prison facility.
Anderson described the scene as "complete chaos" saying "there were easily 50 camera crews, news crews, still photographers, (and) helicopters overhead."
"Paris literally strutted, she was clearly elated, she had a spring in her step," said Anderson. "She used this walkway behind me more like a red carpet than a walkway in front of a jail facility.
"She was smiling, she was waving and was definitely overjoyed when she reached her mother in that black SUV and they embraced," she said.
Her parents, Kathy and Rick Hilton of the Hilton hotel chain, then whisked their daughter away.
Anderson confirmed that Hilton will have her first post-jail interview with CNN's Larry King on Wednesday.
TMZ.com is also reporting that the svelte heiress lost more than four kilograms during her incarceration.
Hilton received a 45-day jail sentence after being convicted of driving while her licence was suspended. That followed on a January 'no contest' plea to the charge of reckless driving for which she received 36 months of probation, a US$1,500 fine and an order to receive alcohol education. That charge stemmed from a Sept. 7, 2006 incident.
The 26-year-old first entered jail late on June 3 after a surprise appearance at the MTV Movie Awards, where she was the butt of a nasty joke by host Sarah Silverman.
Things quickly got surreal.
After three days in the can, Sheriff Lee Baca allowed Hilton to leave jail over an undisclosed medical condition and serve her sentence at home under electronic monitoring.
Judge Michael T. Sauer, who sentenced Hilton initially, rejected that move and ordered Hilton brought back before his court where he ordered her back to jail.
A swarm of media surrounded Hilton's car as she left her home for that fateful court day on June 8 in a scene that reminded some of the slow-motion chase of murder suspect O.J. Simpson in the 1990s.
Upon hearing the judge's decision, Hilton shrieked, "It's not right!" before adding, "Mom!"
However, Hilton quickly decided to make the most of the experience.
"Being in jail is by far the hardest thing I have ever done," she said the very next day in a statement released by her lawyer, Richard A. Hutton. "During the past several days, I have had a lot of time to think and I believe that I am learning and growing from this experience."
She even expressed surprise her case had received so much attention and wished the news media would focus on weightier matters like Iraq.
On June 10, the day after that statement, Hilton told ABC News' Barbara Walters in a telephone interview that "I used to act dumb. It was an act. I am 26 years old, and that act is no longer cute."
She claimed to be changed by the experience of incarceration and wanted to live something of a more purposeful life moving forward: "Now, I would like to make a difference. ... God has given me this new chance."
Many analysts saw this at the time as an image-polishing exercise.
Now that she's out of jail after serving just over three weeks, Hilton will still be on probation until March 2009.
She can knock 12 months off that by doing community service, including a public service announcement.
"She says she wants to be an advocate in the fight against breast cancer and the fight against Multiple Sclerosis," said Anderson. "Everyone will be watching Paris Hilton and hoping that she is genuine and that she is a changed person."
Her stay cost taxpayers $1,109.78 per day, at least 10 times the cost of a typical inmate. She stayed in her own cell away from other inmates.
With files from The Associated Press
