LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Paris Hilton’s lawyers have dropped plans to appeal her 45-day jail sentence after learning that the amount of time the hotel heiress must actually serve will be cut almost in half, a court official said on Friday.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said on Thursday that Hilton would spend just 23 days in jail under state guidelines that give inmates one day’s credit against their term for each day they serve, so long as they maintain good behavior.

Later Thursday, attorneys for the 26-year-old celebrity socialite filed a notice in Los Angeles Superior Court that they were withdrawing their earlier petition to appeal the sentence, a court spokeswoman said.

Hilton, who co-stars on the reality TV show “The Simple Life,” was ordered earlier this month to report on June 5 to the Century Regional Detention Facility south of downtown Los Angeles to begin serving her sentence.

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That facility houses 2,200 women. But sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said Hilton will be segregated from the general inmate population in a “special-needs” unit designed for such high-profile prisoners as celebrities, former police officers and public officials.

She will be confined 23 hours a day to an 8-foot-by-12-foot cell that she most likely will share with another inmate, he said.

Hilton’s troubles began in September when she was arrested for drunken driving. In January, she pleaded no contest — the equivalent of a guilty plea — to a reduced charge of alcohol-related reckless driving. She was sentenced to three years’ probation and had her license suspended.

But she was caught driving on a suspended license in February when police stopped her for going over the speed limit with her headlights out at night. A traffic court judge ruled on May 4 that Hilton’s latest offense constituted a probation violation and sentenced her to 45 days in jail.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton will only be jailed for 23 days of a 45-day sentence for a driving offence and will be held separately from other inmates, officials said on Thursday.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has decided it will cut the 26-year-old’s sentence after reviewing the case and giving her credit for good behavior.

Spokesman Steve Whitmore said she would also be kept in a special needs housing unit.

“This was decided because of her high profile,” Whitmore told Reuters. “She will do fine if she follows the rules.”

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Hilton’s troubles began in September when the socialite and reality TV star was arrested for drunken driving.

In January, she pleaded no contest — the equivalent of a guilty plea — and was sentenced to three years’ probation and had her license suspended.

But in February she was pulled over for driving without headlights and was found to be driving on a suspended license. Earlier this month, a shocked and tearful Hilton was sentenced to 45 days in jail for violating her probation by driving on a suspended license.

Hilton, who has been ordered to report to prison by June 5, has said the punishment was too harsh and vowed to appeal, with her backers asking California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pardon her.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A judge sentenced a shocked and tearful Paris Hilton to 45 days in jail on Friday, ruling that the hotel heiress violated her probation for a previous traffic offense by knowingly driving without a valid license.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer rejected Hilton’s defense that she didn’t realize her license was suspended and ordered the 26-year-old socialite to report to a county detention facility on June 5.

Hilton wept and her mother, Kathy, yelled at the prosecutor, “You’re pathetic,” as the packed courtroom cleared.

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The stunning decision capped a two-hour hearing in which prosecutors argued that Hilton was thumbing her nose at the court and seeking to be placed above the law, while defense lawyers said she was being singled out for harsh treatment because of her celebrity.

Taking the witness stand in her own defense, the star of the reality TV show “The Simple Life” testified that she was unaware her driving privileges had been completely suspended at the time police stopped her and impounded her car on February 27.

Hilton said her publicist, Elliot Mintz, had told her she was permitted to drive for work-related reasons after the first 30 days of her license suspension late last November, and that she relied on what he had said.

But the judge said he did not believe Hilton, pointing to a notice she had received from a police officer, and had signed, during another traffic stop in January.

He said Hilton had “completely ignored” that notice, which she had carried in her glove box for weeks, and another license suspension notice sent to her office address by the Department of Motor Vehicles that Hilton said she never saw “In my opinion, there’s not doubt that she knew that her license had been suspended,” the judge said. “She doesn’t look at her mail, her personal assistant never goes through it either. … I think she just wanted to disregard everything that was said and continued to drive no matter what.”

“I’M SORRY”

In a final statement before she was sentenced, Hilton, dressed in a gray waist jacket, white blouse and black pants, her blond hair tied back in a pony tail, stood before the judge and denied that she had sought to flout the law.

“I did what I was told. I would never drive just because I want to. I follow the law and I respect the law. From now on I want to pay complete attention to everything,” she said. “I just want to say I’m sorry.”

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But the judge was unmoved.

“Probation is revoked — 45 days in jail,” he declared.

Hilton’s lawyer, Howard Weitzman, said he would appeal “to modify the sentence.”

“It is clear that she has been selectively targeted for prosecution for who she is,” he said outside the courthouse.

Hilton was sentenced in January to three years on probation and ordered into an alcohol-education program for pleading no contest — the equivalent of a guilty plea — to alcohol-related reckless driving after a September 2006 arrest.

In February, she was pulled over again for driving without headlights. Police impounded her car, a $190,000 blue Bentley, when they discovered she was driving on a suspended license.

Hilton recently finished taping episodes for a fifth season of “The Simple Life,” which returns to the airwaves later this month.