Entertainment> Celebrities

People can learn from Paris, mom says

(AP)
2007-05-17 08:39

Kathy Hilton arrives at a charity luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Oct. 26, 2006, in Los Angeles.[AP]

Kathy Hilton hopes young people will learn from her 26-year-old socialite daughter, Paris, who is facing 45 days in jail for violating her probation.

"We can only hope that something positive will come from all of this. Hopefully, young people who look up to people like Paris will learn from this," Hilton said in a statement read Wednesday on ABC's "The View" by co-host Barbara Walters.

Kathy Hilton called her Tuesday night and offered the statement, Walters said.

"She didn't say `my child didn't do it' or `this is terrible,'" said Walters, who has an adult daughter. "She's saying, `You have to take responsibility.' I thought it was a very strong and very good statement."

Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who is pregnant with her second child, disagreed.

"You want to discipline your children before the criminal system does," she said.

A California judge has ordered Hilton, star of "The Simple Life" TV show with her friend Nicole Richie, to report to a county jail by June 5 for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case by driving with a suspended license.

Kathy Hilton attracted attention both in and outside a Los Angeles courtroom earlier this month, laughing during a city prosecutor's argument and telling reporters that her daughter's sentence was "pathetic and disgusting."