A day in court with Paris Hilton

My day in court with Paris Hilton, like so many legal proceedings involving celebrities, began with a jostle with other reporters to get into a packed hearing room.

It ended with a ringside seat on the hysterics of the 26-year-old hotel heiress as she was ordered back to jail. Ushered out by bailiffs, her cries of anguish reverberated behind her as she left the courtroom.

How far removed that moment was from the meticulously controlled interview I was granted in April with Hilton and fellow "celebutante" pal Nicole Richie to promote their collaboration on the reality TV show "The Simple Life."

The contrast between my stage-managed encounter with an immaculately groomed Hilton and her emotional day in court illustrated how thin the veneer of stardom can be.

It also reminded me of a fundamental truth of entertainment journalism -- that celebrities rarely open themselves to public scrutiny unless they have something to sell.

Like the judge who sent her back to jail, I had waited two hours for Hilton to show up for my interview.

When she did appear she was perfectly turned out, sitting opposite me in a bright yellow dress on the set of a Hollywood studio looking aloof and bored.

It was a far cry from the quivering, weeping bundle of raw emotion who pleaded to be allowed to remain under house arrest rather than be forced back to jail to complete her sentence for violating probation in a drunken-driving case.