Paris Hilton says God has given her a new chance

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Imprisoned hotel heiress Paris Hilton has said she believes God has given her a new chance and she plans to stop acting dumb and put her influence to good use.

Hilton called television journalist Barbara Walters on Sunday from the medical wing of a Los Angeles jail, where she is being held for violating probation in a drunken-driving case, and Walters recounted the conversation on her ABC television show "The View" on Monday.

"I'm not the same person I was," Hilton told Walters. "I used to act dumb. It was an act. I am 26 years old, and that act is no longer cute. It is not who I am, nor do I want to be that person for the young girls who looked up to me.

"I know now that I can make a difference, that I have the power to do that. I have been thinking that I want to do different things when I am out of here. I have become much more spiritual. God has given me this new chance."

Hilton was ordered back to jail on Friday after a judge overruled a sheriff's decision to place her under house arrest on Thursday because of psychological problems. She had spent three days of an expected three-week term behind bars.

Walters said Hilton told her she had not been wailing, sobbing or screaming during her first three days in prison, as had been reported.

She asked Hilton what had led to her being "reassigned" to house arrest.

"I was not eating or sleeping. I was severely depressed and felt as if I was in a cage. I was not myself. It was a horrible experience," Hilton said.