In a phone interview from the medical wing of her Los Angeles jail on Sunday Paris Hilton told Barbara Walters that she has found God and that she’s not the same person she used to be. She claimed that her reckless behavior and sexual scandalousness was all an act, and that the act was no longer cute and it was time to shape up and start being a positive role model for young girls around the world who look up to her.

“I know now that I can make a difference, that I have the power to do that. I have been thinking that I want to do different things when I am out of here. I have become much more spiritual. God has given me this new chance.”

Hilton added that she feels like destiny has brought her to where she currently resides: a jail cell. She claims that God has released her. “My spirit or soul did not like the way I was being seen and that is why I was sent to jail.”

Now we have to take this with a grain of salt and say is this for real? I would be the first one to applaud her if this were true, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see once her prison term expires. We ought to be careful though, as this would be a quick and easy way to get out of what she has done (not from prison itself, but in the minds of the American public).

She claims to be interested in doing work for the fight against breast cancer or multiple sclerosis. I hope she’s not blowing smoke up everyone’s tail pipes and returns to old her old “socialite” ways when she gets out. This is a woman who has an extraordinary amount of potential to do good in the world, probably second behind Angelina Jolie. So here’s to hoping she actually has found God and gets her act together…