DeGeneres hopes Hilton changes life post-jail

Los Angeles – Ellen DeGeneres hopes Paris Hilton changes her ways when the partying socialite gets out of jail.

Hilton is expected to be released on June 25 after serving about 23 days of a 45-day sentence for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.

The hotel heiress told Barbara Walters in a recent jailhouse phone call that she wants to stop acting dumb because “that act is no longer cute.”

“She’s not getting anywhere doing that,” DeGeneres said backstage Friday night at the Daytime Emmy Awards.

“If that really is an act, if she really was playing dumb, then what does that say about our society that we’re celebrating someone who was successful because they’re not smart?

“I just think it’s a bad sign and she shouldn’t contribute to that. It’s just amazing if that was an act the whole time.”

DeGeneres said she would be willing to have Hilton as a guest on her daytime talk show and tell her the same thing.

Fox says drunken driving arrest was ‘learning lesson’

Los Angeles – Vivica A. Fox says she regrets her arrest for drunken driving because “it’s on your record for 10 years.”

The 42-year-old actress was charged in March with misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit.

“It was a huge learning lesson. I won’t ever make that mistake again,” Fox said Friday night backstage at the Kodak Theatre, where she was a presenter for the Daytime Emmy Awards. “Trust me, I’m going to hire a driver next time.”

Fox said she is in the process of trying to resolve her legal problems.

“It was an unfortunate judgment that I am taking full responsibility in,” she said. “It is so not worth what you go through for getting a DUI.”

Fox was arrested after passing a patrol car on the Hollywood Freeway at 80 mph and subsequently failing a field sobriety test, the California Highway Patrol said.

Country singer hospitalized in Missouri after leg surgery

Nashville, Tenn. – Country singer Ferlin Husky was resting in a Missouri hospital after surgery on his leg, his spokesman said.

Doctors at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Mo., on Friday inserted a number of stents into the arteries in his left leg to aid his circulation, said Tracy Pitcox, president of Heart of Texas Records, Husky’s label.

Husky, 81, has been having problems with his legs for the past few months. Tests showed that arteries in both legs were nearly blocked.

Surgery is planned on his right leg in the next two weeks.

At the height of his career, Husky was a movie and TV star and recorded such hit songs as “Wings of a Dove,” “Gone” and “Country Music Is Here to Stay.”

He made 18 movies with co-stars such as Jayne Mansfield (“Las Vegas Hillbillies” in 1966) and Zsa Zsa Gabor (“Country Music Holiday” in 1958).

Husky, who also recorded under the names Terry Preston and Simon Crum, sold more than 20 million records, mostly in the 1950s and early 1960s.