Paris Hilton Goes to Jail

Confounding the paparrazzi who hoped to get a picture of America's most celebrated jail bird, Paris Hilton surrendered to prison officials on Sunday evening, the Los Angeles Times reports. Most observers/vultures expected the hotel heiress to arrive for prison this morning.

"For a woman known for making memorable entrances it was the rare stealth arrival," the Times reports. "Despite media staking out every entry point at the 2,200-bed County Jail, Hilton got through the gates undetected.

"The celebrity website TMZ emerged as the big winner with the only footage of Hilton en route to jail, accompanied by her mother, Kathy, and sister, Nicky.

"She surrendered to Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies at a downtown jail about 11:15 p.m. Sunday and was later transferred to the women's facility [in Lynwood, California.]"

Early check in for a prison term turns out to be a new innovation in celebritology and guess what: it was pioneered, like most things, by a clever entrepreneur. In his new book "Threshold Resistance", the famed mall developer A. Alfred Taubman recounts how he thwarted photographers by beginning to serve his prison sentence on July 31, 2002--one day early. Taubman, who was convicted of price fixing as part of the Christie's-Sotheby's scandal, adapted another part of his book for Inc. (The column is on removing barriers between a customer and a sale; here's the link.)

Successful entrepreneurs with rebellious children, please take the occassion of Paris Hilton's incarceration to review your child-rearing responsibilities.

Mike Hofman was previously editor of Inc.com and a deputy editor at Inc. magazine, which he joined in 1996. The site was nominated for a National Magazine Award for Digital Media in 2010, and was named the best business website by Folio Magazine. In 2006, Hofman was part of a team of writers nominated for a Webby Award for best business blog. He lives in New York City. @mikehofman