LOS ANGELES, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Troubled Hollywood celebrity Paris Hilton was released from jail Tuesday after serving a three-week sentence in a case that roiled local political waters with charges of hypocrisy and favoritism.

The 26-year-old hotel heiress made a red carpet-type exit from a Los Angeles jail early in the morning, smiled brightly, waved demurely and fell into her mother's arms after 23 days in sheriff's custody for driving on a suspended license.

Her triumphant emergence concluded an episode that began as another story about a young celebrity in legal trouble but expanded to reflect both fissures within local justice system and community misgivings about unequal treatment.

While Hilton was driven off to freedom in a Cadillac Escalade luxury SUV, on her way -- not to her own Hollywood Hills home, but to her parents' compound in the exclusive Bel-Air area, paparazzi and television crews pursued the vehicle on the ground and from the air.

According to a spokesman of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Hilton thanked the guards, nurses and other staff before leaving the jail, where she was incarcerated in the medical ward.

It was reported that CNN's Larry King will get the first crack at interviewing Hilton about her jail life. She is slated to appear on the network's "Larry King Live" Wednesday evening.

Paris Hilton was sentenced to 45 days in jail last month for driving on a suspended license in violation of her probation in a misdemeanor alcohol-related reckless driving case, but her sentence was reduced to about 23 days for "good behavior."

County Sheriff Lee Baca was accused of giving Hilton the star treatment when he tried to reassign her to home confinement after just three days in jail, citing an undisclosed medical condition. Hilton was ordered back in jail the next day by the judge.