Paris Hilton broke down in tears on her way to jail

Blonde beauty Paris Hilton broke down in tears when she turned herself in to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department at 11.15pm last night to begin her 23-day sentence for driving on a suspended license.

The tears flowed freely and rightfully so, the skinny star had a terrible night.

At the start of the Movie Awards. Host Sarah Silverman took some shots at the heiress in her opening monologue. When she announced to the audience, "In a couple of days, Paris Hilton is going to jail," the crowd roared with approval.

"The judge says that it's going to be a no-frills thing and that is ridiculous. She is totally going to get special treatment," Silverman said.

"As a matter of fact, I heard that to make her feel more comfortable in prison, the guards are going to paint the bars to look like penises. I think it's wrong, too. I just worry that she's going to break her teeth on those things."

The camera panned to Hilton, who was sitting in the audience and looked like she was going to cry.

"Oh sweetie," Silverman said,

Then, as the crowd's applause grew even louder, Silverman shrugged and asked, "Wow, why do I feel dirty?"

Before the shady exchange, Paris Hilton told MTV's SuChin Pak on the red carpet "I love the movie awards."

"It's fun and I wanted to do something nice before I went off."

"I'm scared, but I'm being strong and I'm ready to face my sentence. And I hope that this can be an example to other young people in the decisions they make and use it as something positive."

"These past couple of weeks have been a lot of time for self-reflecting on my life and realizing what's most important," she said.

Sheriffs spokesman, Steve Whitmore, described her as 'cooperative, calm and focused' as she was booked and fingerprinted.

Whitmore said: "Paris Hilton is in custody. She is being processed into our system then she will then be moved into a single occupancy cell. "She has been cooperative and focused and calm." He added: "As we said all along, she will do fine if she follows the rules." Hilton released a statement through her lawyer Richard Hutton. "This is an important point in my life and I need to take responsibility for my actions," Hilton said, "In the future, I plan on taking more of an active role in the decisions I make. "Although I am scared, I am ready to begin my jail sentence."

Hilton had her license suspended as part of her probation stemming from a drunk driving arrest in Hollywood on September 7.