Paris Hilton says that being in lockup for a few weeks was traumatic. I think being shot at in Iraq would be traumatic — not taking a little time off from having every whim satisfied on a whim. Nonetheless, different folks have different levels of trauma-handling ability. She apparently reached hers. (The lovely Paris was sent to jail for driving on a suspended license following a DUI charge. And good for that judge.)

The fact that Paris Hilton takes herself seriously — she once spoke of "retiring" (and I wondered: "From what?") — is not what's offensive. Socialites have been doing that for decades, I suppose.

What offends me is that anybody, sometimes it seems everybody, takes her — and, for that matter, her "sisters," Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan — seriously to the point of obsession.

And so while the young heiress whose claim to acting fame comes from starring in a TV reality show about herself — her real claim to fame is accidentally starring in an Internet sex video — was in jail, we regularly heard about her schedule, her meals, her outbursts. Just before her sentence of some 23 days was up, one headline read: "The World Awaits Paris' Release."

Please tell me the World has better things to wait for.

Then she got a prime spot on CNN's "Larry King Live" this week. Or rather, King got her for a scripted interview. In the world of media, Paris Hilton, especially Paris Hilton right after jail, is what's known as a huge "get."

Why? Continued...