What's this? Poor Paris is being ignored
BY RICHARD HUFF
DAILY NEWS TV EDITOR
Saturday, June 23rd 2007, 4:00 AM
Jailbird heiress Paris Hilton gets uncaged no later than Tuesday.
But the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department declined to say when exactly Paris' "horrible and really hard" 23 whole days in the slammer will end, the celebrity Web site TMZ.com reported yesterday.
"Her actual hard release date is June 26," sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.
That means an army of writers and photographers surely will start camping at Century Regional Detention Center on Monday night and stay until Paris shows.
Definitely not waiting for Paris' return with bated breath is Barbara Walters.
After being passed over for the first TV interview with the jailbird, Walters and ABC have told the Hilton clan there's no interest in talking to Paris at all.
And poor Hilton isn't getting any love from NBC, either. "We have informed her people we are no longer interested in pursuing an interview," an NBC News spokeswoman said yesterday.
The rapid about-face by the networks came after Hilton's camp demanded big bucks to talk to the heiress when she is freed after serving her sentence for violating probation on an alcohol-related driving charge.
The rejection from Walters came after a flurry of late-night calls between Walters and Hilton's mother, Kathy Hilton. That led to a 2 a.m. call between Walters and Paris Hilton, set up by her aunt.
"Each of them tried to get the interview back on track, no strings attached," said an ABC executive with knowledge of the conversation.
Walters, the source said, agreed to nothing. Paris Hilton "said she was sorry about all of the negotiations that had been outside of her control," the source said.
Yesterday morning, Walters got a message from Paris Hilton's father, Rick Hilton. By afternoon, Walter's producer David Sloan called him to say there would be no interview.
"The machinations of the last couple days left them cold," the ABC source added.
Those same machinations also burned NBC. Both situations fell apart after
the Hiltons tried to get upward of $1 million from the networks for access.
There was also speculation that Hilton's camp, which has hired crisis manager Michael Sitrick, realized getting any sort of payout - whether for an interview or licensing videos - would not improve her image.
Sitrick did not return a call for comment yesterday.
rhuff@nydailynews.com
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