THE socialite Paris Hilton, who is due to start a 45-day prison sentence for driving offences on Tuesday, is to share a cell with a woman who has promised not to sell her story to the tabloids.

This honourable, if legally unenforceable, pledge to prison authorities contrasts with Hilton’s plans, which include a television special and the publication of her diary when she emerges from the Century regional detention facility in Lynwood, at the heart of the Los Angeles gang territories.

Hilton’s cellmate in the “special needs” wing, reserved for prisoners likely to be attacked by other inmates, will be a first-time jailbird convicted of driving offences. She was described by a prison official as “relatively respectable who has no interest in the press”.

Prison officers have been warned they will be fired if photographs or tape recordings leak out during Hilton’s stay.

Because of overcrowding Hilton, 26, is expected to serve only 23 days of her sentence for driving with a licence that had been suspended after a previous drink-driving conviction. She is already planning her respite from the paparazzi, according to local reports, attending church and buying books on spirituality.

But she has booked make-up artists and a chauffeured limousine to drive her 15 miles from her Hollywood home to the prison doors.

Mark Young, a University of Southern California professor who is writing a book on Hollywood narcissism, said Hilton, a scion of the hotel dynasty, divides people by age. “My female students adore her as a fashion icon who shamelessly gets away with everything. But for anyone over 30, the question is, ‘what is the point of Paris Hilton?’”

“Paris is not educated, talented or exceptionally beautiful but she is tough and smart enough to make a lot of money out of every disaster.”

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